# # Remember: no line breaks in the text. # Subtitle: We drove home Tueday March 4, 2014. We took the Blue Ridge Parkway, which winds through the Blue Ridge Mouhtains, on the way home, picking it up near Asheville, and then joining I-81 near Roanoke, VA. It was very scenic and beautiful, but of course, it also involved some adventures.

It took us about 12 hours to get down to Asheville from Ithaca. The trip home took about 19 hours. This included a stop for breakfast. A stop to pick up a few hundred pounds of rock. Multiple detours and off-map, faith-based navigation. Stops for lunch and dinner (we packed food). Stops for gas. And a lot of stops for me to take pictures, sometimes at overlooks, sometimes more spontaneous.

Other pages from the Ashville trip: 000-biltmore_Panorama-header: The Biltmore Estate 000-biltmore_Panorama-headertext: The Biltmore Estate is a huge area of land with a huge mansion, owned by the Vanderbilts. Tickets cost $50 or more, so we just drove onto the estate to where you buy tickets, took a quick look and then headed out of town. 000-biltmore_Panorama: A kind of boring panorama of the driveway to get to the ticket office. On the left side of the picture, the entrance booth is visible. 001-DSC_6541: It's pretty here. 002-DSC_6543: And even the ticket office looks nice. I assume it was servant's quaters or something at one time. 003-DSC_6548-header: The Blue Ridge Parkway Vistior Center 003-DSC_6548-headertext: We picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside of Asheville. We went to the visitor's center there (and the headquarters is in the same place). 003-DSC_6548: The visitor's center. 004-DSC_6549: Some mountains in the background. 006-DSC_6551: A sign describing the Blue Ridge Parkway. 007-DSC_6552: There was a hint of snow on the ground and it was just a bit below freezing. It had been over 60°F a few days earlier. 008-DSC_6581-header: Table Rock Quary 008-DSC_6581-headertext: Within a mile of the visitor's center, the Parkway was closed for construction and we were detoured through some town. As we were driving through the town, we passed a rock quary. And the Universe spoke to Amber. It commanded her: you need to get several hundred pounds of loose rock and place it in the back seat of your car and drive it 700 miles north. Basically, what choice did she have. Or more realistically, what choice did I have, since it was her car.

