Cure for What Ales You.

Tapped out: Some of the 100 beers at the Capital Ale House.

Harrisonburg, VA – With daylight still stitched into a mourning shroud, fog curled over the highway like a veil covering a crooked smile.

And then the tears began to fall.

It was appropriately sombre weather as we inched along the QEW, which had been completely shut down for a fatal accident that had torn up the pavement, left two transport trailers twisted into steel origami and claimed a pair of lives.

As frustrating as it was to sit, unmoving, for two hours before we had even left the country, it remained easy to be grateful. Things could be a lot worse – our journey would continue.

Through Pennsylvania, fog clung to the base of trees in a slow dance, and the hills offered more rain.

While we had intended to finish our day in Richmond, VA, the morning’s two-hour delay had left us short. Instead, we arrived in Harrisonburg, which is home to James Madison University and a quaint historic district where vintage signs adorn the facades.

Amazingly for us, it is also home to the Capital Ale House, and its 100 taps of craft beer. (According to Beer Advocate, this is apparently a top-10 place to have a beer in America.) Mind, effectively blown.

A couple nice selections, later – paired with fried cheese curds and ancho chilli aioli, and a burger topped with a halved bratwurst – and the day had ended on a high note.

Happenstance, indeed.

Vitals:

• Time: 13.5 hours
• Distance: 905.5 kms
• Weather: Rain, fog, giving way to sun
• States/Provinces: Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia
• Wildlife: None

Dribbling Down Tobacco Road.

Charleston, WV – The rains chased us into West Virginia’s mountains this evening. The rolling, green landscape is gorgeous, but would have been more so had I not had to worry about navigating the g-forces of continuous steep curves on slippery roads as brake lights blinked like an alarm clock.

Oddly enough, this is the only state in which we’ve witnessed a travel boom and had trouble finding reasonable accommodation – everywhere else, we have been told hotels are having troubles filling rooms. The mountains are pretty, but it’s still a little strange.

Even billboards have reflected the economic downturn, with a series of churches seeking to attract to their flocks by playing on depression arising from mounting debts and related troubles. Troublesomely, another cried out in large block letters: “Tell the recession where to go!” beside a six-pack of Miller High Life. That’s right, just drink your problems away. Seems logical.

We spent the day walking through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go ‘Heels!) and driving through Duke University in Durham. It may be that I work at a university, but I’m always intrigued to walk through other campuses – I love the feeling. We thoroughly enjoyed being at UNC and realized we could very easily imagine ourselves working there. Duke's campus was also stunning.

As a basketball fan – and one who appreciates one of the great rivalries in sport that exists between UNC and Duke, which are only 10 miles apart and regularly among the best college teams in the nation – this was a part of the trip I looked forward to. Unfortunately, the Smith Center was closed for renovations and I did not have time to visit Cameron Indoor Stadium, home to the Blue Devils and some of the nation’s craziest fans. I did, however, get to visit the Tar Heels’ basketball museum.

Combined with the size of sports complexes at our American counterparts, the fact the University has a large museum dedicated to one sport underlies the amount of time and money invested in the business of athletics in the United States – particularly compared to the system here. Given the heated rivalry, I had a good chuckle when I found a letter from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski to a high school-aged Michael Jordan, expressing regret that Jordan had decided not to play in Raleigh.

Of course an item like this would end up in UNC’s museum – the Jordan kid would go on to a passable basketball career.