LGBT Senior’s On the Map: An Ultimate Road Trip – Wilmington, Baltimore, and Home (Part II)
After a wonderful time in Savannah we headed to Wilmington. As always, a ‘6 1.2’ drive turned out to be 8 hours. Looking at the distance and time required to get somewhere on a GPS map only applies to the hours you spend behind the wheel. There are bathroom breaks, gas breaks, and food breaks that all have to be added in. For that reason we won’t do a road trip again without adding a couple more days so that we don’t spend more than 4 hours driving. Live and learn.
The Drive North: Coastal Georgia into the Carolinas
Leaving Savannah, the route north along the coast is a different experience than the inland drive down. US-17 through coastal Georgia and South Carolina is older, slower, and richer in atmosphere than the interstate. You pass through small coastal towns, cross tidal rivers, catch glimpses of marsh grass stretching to the horizon. It’s the kind of driving that reminds you why people took road trips before the highway system made everything faster and flatter.
If time allows, the stretch through the South Carolina Lowcountry repays attention. The landscape here is haunting in the best sense — wide, quiet, shaped by water in ways that make the land feel provisional, like the marsh is always negotiating with the shore about where exactly the boundary should be.
Wilmington, North Carolina: Port City with a Lot Going On
Wilmington occupies a particular sweet spot — large enough to have real culture and energy, small enough to feel navigable and human. Sitting at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, it has the easy confidence of a port city that has been doing its own thing for a long time and doesn’t feel the need to explain itself.
The downtown riverfront is genuinely lovely — a walkable stretch along the water with the kind of mix of old buildings and new energy that a city gets right when it’s paying attention. The historic district holds its own against more famous Southern cities, with antebellum architecture and tree-lined streets that feel lived-in rather than curated.
Wilmington is also the gateway to some of the best beaches on the East Coast. Wrightsville Beach is minutes away, and even if your trip isn’t a beach trip, it’s worth a morning walk along the shore before you head north. The Atlantic here is warmer than you’d expect and the stretch of coast is uncrowded by the standards of the mid-Atlantic.
The city has a creative undercurrent — film production has been based here for decades, and there’s an arts and music scene that punches above its size. Give it time and it gives back.
Must Eat
We had what I consider the best meal of the trip at Sugo Italian Steakhouse, rightly considered one of the best restaurants in Wilmington,
Tucked inside the Hotel Ballast on the downtown waterfront, the restaurant is the creation of Ace and Jamie Alfalla, who relocated from Long Island to Wilmington in 2021 carrying decades of hospitality experience, and their New York roots are evident in every dish. The kitchen is led by Chef Thomas Calhoun, and the house red sauce — sugo being the Italian word for sauce — serves as the philosophical and culinary heart of the menu, anchoring everything from homemade lasagna to pollo parmigiana. The menu also features dry-aged steaks alongside Italian specialties like veal Milanese, carbonara, and an aragosta pasta with twin lobster tails. Guests can choose between the lively bar lounge with communal seating or the more formal main dining room with sweeping views of the Cape Fear River. Worth every penny, and it takes quite a few.
Staying at the C.W. Worth House B & B
We’re hotel people (with a special fondness for Hamton Inns), but in Wilmington we stayed at the C.W. Worth House, and it was worth it! Special thanks to Jeff and Jan who renovated this magnificent old house with love and care, and are two terrific hosts.
The C.W. Worth House is a boutique bed and breakfast set in an 1893 Queen Anne-style home in the heart of historic Wilmington. The house was originally built by Charles W. Worth, a commission and wholesale grocery merchant, and has been operating as a bed and breakfast since 1985 — making it the longest-running B&B in Wilmington.
Guests are treated to a full gourmet breakfast each morning and a complimentary wine social hour, and can unwind by the backyard fire pit and water garden or shoot pool in the third-floor game space — all just steps from the riverfront’s dining, shopping, and nightlife. The property is currently ranked number one among Wilmington’s B&Bs and inns on TripAdvisor, and has earned a spot in USA Today’s 10Best Bed & Breakfast in America contest three years running. We can see why!
The Drive to Baltimore: Up Through the Mid-Atlantic
Heading north from Wilmington, the landscape shifts again. The Carolinas give way to Virginia, and the increasingly urban pull of the mid-Atlantic corridor begins to make itself felt. This leg of the trip rewards patience — I-95 through this stretch can test it — but the approach to the Chesapeake Bay region has its own quiet drama.
If you have flexibility in your timing, cutting over to the Eastern Shore via the Bay Bridge and approaching Baltimore from the east adds time but also adds atmosphere. The Chesapeake Shore is a world apart from the interstate, and arriving in Baltimore with the bay in your recent memory is a different experience than arriving off the highway.
Visiting Friends in Baltimore
Our final stop was just outside Baltimore where we met up with friends Anita and Tom for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant, and a fabulous homemade breakfast at their home before heading back to our cats.
A Few Notes for the Road
Would we do another road trip? Of course! I have to say we both really enjoyed this, and I’d love to head to Canada next time. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this travelblog, we would extend it be a couple days and destinations so we’re not driving more then 4 hours a day. On this trip, we spent two of the four driving days on the road, leaving at 8:00 a.m. and getting to the hotel in the late afternoon. It’s exhausting.
Some stats:
Total driving distance runs roughly 1,100 to 1,200 miles depending on your exact route and detours, making it a comfortable week-long trip if you allow two nights in each city.
Best time to go is spring or fall. Savannah in summer is serious heat and humidity. Baltimore in January is a different kind of serious. The shoulder seasons hit everything at its best.
Pace yourself on the driving days. The temptation is to push through to the destination, but the stretches between these cities are part of what makes this trip worth doing. Build in time to stop.
Pack lighter than you think you need to. Four cities means four different microclimates and social contexts. A smaller bag means less time moving luggage and more time moving through streets.