So we spent an hour going through the loose rock pile searching for appropriate stones. There was a guy with a pickup truck there who gave us advice and we chatted with him a bit. Note that he was not a "good old boy" but a retired investment banker or some such thing. I asked him if he'd take a few pictures of us and he happily agreed. He was familiar with my camera. After sufficient rocks were gathered, we continued on our way. 008-DSC_6581: Lots of rocks 009-DSC_6583: This was a 10 foot high hill of rocks. They have front-end loaders dump unusued or irregular rocks in fairly large piles. There were two big tire tracks going up the rock hill, so it was clear they could support the weight of heavy machinery or more importantly a few people. 010-DSC_6586: 011-DSC_6587: Frank and Amber show off the results of their rock hunt. 012-DSC_6590: "I got a rock..." 013-DSC_6597: Amber's car, with the back-seat folded down, with a bunch of rocks there, as well as some not visible on the floor. 015-DSC_6600: Frosted mountains visible in the distance from the quary. 016-DSC_6603-header: Back on the Parkway 016-DSC_6603-headertext: We started driving on the parkway, but it seemed to be closed like every 5 miles with detours and the like. Some of the closures were from weather (snow and ice) but others were for maintenance. 016-DSC_6603: The first hint of snow-frosted trees visible on the top of the hill. 017-DSC_6605: The Eastern Continental Divide. And a detour from a closed section of the Parkway. 018-DSC_6606: After getting back on the Parkway, we stopped at the Minerals Museum. But it was closed for lunch (at noon for an hour). So we ate our lunch in the parking lot nad then continued on. And by that I mean the road beyond the Museum was closed and we had to take a detour. 019-DSC_6608: For those keeping score, it was now around 1pm, and we were 215 miles from Roanoke. A quick check shows that Asheville is about 240 miles from Roanoke, so we had traveled about 25 miles in the first 5 hours. 020-table_rock_mtn_Panorama: A two shot panorama of Table Rock Mountain. Recall that the stone quary was called Table Rock Quary. Right next to the Parkway is a vineyard (a National Parkway is very different from a National Park). 021-DSC_6610: Some views of the mountain from the overlook at Table Rock Mountain. 022-DSC_6611: 023-DSC_6612: 024-DSC_6615: Just a few minutes later we reached an altitude where there was snow on the sides of the road. 025-HeffnerGap_Panorama: A panoramic shot at the Heffner Gap overlook. I didn't crop the picture, because too much would be lost. So I left it as is with the "stair-step" diagonal boarders on the top and bottom. 026-DSC_6625: Hey look, the road's closed again. What a coincidence! 027-DSC_6627: I think this shot was to show where the previous road closure occurred. 028-DSC_6628: Five miles and an hour later, we get back on the Parkway. Aaaaaaand then...it's closed again. By the way note that the "End Detour" sign seem to mark where the detour starts. 029-DSC_6629: Lost Cove Cliffs overlook. 030-DSC_6630: More shots from the Lost Cove Cliffs overlook. 031-DSC_6631: Frosted trees by the overlook. 032-DSC_6632: More ice trees. 033-DSC_6633: Looking closer to the frost forest. 034-DSC_6634: Back on the road. 035-DSC_6635: More Blue Ridge Mountains. Here's a video of the Parkway as we drove through it (about a minute long). 036-DSC_6637: Could it be? Why yes, it is. The road is closed again. It's almost as if most of the parkway had been closed for winter maintenance. If only we had known and believed the information they had given us. Actually, we did know, and the parts of the Park we drove through were really quite beautiful. Nevertheless, that won't stop me from mocking our route. 037-DSC_6638: Another underpass, so way to get from the Parkway to other roads. It probably means there's another detour here. 038-DSC_6640-header: Frosty Higher Altitudes 038-DSC_6640-headertext: After a while, we got into snowier regions. There were low clouds that swallowed up the treetops and mountaintops with a wall of white. The roads were mostly dry and clear. But on occasion, we'd come around a turn and see one lane blocked by a foot of snow, but the other was clear. 038-DSC_6640: Hey, finally gates that were open! 039-DSC_6641: The frosted trees with the clouds above looked both cool and ominous. 040-DSC_6642: The mountain ranges were still visible off to the side. 041-DSC_6643: The trees were white and the top of the hill was obscured 042-DSC_6644: 043-DSC_6646: Note the railing. We're on the (Linn Cove) Viaduct part of the Parkway. 044-DSC_6648: More Viaduct. 045-DSC_6649: This was some of the last part of the Parkway to be completed, like around 1987. 046-DSC_6652: 047-DSC_6653: 048-DSC_6654: Looking back to the Viaduct where we had just been. It's quite neat looking. 049-DSC_6657: Bits of snow visible on the overlook. There were occasional patches on the road that were sort of completely blocking one lane. A few times we had to drive through the frozen tracks cut into the snow by some vehicle that had passed through the area at some earlier time. Most of the time the roads were dry and free of snow and ice. 050-DSC_6658: 051-farm_Panorama: A panoramic shot of farmland and an Alpaca farm just beyond the Parkway on a little winding service road. A sign for the Alpaca Farm & Store is visible on the bottom left part of the picture. 052-DSC_6659: Why look, it's an Alpaca Farm & Store that we're driving by. Almost as if we're on that little, slow, twisty side road visible from the previous picture. Almost as if we hit another fucking " Road Closed" sign and then had to backtrack to try to find our way to the road, using roads not listed on a map. As if we finally decided to head towards a road to take us to I-77 which would take us to I-81 which would take us home, a mere 550 miles later. Yes, that's what I see when I look at this picture. At least when I look at the reflection of the photographer...