In the Disney TV series on Dan’l Boone, Fess Parker spoke with a rural, Kentucky drawl. He said words like “Kilt him a ba’ar when he was only three.” The King of the Wild Frontier also said “a ‘fer piece” meaning a long way off. He was talking about driving from Charlottesville to Williamstown, which is indeed a ‘fer piece.
The GPS lady said it was 692 miles and she was dead on. But she also said you could make it in 6 hours and 52 minutes. Perhaps if you have a bladder of steel and the ability to sit in one spot hunkered over a steering wheel for extended periods of time, you could make it under 7 hours. Mortals, however, take longer. We made it out there in 9 hours, mostly because we stopped at Jim’s Driver-In in Lewisburg for a hot dog, just after someone called in an order for 50 hamburgers. So, we had to wait nearly an hour for our hot dogs and onion rings, but it was worth it. They make the best dogs this side of Kentucky.
By the way, if you happen to take my advice and pull off I-64 to visit Jim’s Drive-In, don’t do it on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Sunday. They’re closed on those days. Also, go before 4 PM. They close early.
But I digress.
We got on I-64 and stayed on I-64 though Virginia, through West Virginia and all the way to Lexington, KY, where we hit I-75 to Williamstown.
Williamstown is small, about the size of Crozet before the Board of Supervisors began the mass human shuttle into the former farming village.
There are only a couple restaurants in town, but both are very good. El Jalisco, the Mexican restaurant at the motel we stayed and Belle’s Smokin’ BBQ, a smokehouse in town. On our second night we drove about 25 miles to Florence, KY and ate at a nice restaurant called Rafferty’s. Come to find out, we were then within 25 miles of Cincinnati. Like Dan’l said, “It’s a fer piece.”
Coming home, despite an unintended detour through Beckley, WV where Nancy discovered her favorite fast-food joint of all – Long John Silvers – we made it home in a little less than 8 hours.
So, if you go, it’s three-day trip, an extra day would be ideal, then you could see everything, and there is a lot to see.