Akku's Dirty South Road Trip 2024 - Day 5, Amish and Tobacco

[akku]

The Deep South Road Trip 2024

Day 0

All the best ideas start with a stupid idea, or maybe all the best ideas are indeed stupid ideas. This one took a little while to gestate but it was fully worth it.

It all began in March. I went to see a band called Yard Act at Rock City in Nottingham. I like Yard Act a lot. It was an awesome gig. If you are unfamiliar with their work you can check out their “breakthrough” track Overload



And indeed my current favorite track (a standalone single) Trench Coat Museum



I posted on Facebook about this and an American chum of mine David responded that he had checked out this band, thanks for the intro, amazing stuff. My work here is done, end of story, right?

Erm, no.

A couple of weeks later I get a message from David “Yard Act are doing a US tour”
“You should definitely go see them, they are awesome live”
“I’ve got tickets. I got you one too”

Well now.

You may remember David is my Anglophile friend who I bought a Rover 620 for last year and he shipped it over. The plan emerged that we would drive up to the gig in the Rover and make a little trip of it.

Where are we seeing them? Washington DC.

“David, you live in Atlanta. My geography isn’t great but I don’t recall that being especially close to Washington DC.”
“About 650 miles if we take the direct route, which we won’t. Probably 3 days drive each way?”

AMERICAN ROAD TRIP!!!

In a 25 year old Rover….

So my friend has spent $15 on a gig ticket for some dive bar so it’s the least I can do to fly transatlantic to go see…. I booked time off work, I cashed in my airmiles (thank you work!) and booked a flight out.

2 weeks ahead of the trip some of the worst storms to hit that coast line hit that coastline. Parts of Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina were trashed. A colleague who lives out that way spent 3 days hiding out in her basement. Crazy times. I was concerned. David was down at his family home in St Augustine which was central to one of the storms. I was concerned for his safety as well as his ability to get back to Georgia to meet me off the flight! He made it the day before I flew out.

I was chatting to him, asking about the plans for the trip “I’ll pick you up at the airport when you arrive”
“and from there?”
“Well, we take it as it comes.”
“We haven’t booked any hotels or anything”
“no, best not to, no idea what kind of devastation there will be so we will just stop where we find places, it’ll be fine”

It will be fine. Famous last words? Or the voice of justified confidence?

So I drove down to Heathrow in the rattly old Fiesta of Doom (due to work trips it made 3 return trips to Heathrow in about as many weeks!) and jumped my flight and before too long was touching down in Atlanta.




You will learn many* fun facts, much as I did. Who knew that Atlanta is the world’s busiest airport? An astounding 104 million people arrived / departed there in 2023.

I also need to retract something I have said long and loud over may years. Namely that American airport employees are the most obnoxious and officious and aggressive anywhere (and I have been to Russia, China and Saudi Arabia). The folks at Atlanta were absolutely fine. The process was a little slow, but hey, US immigration, right? But they were nice. Nobody lost my luggage and I met David outside with the Rover



What a greeting!

The Rover is still on UK plates as you can see. This is because David managed to persuade Georgia DMV to issue the same number as a sort of personalised plate and he has a set of proper Georgia plates with the same number on, usually propped up in the windows.

I have never been to Atlanta before, other than transiting though the airport there, so it was interesting to see the city. Much like my experience of the immigration guys I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of things on this trip, and Atlanta was one of them.

First things first though, it was about midnight and I was feeling rough after the flight, maybe hungry but because of the time difference my body was unclear as to what meal it was after. David suggested a Waffle House. I’d never been, and this made it even more imperative! Waffle House is a “Georgia thing”. I asked if they would still be open and was told that its actually a measure of how bad a disaster is as to if the Waffle House has closed. Not a joke.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

This is youre second fun* fact!








So I rolled up and ordered a hash brown bowl. The server asked what I wanted to drink. I didn’t want caffeine at that time of night so I would sleep. I asked “what do you have?” and David pointed out “they don’t serve Alcohol” but before I could say I definitely didn’t want any the server popped in a cheery

“Sir, I have a little something in my car. I can pour you one out….”

Apparently that is “peak Waffle House experience”

I had orange juice. Safe choice

Made it back to David’s about 12:30am or so. David is an interesting car guy, his correct collection is a mix. Obviously he has the Rover, but also a X300 series Jaguar Sovereign, a Mercedes of a SUV type I don’t recognise, an electric Smart Car and also a Tesla which is his wife’s car. He also (like me) has inherited an older Japanese modern car from his mum (some form of Honda). He has a background of VW stuff, aircooled type.

