Richmond to The Blue Ridge Parkway

There was meant to registration for the duathletes today, but it was in fact merely a sales pitch to sell gear. Bypassing the Parade of Nations, our motley crew rented a car, the smallest they had, and decided to have a day out of Richmond. At first we had thought that we would go to 'Colonial Williamsburg', and then lent towards the Pamplin Civil War Battlefields. A diversion before we departed Richmond to Relish, a deli & café- with great fresh food and seriously excellent coffee. Listed in the Athletes Handbook as one of 3 'Healthy Choice' options, this put it alongside McDonald's, so my expectations weren't enormous. More fresh food than seen in total in the rest of the City combined. We restricted ourselves to coffee and a couple of shared Pumpkin Muffins (huge, @ $1.50). Studying the map, we jointly made an executive decision to bypass the Theme Park Styled sites to drive to the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The GPS provided us with good advice about negotiating our way around Clover Leaf exits onto the westward bound I64. A typically boring road in most respects, the farther west we travelled, the more tall, thick and lush the Woods became, with the Fall trees displaying an increasingly brilliant display of Yellow, Cerise and Maroon autumnal colours.

Once we hit the edge of the mountains where we were looking to decide whether to drive north (on the Skyline Drive) or south (on the Blue Ridge Parkway) the fine rain which had accompanied us on the last half of the journey descended into a thick, southern gumbo of a fog which made any travelling - even a few metres almost impossible. We managed to pull into a clapped-out 1950's motel which now served as an information centre. A twang accented guy helped with advice, which was far from encouraging us to continue our journey. As usual, Bob's thoughts turned to lunch, and we headed into Waynesboro in search of some food other than the gleefully described KFC, Hardee's, Pizza Hut etc.

Another recommendation of "where the locals eat" was "Weasie's": Bob was particularly keen to try this. It would have been easy to miss, but we did find Weasie's and entered like a posie of aliens.

A whiteboard listed daily specials of Salmon Cakes with 2 vegetables and a Roast Beef Sandwich with mashed potato. Bob opted for the Salmon Cakes ($5.50), Lisa the Roast Beef Sandwich ($5.65), while David chose the typically American Tuna Salad on Rye (lots of Mayo is mandatory)($3.69), while I sought to have an authentic Diner experience by ordering a bowl of Chilli ($2.49 regular size), with Cornbread on the side ($0.50), and a Tossed Salad ($2.49) in an attempt to have something a little healthy.

Perhaps the bottles of ketchup, hot sauce and breakfast syrup on the table could have alerted us, but we were unprepared for what arrived. David's sandwich came accompanied by the obligatory potato crisps and pickle, Bob's Salmon Cakes were as expected, old style tinned-fish-with-breadcrumbs rissoles with 2 small dishes of the soggiest tiny anaemic Brussel sprouts and another of 'mixed greens' that seemed to be chopped Collard Greens.

I feel that my Chilli was the pick of the bunch. Not hot enough, it was a slightly soupy melange of red beans, beef, and a rich tomatoey sauce. The Cornbread failed to materialize, however the simple tossed salad came with l couple of tiny packets of salad crackers, while a few individually wrapped Saltines came with the Chilli.

For all the wonders of these dishes, Lisa's Sandwich left us all gobsmacked. A plate arrived swimming in dark gravy, a scoop of mashed potato standing like a grey dome to the side. If one looked carefully, slices of dark, fully cooked beef emerged from the sea of gravy. Underneath lay many more layers of beef, and, presumably, a slice of bread or two.

Weasie's Kitchen: Waynesboro VA

Tossed salad ($2.49)

Hot Roast Beef Sandwich w/ Mashed Potatoes ($5.65)

Tuna Salad on Rye ($3.69)

Salmon Cakes w/ 2 Vegetables ($5.50) Brussel Sprouts & Collard Greens

Chilli ($2.49)

Iced Tea ($1.10)

V8 ($1.89)

(Cornbread $0.50)

Richmond to The Blue Ridge Parkway