Blue Ridge Parkway

Two gorgeous days in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Ranger just stopped to tell us a bear was in campground last night and to make sure our food and dishes etc are packed up before bed.
To date my mom has saved our adventure 40.00 so far with her Golden Age National Parks Pass for which She only paid 10.00 in approximately 2008.

As we were getting in the BRP on Tuesday morning we met a man whose property abuts the Parkway and he said he has had 7 bear in his yard to date this year and one was scratching at his door after a particularly aromatic meal wafted through his exhaust fan. He has two dogs that chased the bear off, and one he has thousands of dollars in vet bills because of bear tussles. I really want to see a bear! 

The Blue Ridge Parkway is amazing. Both Skyline Drive and Blue RidgeParkway were built by the CivilIan Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s and I am so grateful. As soon as we get cell service again, I want to know what machinery was available in the 1930s to build roads, because these parkways are amazing; sometimes you are traveling along a Ridge with drop offs on both sides, the Stone walls, tunnels and the road through dense forests seem like a feet of engineering. 

Besides AWE at the spectacular scenery; I was feeling so grateful that someone had the foresight to preserve this land. Every National Park I’ve been to and that is not many to date, I think the same thing. And also grateful that I get to see it with my own eyes. Honestly, Photos can not do these places justice. 

I have come across another cultural difference since Virginia. All the women -only one man- who assist me in a convenience store or Grocery Store call me the most sweet names: hun, sweetie,  darlin. Yesterday I walked into a convenience store in North Carolina and the clerk practically shouted “hello, beautiful” and then complimented my dress & when she gave me the key to the bathroom called me “love bug.” I am unaccustomed to being called “love bug” by anyone let alone strangers, but I must say I walk away from each of these interactions with a warm feeling like these women have my back. 

The town of Cherokee was great, it’s located in the Cherokee Indian Reservation We went to the Cherokee Indian Museum in the afternoon and then in the evening I went to Unto These Hills which was an outdoor Theater production of the history of the Cherokee. It was excellent!!!

Wildlife:

Day 1

2turkeys
A deer
Woodchuck
Many butterflies

Day 2

5 Deer ( 2 were fawns)

1 hawk

A turkey

A fox

0 roadkill

Day 1 Wildlife:


Day 2Wildlife :