What a lovely and bountiful amount of sunlight that's pumping the morning full of warmth, beauty and energy! We had been hoping to catch some fall colors on this trip and knew the timing would be dodgy. Some areas got their harvest tones earlier this year, not that you'd be able to tell from evergreen Florida. The end of September was a spectacular color show up in Logan Canyon, Utah, so maybe a little bit of high end dazzle would be left for us as we toured the southeast. Virginia finally gave us something to ooh and aah over.

We rolled out for London Bridge Baptist Church Cemetery in Virginia Beach, which had a number of flags in place for Veteran's Day. One of the things that Jae looks for in grave markers is anything that tells an immediate story, like birth and death dates that are close together or inscriptions that hint at personalities cut short with their attendant lives.

Next, we headed to Citrus, an eatery that's been featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on The Food Network. We both enjoy the show, though I'm not a huge fan of Guy Fietti (I think he's annoying), it's always interesting to see what they find across the country. At this establishment, the show-featured items were a Shrimp and Crab Eggs Benedict plate (which Jae got) and Citrus Pancakes (which I got.) Do you ever notice how when you taste someone else's food, it's usually good, but you're also typically happy that you ordered what you did? Anyway, the pancakes were astounding. They were also as thick as a bible, and I'm determined to lose weight on this trip, so I didn't clean my plate. Portions are so BIG in this country!

After breakfast, the general plan was to head into Tennessee. We began a westward trek, passing through Newport News, Norfolk and Suffolk, back into North Carolina and finally stopping in Mebane, where we had teppanyaki at Sake Japanese House and then camped at the Greensboro Campground.

Week two has begun; and what a lovely time!

Driveabout: Day 8