We left in the morning as the rain started to fall on Allen's recently cleaned 2024 Chevy Equinox RS. It would rain a good deal on this first day of the road trip, but we made the best of our drive down to North Carolina by stopping for a wine tasting at the Michael Snaps Winery in southern Virginia. We've been here before, but not to this fancy tasting room. The wines were good and we bought several bottles to open over the next few days.

We arrived at our distination for the night (Double Tree Bed and Breakfast) in the pouring rain. Luckily, it would not be raining all that much for the remainder of this road trip. We had enough time to visit our first museum of the trip, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown, Greensboro. Parking was a pain until we found a nice spot. The museum did not allow any pictures to be taken, but trust us - this is worth visiting. They had exhibits of the lunch counter where African-Americans sat down to protest segregration in the 1960's.

Dinner this evening was at a sort of eclectic place nearby and we did enjoy the small plates and presentation style of the chef. Our evening included a glass of wine from the B&B's wine tap (probably box wine), which was fun. Breakfast in the morning was very tasty, and Allen tried a egg-like dish made from plant-based egg called 'Just Egg'. At least the rain stopped overnight so we departed for Atlanta in dry weather.

Upon our arrival in Atlanta, it was the beginning of what Allen feared the most on this trip - valet parking! Having a new car and handing over the keys to a parking attendant wasn't something Allen was easy to accept. But in this case and those parking lots to follow, there were no problems. After unpacking a bit, and washing out some clothes (almost a daily routine for us) we headed outside and to a nearby rotating restaurant called Polaris. The food was excellent and the view of the city could be seen from your table as the restaurant rotated the 360 degrees in about 80 minutes. You can see the reflection of Polaris in the window of a nearby building.

We departed Atlanta and headed for Montgomery, Alabama - but we wanted to get a tasting of the wines of Georgia. So we stopped at the Nutwood Winery prior to crossing the border. It was a beautiful place with a rustic look to it, and our tasting consisted of several interesting blends (How about butter pecan Chardonnay?) that we of course would not purchase. You can tell from Allen's expression that these wines were kind of different.

We arrived in the French Quarter of New Orleans and handed our car keys over to the valet. Our hotel was a bit old fashioned but our room was quite nice. We could even see where they parked our car - across the street in their parking lot. We wasted no time going outside for a walk and more specifically - to eat some oysters on the half-shell at Felix's Oyster Bar. This place was recommended to us by our friend Lynn. Once we ate our fill, we went on another walk to see Bourbon Street (we have seen the French Quarter before, many years ago with our kids). Allen bought a T-Shirt at the Harley-Davidson shop (just a clothing outlet, no bikes here) and we enjoyed a glass of wine at a nearby wine bar too.

The drive to Houston was a long haul, but we got an early start and traffic wasn't too bad. Oh, there was a morning fire alarm in the hotel for some reason, so that was a bit disruptive to packing. We arrived at our hotel but Allen wasn't feeling well. It appeared to be food poisoning from a McDonalds that we stopped at for lunch. Allen was in bed and skipped dinner, so Sandra went to the hotel restaurant and listed to the live music for a bit.

The next day Allen was feeling much better and ready for adventure. We headed out to the Johnson Space Center and saw the big Boeing 747 with the Space Shuttle mockup sitting on top of it outside the center. Inside, you could see all sorts of interactive exhibits that are mostly intended for the younger set. We watched a few films that were very interesting and then took a tram ride over to see some real rockets that were on display. The Saturn V rocket was very impressive, laying on its side with the sections slightly separated so you could see the rocket engines. There was even a Space-X Falcon 9 first stage booster outside, one that had landed successfully several times (the Space-X development of booster reuse) before being retired.

On this second day Allen was even up for a museum visit to the 'Museum of Fine Arts - Houston' and this meant touring several buildings that were connected with underground tunnels. Sandra was very keen to see the 'Matisse & Derain Fauvism' exhibit, but we saw quite a bit more on the way over there. There was an interesting camera and delayed projection screen exhibit that made your legs look funny as you continued moving; worth some laughts. Dinner in our hotel was pretty tasty (live violin music) and even a robot greeted us near the bar. Overall, a good visit in Houston.

Kerrville, Texas

Now we headed to Kerrville, our destination to watch the solar eclipse and observe totality. You see, Kerrville was a prime location for this 2024 solar eclipse, as it was in the middle of the band of totality and it was historically the best location for good weater. We spent four days here, giving Allen's right foot a rest from the accelerator pedal.

We would do some wine tastings in the Kerrville area though, as the region is known as the Texas Hill Country. We tasted wines at Pedernales Cellars the first day and at Agusta Vineyards the second day. Both wineries made excellent wines, mostly with a focus on the varietals you would find in the Mediterranean area of Spain and Italy. We brought back a few bottles to share with our American Wine Society (AWS) friends at a future AWS meeting.

The third day - Sunday, was spent attending several lectures at the Schreiner University. Our group (Jackalope Hill Country members) had arranged to observe totality on Monday, the 8th of April 2024, on their soccer field. Unfortuantely, the prediction of cloudy weather for many people in the band of totality that was going to sweep from south to north across the USA was happening. We held out hope that the weather would clear but unfortunately we were only able to see the start of totality (step 1) to just before the moon was completely covering the sun (step 2) before the clouds blocked our view. We could not see the suns corona but we did have the darkness from totality. As the moon passed across the sun (about four minutes of totality), we saw through the clouds the sun peaking out (step 3) but then more clouds came in and we did not see step 4 - the moon no longer eclipsing the sun.

