Great Road Trips : Roanoke to D.C

Driving from Roanoke, Virginia, to Washington D.C. takes about 4 ½ hours (distance approximately 250 to 300 miles, depending on your exact start and stop locations). The drive is through beautiful East-coast scenery full of green countryside. Before you start driving, set the right mood in your car. Buy yourself a big water bottle and some snacks, and get the right music ready. The CD I made for this road-trip was a jazz mix with music by Miles Davis, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, and a few contemporary jazz singers as well.

Roanoke Virginia is noteworthy for the amount of well conserved and restored historic buildings. The best way to get an overview of the city is to take a walking tour of the city around 45 sites downtown. Highlights of the walking tour include:

Dogmouth Fountain, at Wachovia Plaza, built in 1898. This fountain was built in the days of a younger, bustling Roanoke full of horseback riders and horse-drawn carriages. The fountain has several water spouts because traditionally horses drank from the street side and people drank from the dog's mouth. City legend says that if you drink from the fountain, you are destined to return to Roanoke one day.

St. Andrew's Catholic Church, at 631 N. Jefferson ST, built in 1902, is an easily recognizable High Victorian Gothic Structure. It is unique because of the dramatic architecture and yellow brick.

The old fire station, at 13 E Church Ave, built in 1906, is a beautiful building modelled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Although it is structured for horse-drawn fire carriages, it is still in use.

(For more detailed information about a walking tour in Roanoke, including photos and a map, click here

Either during or after your walking tour (depending on how hungry you are), stop for lunch at the Roanoke City Market Building Food Court at 32 Market Square. The building is #1 on the walking tour. They're open from 10:00-6:00 daily, and the building hosts a wide variety of restaurant choices.