“Whats the plan for tomorrow?” I asked
“When you wake up, we get in the car, find breakfast and then take it from there”

My kind of plan. It has breakfast….

So the next week was to be a ride and a half. We would encounter a Latino biker, 2 fire departments, a Navy Seal and a deep dive into my own family history and Armish breakfast…. As well as a whole host of car spotting and more.

Sneak preview...

[mrbig]

Excellent stuff. Bookmarked

[jayj83]

All ready sounds like a awesome trip, Cant wait to read more

[mrbounce]

Fabulous. As a fan of most things US, I am in for the ride!

[ratchart]

I've always dreamed of an American road trip, there's just a few "little" things that have put me off doing it.

1. I could never afford it
2. I have an awful sense of direction and would definitely end up in some dodgy neighbourhood.
3. My politics are very much at odds with the current majority of American voters.
4. Putting points 2 and 3 together would lead to me getting shot (probably not in real life but anxiety doesn't make for great holiday experiences)

So all in all, threads like this are the next best way to enjoy someone else's travels.

[akku]

Nov 13, 2024 16:11:28 GMT ratchart said:

I've always dreamed of an American road trip, there's just a few "little" things that have put me off doing it.

1. I could never afford it
2. I have an awful sense of direction and would definitely end up in some dodgy neighbourhood.
3. My politics are very much at odds with the current majority of American voters.
4. Putting points 2 and 3 together would lead to me getting shot (probably not in real life but anxiety doesn't make for great holiday experiences)

So all in all, threads like this are the next best way to enjoy someone else's travels.

I'm keeping well out of the politics, although I was there the week leading up to the elections so I could not miss it. And I was surprised at the result, down in the deep south there is a lot more liberal / left folk than I anticipated. Don't make Communist jokes in South Carolina though, that didn't go so well LOL.

But costs, well, as I will cover I guess the US is more expensive than most people seem to think.

Google Maps is fine for navigating, and the rough areas are obvious - windows up and look straight ahead! But if trouble comes, talk VERY English and you generally get away with it...

[ironmighty07]

I heartily approve of this thread👍...

"... peak Waffle House experience..." 😂😂, although I have heard that should include witnessing a late night fight?


Politics and gun laws are the 2 subjects I deliberately try and avoid when I'm over there even though there are lots of more liberal folk where you might not expect it.

Wrong "hood? ended up staying in Brooklyn once and the apartment opposite did bring the sofa kerbside and got the hydrant spraying to cool the kids off. Later that week ended up in a Latino bar where only 1 person spoke any English.

I've found car spotting a real curiousity, you'll see interesting stuff but equally the cities are very much the domain of imports, rural areas are SUV and pick ups(4wd if they see snow regularly) .

[akku]

Sunday dawned and I was up and about at a sensible time so David and I threw our bags in the Rover and hit the road. First up was breakfast. We went to a lovely sort of deli coffee shop type place and it was all avocados quinoa and so on. I had sausage and biscuits and added bacon. I can’t be doing healthy breakfast when on holiday… Or when not. But hey.



From there we did a little tour of Atlanta as David wanted to show me some stuff. There is a very cool road / walkway tunnel which is full of graffiti, in fact there was a lot of down-town graffiti all round. Some delightful murals and some large spaces covered.

















Somewhere down town we came upon the old Ford Model T Factory. Yup, fun fact, Ford used to make the Model T here in Atlanta. The building has now be repurposed as apartments (or “Lofts” as they are described). Its right by The Ponce Market, oh how I laughed, and had to explain to David why...

















Notable in Atlanta are the huge number of EVs on the road. There are EV versions of the F150, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Cherokee, more Teslas than you can shake a stick at and so on. One thing I did note was the number of Cybertrucks on the road. Now when you see one of those in a photo you thing “Wut? Why would anyone buy that ugly misshapen thing?” but when you see one on the road it makes sense. Its like brutalist architecture. They look like nothing else, and no matter where you see one it looks out of place. It’s probably the most “LOOK AT ME” thing on four wheels, and I suspect that’s why people buy them.








I was there the weekend prior to Halloween and my life the Americans are true to stereotype on this, there were so many crazy outlandish yard decorations. I saw skeletons which were two stories tall and all sorts.













We also did spot a few interesting cars parked up in the neighbourhoods, some which looked to have been stood a while and some in current use by the looks of them. I didn’t see much of interest which was driving around though.











Oh, mid 60's Ford Ranch Wagon. NICE!








