We started the day in Harrisonburg, Virginia with breakfast at Shoney's. When we arrived, we lowered the average age in the place by about 50 years. I thought we had walked onto the set of a new Cocoon movie.
As with most restaurants in America, the meal sizes are colossal. Most of us have healthy appetites, but I don't know how anyone can pack away these great slabs of pancakes, grits, sausage, potatoes and eggs with syrup, butter, sugar, cream and 'jelly'. We're gonna have asses like New York cops by the time we get home.
We hit the road by about 9.30am and continued across Virginia on yet more eerily quiet roads. We soon realised that we were in the vicinity of the Mountain Lake hotel which doubled as Kellerman's resort in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. A staple with all young girls growing up in the 1980s, this news thrilled Loll and Sooze. I have to say, having grown up with two sisters who watched the movie frequently, I was more than a little curious too.
Sooze expertly guided the Ford Explorer up the foggy mountain side and we soon happened upon Marsha, the owner of Mountain Lake and a wonderfully enthusiastic and kind person who gave us a personal tour of the sights, despite the fact that we were a week early for the season opening.
Judging by the amount of bugs on our windscreen, Marsha could have been forgiven for thinking we're on a cross country killing spree. Aside from narrowly missing a turtle and a plastic bin, we're actually doing pretty well so far on the interstate highways. That said, roadkill in America is not like the occasional hedgehog you see in the UK - here we're talking deer, badgers and all manner of larger animals. There are also hundreds of abandoned tyres. Mostly they look like the rubber has just peeled right off the wheel. If anyone has any info on this phenomenon, we'd love to know why this is the case.
Mountain Lake has many elements that have been frozen in time since Hollywood descended upon it and so many of the locations for the key scenes in the move were immediately recognisable, particularly the cabin where the Houseman family stay; the lake where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey practice the lifts (though this is currently mostly dry); the Gazebo; the main lawn, and the dining room. We were even allowed to see inside the kitchen where the character of Penny (Cynthia Rhodes) is found crying. Loll masterfully recreated the role before our eyes as you can see below:
Special thanks to Marsha for her incredible generosity and fantastic stories. If you are in the area, we highly recommend visiting Mountain Lake. After our morning of movie nostalgia, we stopped in Pulaski, Virginia for a snack and then headed on towards Knoxville, Tennessee, stopping for the night about 20 miles short in Kodak, TN.
Tomorrow we'll hit Knoxville before heading on to Lynchburg, Tennessee. It looks like we'll have to modify the route slightly and miss Nashville due to severe floods on I-40. Memphis is still a worry too. We'll keep you posted. We've done 1,000 miles so far. Damn roads don't get any clearer.
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