My boyfriend has an ambition to visit each of the 50 US states- plus Washington D.C. , and before last month had already been to 17. He joined me after I spent a week working in Baltimore, Maryland, and we hired a car and drove into Virginia and North Carolina for a few days, adding another three states to his list. We decided to spend the last part of our holiday in Washington D.C. and had two options for our route there from North Carolina- one took us back through Virginia and the other, which was slightly longer, went via West Virginia. We had to go that way of course so my boyfriend could cross another state off his list! After this holiday he has now visited 21 states and I've been to 15, and I've just found out his company is sending him to the U.S. in February so he will be able to add a few more!
We had a pretty long journey from Asheville to Washington DC- about 8 hours in all - but decided to do it all in one day and drop the car at the end of the day at Washington Dulles airport and stay the night at an airport hotel,as we wouldn't need the car for sightseeing in the city. We chose to stop in Lewisburg for lunch, partly because it was about half way along the route and partly because it sounded like a nice place- in 2011 Lewisburg was voted "coolest small town in America"!
Admittedly we only saw a little of Lewisburg and don't know the town at all, but my first impression was that it was quaint rather than cool. There were narrow streets with old buildings and a lot of small cafes, antique shops and so on - nothing so garish as a souvenir shop. We found free parking by the church on the main street which was handy.
Stardust Cafe, Lewisburg, WV
We decided to eat here based on TripAdvisor reviews but I have to say I was a little disappointed. It was a nice cafe with a homemade, friendly vibe - it's big on organic food, which may explain why prices are higher than normal. Or perhaps this is the case across Lewisburg - if it's an upmarket, touristy town then perhaps you would expect to pay more. I ordered a bowl of potato and sausage soup, which was nice but not particularly filling, even though it came with bread, which cost $8 if I recall correctly, and my boyfriend had a cheeseburger with bacon, which cost $10 for the burger plus $3 extra for the cheese and bacon, and didn't even come with fries - making that quite a bit more expensive than other burgers we've had in America, in much nicer restaurants.
We also decided to have a piece of homemade cake for dessert, and I was staggered to find we were charged $10 each. I had the chocolate Guinness cake which was nice but certainly not worth $10.
Coming soon, the final part of my USA trip and restaurant reviews - Washington D.C.
I'd love to give it a try (there are not enough organic restaurants around) even though it sounds a bit pricey. I've only ever been to WV once and that was just driving through, would love to check out this little town. Driving through, en route from Michigan to Williamsburg, Virginia, I was enchanted by WV. It was raining lightly, small trees growing out of the rock alongside the road, misty and magical!
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