As we looped out of Atlanta to head out of town I saw an interesting yard or compound, it appeared to be a closed up / closed down garage “auto repair shop” so we stopped to have a nose. I’d spotted an early 60s Ford Fairlane and I am hot for those, and beyond it was a mid 60s Lincoln and more. I took a few photos and noted an old chopper parked up as well. At this point a door opened and a biker fellow comes out and asks “Can ah help you gentlemen?” in the sort of tone which means he does not regard us as “gentlemen” and that “helping” is probably the last thing on his mind right now. Also he is now between me and the car…

So I do what is always best done in these situations which is to go “full Hugh Grant” and hope for the best.

“I’m a British tourist, I was just passing and saw the Fairlane, I didn’t mean to intrude, I have a couple of 60’s Galaxies myself back home in the UK y’see….”

Well, within literally 2 minutes the guy is friendly as anything. The chopper is named after his mum, he has ridden it across 9 states in 30 years and never got a registration for it until he came to Atlanta “and that’s when they started ticketing me” – he was a real character and we had quite a chat. I suspect that if we had time we could have been sharing stories all day with him.



















So Metro Atlanta is BIG, and we started trying to leave it. About an hour later we had. The open road was beckoning. Georgia is also a fair size and our plan called for us to be in South Carolina by sun down….








Smokey and The Bandit was filmed on these roads. There is a Bandit Run most years. We did make a half hearted attempt at singing East Bound and Down but quickly run out or lyrics we could remember.

[mylittletony]

God, I couldn't be more 'in' for this.

I really enjoy not-big-city America, it's so different to the UK. Also, the surprising liberal people is quite interesting as per others' experience. I also avoid politics and gun laws, unless purely talking the technicalities and differences to the UK, from a factual perspective.

Excellent

[akku]

Nov 13, 2024 17:50:01 GMT mylittletony said:

I also avoid politics and gun laws, unless purely talking the technicalities and differences to the UK, from a factual perspective.

I mainly avoid talking about them online when I get home....

[akku]

Nov 13, 2024 15:00:12 GMT mrbig said:

Excellent stuff. Bookmarked

I'm not sure how well Bookmarks work when folks like me edit the titles to show when I've updated it...

[mrbounce]

Nov 13, 2024 16:11:28 GMT ratchart said:

I've always dreamed of an American road trip, there's just a few "little" things that have put me off doing it.

1. I could never afford it
2. I have an awful sense of direction and would definitely end up in some dodgy neighbourhood.
3. My politics are very much at odds with the current majority of American voters.
4. Putting points 2 and 3 together would lead to me getting shot (probably not in real life but anxiety doesn't make for great holiday experiences)

So all in all, threads like this are the next best way to enjoy someone else's travels.

We took a wrong turn when me and a mate were staying in Alameda. The blokes sitting out on their porches looked young, dangerous, and were almost certainly packing. We did look straight ahead and drove out at a decent pace. It's amazing how much difference a couple of blocks can make.

However if you stick to where you should (do your research) you will find that Americans are some if the most friendly people you can meet.

@akku I bleeping LOVE this 

[akku]

Once we were free of the city the roads were long, smooth and dotted with interesting looking little small towns. Some looked like they were slightly sketchy farming communities and some were ever so delightful small towns with plenty of charm and old buildings. Before too long we saw a country store and stopped to buy drinks and I couldn’t resist the themed condiments in glass hand grenades. Most had clever* pun names like the salt which was “A Salt Weapon” and so on.














Later we stopped in Greensboro, Greens County because we saw a rather large antiques shop and also because I really needed a wee by this point. I had gone wild at being able to get Root Beer and while its not as bad as say coca cola is for “going right through you” it is just logic that if you drink a litre of anything then you can only sit in the car for so long after.

Greensboro seems typical of its type. Less “cosmopolitan” than the cities, here we find memorials to the confederacy and so on. We also see more flags, more “patriots” signage and so on. The folk were charming and the town looked well kept.





















Everything seemed pretty quiet as it was a Sunday. We swapped drivers at this point and I took the wheel. This is the second car I have driven in both UK and USA, the other being my Ford LTD which I did the other way around. I didn’t find it anywhere near as odd as I thought I would to drive a RHD, manual car on the right side of the road. I think it felt oddest when I was initially a passenger in it when David had picked me up at the airport.

We also saw some evidence of the storms which had passed through this way, there was not a lot of real damage her but further up into South Carolina things were bad, roads closed and we just avoided all of that.










We did see some interesting vehicles on the road and by the side of it…






























And nothing says you’re in Redneck Country more than a lifted stretch Cadillac with bull horns….











Collecting my badges for “Fast Food Chains I have never before visited” we popped into a Hardee’s for a late lunch. I had some kind of hot ham and melted cheese roll. More root beer.