Since the clouds were wide spread in the lower half of the states where the totality band was, there wasn't much point in trying to head to where we might have seen more of the solar eclipse. That night we had a celebration at a nearby saloon and enjoyed a Texas BBQ dinner. Allen won the grand prize in the raffle, which was the Jackalope mascot that was sitting on a table in the soccer field during totality. Overall, it was a fun time but many people were hoping for the clear weather that was statistically expected.

Dallas, Texas

Leaving Kerrville, Texas early on the following Tuesday morning gave us time to stop by the AMD facility in Austin, Texas before we reached our days destination at Dallas, Texas. We had been invited there by one of the managers (Sam) that runs the AMD support forum of which Allen is a volunteer member. We were hoping for a short tour but Sam rolled out the red carpet for Sandra and Allen (Both retired electrical engineers and Allen loves building computers you see.) and first took us out to lunch for some tasty Tex-Mex cuisine. Coming back to the AMD facility, we were given several tours of their research labs (no pictures allowed in there) and then we each received a goody bag of AMD hats, shirts, etc.

Our dinner that night was a relaxed affair in the hotel bar area, but it was decent. It was Merlot night in Allens Wine Lovers Forum, so we ordered both types of Merlot offerings from their wine list. One was decent, the other? Not so much. There were even some fireworks that we saw from our bedroom window, but nobody we asked knew why they were lighting off fireworks that night.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

The drive from Dallas to Tulsa was only about 250 miles, so we took our time and enjoyed the decent weather. Once in Tulsa, we decided to stop at a winery called 'Whispering Meadows Vineyard and Winery' (more like a wine bar but they make wine on site) before looking for our hotel. So, Oklahoma wine is like what? Well, most of the samples in our tastings were a bit spicy, an interesting trait to be sure. We even tried their prickly pear wine, which was drinkable too. We ended up buying one bottle to share with friends back home, but I won't be looking for more of these wines anytime soon.

Our main reason for stopping in Tulsa was to see the 'Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center'. This museum documents the 1921 Tulsa race massacre and is a must see if visit Tulsa. It's impressive and you leave feeling that we must move forward from what still devides our country even today.

Our evening dinner was in a fancy French restaurant, so there is fine dining to be found in Tulsa. We watched the sun set from the rooftop bar of our hotel, which was nearby.

St. Louis, Missouri

We drove to St. Louis for one reason, and that was to visit an old friend we had met 10 years prior on our trip to South America. We met George in Chili, on a land tour of Chili, Argentina and Brazil in 2014, the year Allen retired. George also worked for Hughes Aircraft Company (as did both of us); he was working out of the Missle Systems devision in Arizona, while we had worked in the the Space & Communications Devision in Southern California. So we met George at his house and we dined in a nice restaurant while chatting about both of our world travels. It was a good time and we wish George the best of continued health in his retirement.

Versailles, Kentucky

Now the best part of our vacation starts. We are heading into Kentucky and more specifically, the Bourbon Trail! It was a six-hour drive from St. Louis, but well worth the trip. Upon arrival in Versailles, we checked into our hotel and promptly headed out to visit the Lux Row Distilleries. This turned out to be our best distillery tour, as we got to see inside a bourbon storage building and do a barrel tasting too. Back in their main building, we attended a bourbon tasting from five bottles and you know that was most excellent.

The next day we stayed in Versailles so we could do two more bourbon tastings, this time at the Bulleit Distilling Company and the Castle & Key Distillery. There was lots of history with these facilities and it was interesting to see the whiskey / bourbon making process at each of them. We think the best tour was at Lux Row, the best bourbon was at Bulleit, and the most history was at Castle & Key. They all make great bourbon & whiskey though. We bought several bottles to give to our friends back home in Virginia.

Fayetteville, West Virginia

Leaving the Bourbon Trail behind us, we headed for Fayetteville to see the New River Gorge Bridge. This is the bridge that many folks had done bungee jumping before that was stopped. Just driving over the bridge made Allen's stomach feel queezy. It's very high and not for someone that has a sensitivity to heights. We saw the visitors center and did a little walk to get a better view of the bridge.

We stayed at a nice Bed & Breakfast called the Glenn Ferris Inn, which was right on the main road through the mountain pass. Yes, we were awaken at 2 AM and at 3 AM by passing vehicles. Other than that, we were right next to the river and the falls, so it was kind of peaceful during the daylight. We did enjoy a bottle of wine on the afternoon we arrived, but dinner in their restaurant was nothing to write home about.

Home to Virginia

Our last travel day, after about three weeks of driving, was still a six-hour trip and we made it a bit longer by stopping at our last winery (Muse Vineyards in Virginia) to taste some decent wine. We chatted with an older couple who were members of the wine club and shared our health histories as many older folks do. But we were eager to get home and pick up Donald and Molly that were being boarded by our vet, and then to see Tiger and Ebony outside our house (they were being fed twice a day by a pet feeding service). As usual, Tiger started meowing when he saw me and that lasted for a few days. Donald and Molly were very happy to see us and they slept on our bed that night. It was good to be home again.

Best Eclipse Image Taken by the Jackalope Eclipse Group

This image of the total eclipse was taken by another member of the Jackalope Eclipse Group with a special telescope / camera assembly. We couldn't see this with the naked eye, but I am impressed!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Updated May 04, 2024. Questions / Comments? Contact Allen at bigal01@gmail.com