Fall Colours Tour 2014: South side of Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

We left Greenview, VA Saturday am. The kitties were a bit freaked out by all the people. A couple of the kids saw Sammy sitting on a stump near the creek and I heard one say... "Look! It's a black cat statue!" (they're in Halloween mode...) and the other said... "NO!!! It's REAL!!!! I saw it MOVE!!!" So cute. Two little girls came up to pet Tawny and I lost my head and said "sure!" ENTIRELY confusing her with Tabudera, who loved kids - even infants. Tawny?? NOT!!!! If I had let go of her harness, she would still be running somewhere into West Virginia... Won't do that again... We decided Virginia has the biggest leaves ever... they're huge...

We stopped at Roanoke, VA and parked near "Camping World", a mega store that sells campground memberships. It was on the outskirts and so very rural, and the cats had a fabulous walk around for over an hour - which made up for the not great walk this morning at Greenview. We put the cats in the trailer and went into the store - and bought both Good Sam's and Passport America memberships. What the heck. It seems that wherever we go, we stay in one of those vs. the KOA and AAA membership places that we don't seem to be able to find...

We drove into North Carolina and found a spot near Mount Airy, NC which is Andy Griffith's birthplace and the inspiration for Mayberry in all the permutations of the Andy Griffith shows. It's a lot "greener" here somehow. Not as many trees and more open spaces.

Virginia Creeper over dead trees.

I think the ivy-looking stuff is Virginia Creeper - it's everywhere here and looks like it's covering everything in its path...

We got set up and took the kitties out. It was their first experience with DUCKS. Tawny just wants to catch the ducks (and lick them; not hurt them, I'm sure :) ... Sammy is terrified of the ducks... wouldn't go anywhere near them.

Sunday (Oct 19th) we drove part of the South end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We got on at Mile 200 and drove down until about Mile 275. I'm thinking the "blue" part of the name comes from the inevitable fog that hangs over the range... it always looks blue.

We decided that the nicest people we've met on this trip are from North Carolina (you know - people that aren't related to us, that is). From the grocery store clerks to the visitors that we met on the Blue Ridge Parkway! They are all incredibly friendly. We love North Carolina!!! We met one family from the Mount Airy area (Dobson I think) who were driving the parkway as a family outing. Sandy is looking into buying a vehicle in the lower mainland of BC... that would be SO COOL! And her dad was born near the town we're staying in. He gave us many good ideas about places to drive and see, and people to meet. The folks around here are absolutely the friendliest we've experienced. We met more people today than we have on the entire trip.... Sandy took this pic of us along the Parkway... lovely lady.

We stopped at the Bluegrass Museum and the Blue Ridge Music Centre on the Parkway. We spent a couple of hours learning about the roots of Bluegrass music - and it was very interesting. Bluegrass is one of John's favorite music styles and it was interesting to me to learn about musicians that we play in our home regularly!!! (like Maybelle Carter...)
It was cold and windy that day (Sunday) - about 11 deg C (yes! I know it's warmer in Calgary... that's just bizarre) and so hiking was not something I wanted to do. But we did do a short hike to a lookout that was lovely and energizing. We also went to the Brinegar Cabin museum, which is a "Living History" museum, focusing on how life was in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The guide, Jackie, showed us how to use leaves and roots to colour sheep's wool - very interesting. And interesting that Jackie know the museum director at Heritage Park in Calgary... another "Living History" museum...