We found a train parked up in the middle of nowhere, we did see some HUGE cargo trains about, this one was a photo opp

















And some other roadside America.... The many many white board churches and the many many advertising boards, some with interesting juxtoposition








Eventually we reached Camden, South Carolina which was our designated stop for the night. David googled “nice hotels in Camden” and phoned them to try get us rooms, either they didn’t pick up, they were full or they were miles away. So we resorted to driving up and down the main drag in the dark looking at the motels and judging them on a scale of 1 to crack den and finding most of them were about an 8.5… it was getting late so we picked the Colony Inn as being the best looking option and pulled in.

The lady on check in was the owner, she was an older lady and she had never checked a single British person into the motel since like 1970 or something. Oh she was tickled pink about it. I wonder if she will ever have another of my countrymen come to stay? She told me all kinds of odd stories about the town, a couple involved the pastor who lives across the street from her. We got the more deluxe rooms in the back of the motel. It was “characterful” shall we say. I kinda liked it but David did not. I had requested “no chain hotels” for our trip but he was back-pedalling on that “Maybe we should have found a Holiday Inn after all?”




















Really I had no issues other than the AC was loud, the shower didn’t work and the smoke detector had been removed from my room. I also was surprised to find a young man doing his laundry in his underwear at like 9pm but each to their own I guess. It was quiet and the door locked….

We finished the day on another fast food experience. This was an Arby’s. I have done these before and I do like them. Its basically hot roast beef in a roll with horseradish sauce. We were bemused by a couple of folks walking round the restaurant and looking at the bottoms of the tables, odd behaviour at like 9:30pm – doing a little listening in we worked out that come the morning they were going to be stripping the place out! So I was possibly the last ever diner to eat his roast beef in that location!








Due to some zigging and zagging we did close on 300 miles on day 1

[skinnylew]

Loving this. Really interesting read, like Grizz's road trips used to be, living vicariously through someone else's enjoyable trip. 😎

[redratbike]

I’m in for the ride

What’s not to like

Cars, fast food joints, yard act and root beer

oh yes please 👍

[ProjectBobcat]

Thanks for sharing, really well written and lots of decent car content. I'd love to do something like this.

[jayj83]

I do love reading this, I would love to do this, Will be honest id go for a rover 620ti

[akku]

I awoke refreshed and ready. The Colony Inn wasn’t too bad a sleep. Packed and jumped into the Rover looking for breakfast. Google recommended a place called Eggs Up Grill. It recommended well. I had a “southern eggs benedict” which is basically corn beef hash on toast with a poached egg on top. Odd but it was good with hot sauce. But then, what isn’t good with hot sauce?



We had a particular reason to be in Camden. Y’see Camden is the county seat (ie “capital”) of Kershaw County. And many of you will know that the K in Akku is for Kershaw. Its not a coincidence. Kershaw County is named in honour of my great, great whatever grandfather’s brother who emigrated to the US and later fought for American independence. His son was also a fighter but in the civil war and was kinda on the side we get uncomfortable claiming kinship to.

So we headed to the Camden Archive where the archivist we spoke with was super excited to have a British Kershaw on the premises. While David and I mooched round he got out some older research done on my ancestors and so on. That was super cool to see, and kinda weird to be sitting in a building in America kinda devoted to a long lost branch of your family and reading about the links back to good ol blighty. So we swapped email addresses and so on, he’s planning to come to the UK again soon and we may meet up.








After the Archives we had a mooch round the town. The part of Camden not full of budget motels and truck stops is actually super nice. It was a Monday but it was also Columbus Day so a lot of stuff was closed. A few folk we spoke to were keen to point out that “most people call it Native People’s Day now” but I didn’t see a sign to that effect anywhere. Again, this is internal politics for the US and none of my business. Like a thought during meditation I note that it is a thing and I let it pass from my mind.












There were obviously many buildings in Camden I wanted to see as they bear the name of Kershaw County on them. So we did a run round of me posing in front of everything from court house to refuse collection. We found an old Ford CROWN Victoria at the municipal offices with “Kershaw County” on the doors and looking like it was in disuse but there was nobody in the offices who was prepared to discuss selling the thing to me so we left.



We did find a very nice fire station and got chatting to the fire chief. He invited us in to see his pride and joy which is a 1920 Seagrave which he drives in parades. But not for Columbus day. Today it was just in the station. So we had a look, chatted to the guy, had a lovely time and then rolled on.
















