Trekking on the Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway
Monday July 25, 2009-07-09

Today was a day of firsts. We drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway just for the purpose of driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is the first road that I’ve been on here where no one seems to be blasting up behind me and hanging about impatiently waiting for me to just dematerialize already so they can get on about the important business of getting to WalMart. We are pulling a trailer and we are on vacation, so I am going slow. But, the cars that pull up behind me have an air of calmness about them. They are like the dog that chases a car and actually catches it. They rapidly lose interest and just hang back enjoying the scenery.

And, the scenery is what it is all about after all. No one comes here to get somewhere. The “somewhere” is all along the road. Dappled sunlight filters through the trees on to the road. Broad meadows undulate with soft green grasses. And if that is not enough to get you thinking about life, the universe, and everything, the occasional yelp from the passenger seat as we get a wee bit to close to the edge-of-the-road-and-plunge-to-certain-death will.

lots of layers

Alex and Julia are about as good a pair of travelling children as we could ask for. They have made it through many miles of travelling. But this is really too much to ask of them. We’ve planned on driving up the Parkway all the way to Virginia. But, there are only so many times you can look at Tulip Poplars, Sycamores, and miles of green vistas before it becomes obvious they are bored out of their skulls. And frankly, I’m getting tired of a 200 mile trip taking 8 hours.

For our other “first”, Mary-Jeanine went to two separate WalMarts today. (Editor’s note – remove this section, or else...). The first was in Boone North Carolina. And the other at our destination in Mount Airy. Mary-Jeanine usually boycotts Walmart, but that's almost impossible when we travel.

Then, we went into McDonalds (another place we never go to) for free samples on Mocha Monday and end up not getting any free samples. :-(