The Wandering Disciple

Asheville, North Carolina:   Our wonderful summer road trip continued into day three with a horseback riding adventure.  This too had been a bucket list item for my wife and she was really looking forward to riding the mountainside. The day began with breakfast at the hotel before hitting the roads to nearby Marshall.  The drive to Marshall was very scenic.  There were some two-lane roads on the trip that we a little hair raising for a family used to flat Floridian roadways.  There were amazing views around each turn making the drive just as exciting as the destination. We arrived at Sandy Bottom Trail Rides a little early and sat on the front porch for a while making friends with their cat and dogs that roam the farm.  We were then paired up with our horses which would be our transportation for the next three hours.  My wife was paired with George, my son with Drifter and I got Twinkie,  Yeah, kinda ironic that a fat guy would be paired up ...

Asheville, North Carolina: After a great trip in the mountains last year, we decided to return to the mountains again this year for our summer vacation.  We had originally planned on going to New Orleans, however the great advertising package run on television by Visit Asheville guided us to changing out venue to North Carolina. We departed for North Carolina early, hitting the road by 3am.  The original plan was to leave early and reach Columbia, South Carolina in time for the Columbia FireFlies matinee.  However, my wife had woken up early so we decided to hit the road earlier than planned.  As a result, we were going to be passing through Columbia too early for the game so we decided to head straight to Asheville instead. While on the way up, my wife checked on the rates at our hotel and found that the room had been reduced again.  Over the course of planning this trip, we have saved considerably since the original booking.  When we changed the t...

Savannah, Georgia: Located just outside Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport, the Country Inn and Suites is just a short drive from historic Savannah and gateway to the city and coastal Hilton Head and Tybee Island. The three story hotel features 82 rooms including some suites. Room amenities include a refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, weekday newspaper, wireless Internet and premium TV. The hotel features an indoor swimming pool with hot tub as well as a fitness center. A daily hot breakfast is included as well as nightly wine social on weeknights. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure what to expect.  This was a last minute trip and I was needing to save some money so we opted to stay outside the town near the airport.  This was actually a very good decision.  The hotel was very clean and the price was well worth the short drive into town.  Plus if we weren't so busy exploring Savannah, it would have been a great place to get some plane photos. ...

Savannah, Georgia: After some last minute planning, our trip to Savannah has become a reality. We headed north for a three day trip filled with a lot of activities from history to haunts. Our first trip out of Florida since 2009 began with a trip to Payless for a car rental. Since our Santa Fe has over 260,000 miles on it, we decided to take a rental car on the trip. We rented a Hyundai Sonata for the trip, one of three cars we are looking at to replace our Santa Fe. The plan for the road trip had us crossing the state via notorious US-301. While saving time over I-4, US-301 is known for being a giant speed trap with some of the small towns along the way being rated by AAA as being the worst for speed traps. But we made it through without trouble and only saw one police officer on a traffic stop. Lunch was a grab and go at Popeye’s in Starke. If things go as planned, this will be out only national chain meal. I plan on trying local restaurants the rest of the trip. T...