Learning to Take the Slow Road

Our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway taught me a little about myself. I discovered I can just sit and enjoy the drive. That hasn't always been true.

Usually, when we drive I like to read. I always pack a few books with visions of devouring a few on my list. Of course, in the days when I worked, I saw 'drive time' as a great free time for me to catch up on my reading list while passing the time of a long trip.

This trip was very different. Instead, I sat with a travel guide on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Sky line Drive, a mobile app, and a map of the park. I would scan through my resources for upcoming points of interest, and snap photo after photo of mountain ridges and valleys. I never even picked up a book. (Except at night in the hotel!)

I was so glad to see that I had enjoyed every minute of that trip, without reading! (This has actually been a secret concern of mine.) There was one other thing I wondered about. Usually, I'm a girl on a mission when we get in the car. Go 'til we get there! I would rather drive 14 hours to the destination, than stop after 8 hours on the road and spend the night, and head out again in the morning. I rarely wanted to sight see on a trip. I just wanted to get there. Again, when one's vacation time is dictated by work schedules, if the destination was the purpose for the trip, I wanted to spend as little time on the road as possible.

However, Larry and I have big plans to buy an RV and do a lot of traveling and I've wondered how that would work. Would I want to read, when he would expect me to be looking out the window? Would I be just as interested in sightseeing or would my need to read get in the way? We have always traveled and driving is our favorite way to go.

Retirement has changed a lot of that. This trip reassured me that there will be two types of travel. The Trip--where we are trying to get someplace, and The Drive--where we are exploring. We will no longer be tied in to vacation days and deadlines. I see now, that when we are cruising from one place to another, I'll have plenty of time to read as we go down the road, but when we are traveling interesting sights, I will be looking for places to stop and explore. And loving every minute of it.

Cruising the Blue Ridge Parkway

Recently, Larry and I headed up to Pennsylvania to see his mom. Usually we hop on I-81 and make the trip in a mere 10 hours. This time we decided to take the slow road. We hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway at it's beginning near Cherokee, North Carolina. 575 miles and 4 days later we got off at the other end of the Skyline Drive in Front Royal, Virgina. Yep! That's the slow road, alright!

While we didn't see any roses to stop and smell, there were plenty of daisies along the roadsides, beautiful mountain and valley views, interesting settlers' cabins, farms, architectural marvels, unusual cloud formations and a few wild animals. There are also overlooks every few miles. We soon learned we didn't need to stop at every one!

I''m assuming you don't need to see 200 pictures of mountains, and valleys. (Just because we didn't need to stop at every overlook, doesn't mean we didn't hit a lot of them and take endless photos!). But I will share some of my favorite sights.

Our first stop was Waterrock Knob Visitors Center. Although the weather man had promised us sunny days ahead, apparently the mountain top hadn't gotten the message.  The winds blew the fog across the parking lot and the air was a chilly, damp 60 degrees. Of course it was 85 in the valley.

What we were supposed to see.... and what we saw

In spite of the fact that much of the morning was in fog, the drive was still pretty. "Enchanting" or "mystical" might be words to describe it. Spectacular came later.

Yellow daisies, Black-eyed Susan's and Wild Orchids lined the highways and overlooks. Since yellow is my favorite color, I was entranced. Yellow makes even foggy days seem cheerful!

We ended the first day in Marion, NC which made us laugh. We'd been on the road for almost 9 hours and we were less than 3 hours from home! However, much of the route on the southern stretch winds around a lot and a good portion went in a rather perpendicular direction to our intended destination. The parkway runs north-east while we did 40 miles heading due east on switch backs.
Day 2 brought straighter roads and we made much better time.

Linn Viaduct, Grandfather Mountain, and the Brinegar cabin were the highlights of the trip between Marion, NC and Roanoke, VA., our stop for the 2nd night.

Linn Viaduct intrigued us and reminded us of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Tampa. Designed to minimally impact the environment, this bridge rests on a pedestals rather than attach to the mountain. Because of it's unique design the equipment needed to build it was able to rest on the roadway as it was built, including lowering the pedestals the roadway would rest on. (I think I am explaining that correctly.)

This model shows the viaduct under construction, with the equipment on the road, rather than underneath, disturbing the mountain surface.

Tunnels are always fun. North Carolina had lots of tunnels to go through. Most were short, but this one turned out to be a double.

As you can see from this view of Grandfather Mountain, we had much better viewing weather the second day. Can you see the old grandfather, lying down and looking up at the sky? Seeing sights like this reminds me of the early settlers who inhabited the world and named mountains, rivers and constellations. How visual they were to see the world as they did.

The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park and Visitors Center was wonderful. Some wealthy guy had the foresight to buy, and settle this beautiful piece of land. Today it is a craft center on the parkway where visiting artists and artisans come and share their craft. The house is full of absolutely beautiful works of locally handmade art or artifacts, and is a top destination of shoppers and visitors to the area. As for us, we just enjoyed the views.

How is this for a front porch view!

Larry surveys the view....the Master of his Domain... if only!

We also stopped at the Brinegar cabin. Plaques explained how they built the cabins, made shoes, grew the flax and made their own cloth using only their hand tools. It always amazes me when I read about all the things people were able to do for themselves. Every time I hear it, I'm impressed all over again.

House on the right, shed/barn on the left

The spring house where they kept milk and eggs cold.

Mabry's Mill, just north of Mt. Airy, NC, has always been a favorite spot of mine. This picturesque mill provided food for much of the area in it's day.

Day 3 was a beautiful day. As we got up into the mountains, we came across this stunning view. The clouds had settled down in the valley and we were looking across the top of the clouds, as if we were in a plane. This view went on for 10 miles.

On the other side of the highway, the valley was clear.

We completed the Blue Ridge Parkway after lunch and entered the Skyline Drive. The Skyline drive is only a hundred miles long and the road traverses the top of older mountains. The drive can easily be done in a day, although the speed limit is 35 mph and we saw plenty of police cars using radar that day. Even with a road that winds around, 35 is slow!

After four days, we were glad to get to Mom's house, but we never tired of the drive itself. It was such a beautiful drive with so much to see.

We spent a few days visiting family and then it was time to head home.

As we drove south on I-81 on Monday, heading home, I had a different perspective. This time as we drove through the valley and looked towards the mountain ranges, I knew what it looked like from up there. High road or low road....fast road or slow road.... this is a beautiful country we live in. And we love driving through it.