Blue Ridge Parkway

OK, so I didn’t get to drive through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I’ll get over that. Besides, I have always really wanted to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway and today is my chance.



Many years ago, I was on it for a very short distance but it was so foggy I couldn’t see anything. But today is the day I have been waiting for!

It is brutally cold out this morning, only 12 degrees, but it is just 20 miles from our RV park in Max Meadows, Virginia, to the Blue Ridge Parkway and I am excited to get to visit this place I have always wanted to see.


We waited till nearly noon to start out hoping it would warm up a bit. It didn’t, so we went anyway. We drove through the rolling hills toward the Parkway.

Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance.

Finally, we arrive and took the exit up and over the highway onto the parkway. Instantly, the road was packed with ice and snow. Don said, “I don’t like the looks of this…!” We drove about 100 feet and saw the “Closed” sign on the gate.

Now we had to get back down to the highway on a curving downhill, ice packed exit. Don put the car in low gear and we slowly crawled back down to the safety of the main highway.

“Can you say, ‘Disappointed,’ boys and girls?” No driving the Blue Ridge Parkway once again.

OK, so now what do we do? I examine the map and see the Appalachian Mountains not far away, back in the opposite direction. A main highway goes through them, and we figure that road will be clear of snow so exploring was back on again, just in another direction and in different mountains.

Heading toward the Applachians.

The Appalachian Mountains are rolling mountains, not craggy ones. Right now they were also dusted with a couple inches of snow. They must be breath taking in the green of spring or the vibrant colors of fall. We enjoyed them today as well, dressed in the gray of winter.

We were on Highway 77, a major North/South highway in this part of the country and it is loaded with large trucks. It makes driving a little dicey.

We actually saw two accidents involving large trucks today. One took out a car and the other one took out a large section of guardrail.


That truck was on the side of the road a little way beyond where the guardrail was missing. The stopped truck had a long section of guardrail now virtually welded to the underside his truck trailer. And I thought my day got off to a bad start…!

We drove about 40 miles from Western Virginia North into West Virginia through beautiful countryside with rolling mountains and valleys. Twice we drove through long tunnels that cut through the mountains.

Approaching a tunnel.

Trucks in the tunnel with us.

Finally we saw a small town and something familiar that we hadn’t seen in several days…STARBUCKS! WHOO!! HOO!!! We bought extra-hot Grande lattes, and were tempted to just pour them all over our bodies instead of drinking them as we might get warmed up quicker that way.

Baby, you are soooo HOT!!

Another day, another adventure… made complete by Starbucks.