We were able to break camp early this morning and head out to the Parkway. It was a beautiful morning with the fog rising in the valleys.
At this point, we were still on Skyline Drive in Virginia. I figured since we were able to get there early, we might see some wildlife. We came across several of these walking next to the road trying to eat some insects.
And of coarse, we came across several of these eating on the side of the road. When we came upon this one, he didn’t quite know what to do so he just started running down the road.
The highlight of our trip so far was to see not one but two bears about 5 miles from each other. They were both too fast to get a picture of them, but we really did see them. Soon, the 105 miles of the Skyline Drive were over and we immediately started the next leg of the journey. 471 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the fastest that we can drive is 45 miles per hour. Here is a picture of Judy and I entering the Parkway.
Soon after entering the Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up some maps and other information. As we were getting off of our bike, the model T’s pulled in and parked. It seems that they do this drive once a year and go the whole distance. There were cars from several states. Every one of these cars were in tip top shape. Several of them had trunks on the back like they would have had in the 20s and 30s.
This was the first of several tunnels that we will be driving through on the trip.
For the first 3 days of our trip, we have stopped for lunch and had a picnic lunch. Today, we were somewhere along the Parkway and stopped along a stream and had ham, turkey, egg salad, and chips. This is my sweetheart looking at the creek.
This is a picture of Judy and I in front of Mabrys Mill. This mill was one of the few mills still left standing from the early 20’s. This mill is the most photographed mill in America.
A close up of the mill.
We found a nice KOA Campground and spent the night. It was very clean and quiet. The town that it is located in is called Fancy Gap. I would love to know where they came up with some of these names for these towns.