We went to the Historic Buildings preservation to see Kershaw house, but it was closed due to public holiday. We really hadn’t planned this well! So we saw an employee of the place (its like a big park they have relocated a number of historic buildings to and where they do reenactments and the like). We explained my story and he said “well go on in then, have a look round, knock yourselves out man, the buildings are all locked up but walk round and you can see them at least” which is nice. He also wanted to impress upon me that Camden, SC is the oldest settlement of that name anywhere in the world “IN YOUR FACE LONDON!!!” well now. I have yet to fact check this statement, but he was wearing a uniform so I find him credible



While exiting the car park we saw a beautiful 1969 Pontiac Catalina go cruising by, and David was intent on chasing it down. Which we did. A little later the driver stopped (to do an errand not to ask us what the heck we were doing) and we introduced ourselves and had a good chat. Now this guy was a retired Navy Seal, he was a forthright fellow, and he was a card. He had bought the car from an old guy in the neighbourhood who had bought it new. It was originally a 428 and the old boy looked after it like it was his baby. One day in 1993 he went on vacation and came home to find someone had stolen the engine out of the car! It then sat in his garage at home until a couple of years ago he finally sold it and our veteran buddy dropped a “built up hot” 455 and TH400 into it and cruises it as it is. The Cragar mags were a dealer fit option. Its all original except the engine and box. It sounds lovely. “y’all ‘ll wanna git a video so you can hear how she burbles” – and I did. I did love that car.



























Next stop was the South Carolina Motorsports Complex and we were not admitted as it was closed for a private function. This is basically a short race circuit probably bigger than Mallory Park but smaller than Donnington. The guard was friendly but firm so we gave up our lacklustre blagging and carried on up to Lancaster County.

In Lancaster county is Kershaw Town. You see a theme developing here? Kershaw Town is nice, but lacks some of the amenities of Camden. We parked up next to the fire station (second one of the day) and were pleased to see the engines all said “Kershaw” on them. Well, we got talking to the fire crew on duty, they were great fun, they were more excited than I was it seemed. We had a real fun time with them and then the chief gave me a fire fighter’s medallion which says “Kershaw Fire Department” on it!
















I called by the Town Hall, Kershaw House of Pizza (where we had lunch) and a few other prime locations with my name on before we hit the road north in search of a whole new Carolina, the North one.

We drove without stopping much, other than to take photos of a vintage car collection we came across randomly somewhere on the road, we didn’t get out because it felt like shotgun country there. We carried on and got to Salem.













And other misc things of interest...














David insisted we had a “proper” hotel and we ended up in a Fairfield. It was OK. Bland and corporate. We did make up for it by finding a doozy of a place for dinner, this was a BBQ Pit called Due South. We had excellent food and a little beer, and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2 done, something around 275 miles covered.

[akku]

Fairfield Hotel breakfast was not even recognisable as being actual food. Powdered egg and cardboard bacon, we skipped that. David apologised “you British do breakfast so well, this must seem like an insult”







So we jumped in the car and set off. We stopped at a town called Bedford in Virginia. Virginia is for lovers apparently. We stopped at a Huddle House so that’s another new fast food place ticked off the list. Its like a Waffle House but Virginia flavoured. Breakfast was 3000 calories easy. And I was trying to keep it small. The server said to me “Sir, I get that you are British right? I mean I don’t mean to be rude, but what in the heck are you doing in Bedford Virginia?” When I replied that I was “just passin’ through” she seemed to be reassured.








We also popped into Tractor Supply Co because that seemed “Very Virginia” and I bought a snakeskin cowboy hat.





There are starting to be a lot more interesting vehicles in the parking lots of places we stop also.













Driving through Virginia is very different to the Carolinas. The roads are narrower and windyier. I can’t imagine the traditional wallowing barge type cars being poplar here at any point. It certainly puts lie to the “all American roads are just straight lines” thing. There is also even more of the whole “rural poverty” thing on display here.











We did find a very interesting place with a lot of very cool and interesting “project cars” on the property and David was all for an explore but the vibe was very much “trespassers will be shot and questions asked later” so I did brief scout round and took a few pics.









































Moving on we found another fascinating place, it’s a definitely closed down garage with a decent sized house also on the property, its all up for sale. There was a crazy pickup-tractor hybrid thing which is “the most Virginia thing” seen so far today. Maybe I am thinking more of West Virginia. But its some crazy country hick stuff either way.














We kept on moving mostly as we wanted to make Charlottesville for lunch.

[The Cat Herder]

Nov 15, 2024 9:51:42 GMT akku said:

Hey, you found my garage. Well, not really, but they did stick my name out front. 

Tractor Supply Co, which sounds like a country thing, is in 46 of the 50 states. I’ve got three within an hour of me in central Florida.