dare2go

Charlottesville & Blue Ridge Parkway


Continuation from < Page 1 < !

The Skyline Drive finishes and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins, but before driving on we took a detour to Charlottesville, the home of Thomas Jefferson. We visited the town centre and found it attractive, full of life and very liveable: actually the Forbes magazine voted it the most liveable city in the US in 2005! Even on a relatively cool November day, there were many people out and about. Juergen had the best cappuccino that he has found in the USA to date! It is also the home of the University of Virginia, founded and designed by Jefferson. We wandered around the university and were very impressed by its buildings and beauty. Overall, Charlottesville is one of the prettiest small cities we have visited here and it also seems to be a great place to live. They even have a free weekly newspaper with articles of the same flavour we are used to from our hometown paper. The only downside to the overall experience was a very disappointing KOA campground, quite a drive south of the town, but that was quickly forgotten as we spent the time at the university on Friday morning.
Later in the day we were back at the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs 469 miles along the southern Appalachians from the Shenandoah National Park in the north to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the south. We found an information centre at Humpback Rocks, only a short distance on the Parkway, that was actually open, and confirmed that all the public campgrounds along this famous scenic route are also 'closed for the season'. But we did discover that the Sherando Lake Recreation Area, which is only a few miles off the Parkway, had left one of its campgrounds open for 'primitive camping' - which basically means somewhere to park the camper and pit toilets. We've done that before so we headed there - before dark... On the way we drove the first 12 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and realised how cold it was up there - water dripping down the rocks by the roadside were forming icicles! They were very beautiful in the afternoon sun, but they also indicated that the temperature was not much above freezing!
At the campground it wasn't much better. We found a site and got inside the camper with the heater on. It was the coldest night we've spent so far, and that includes our sojourn near the Arctic Circle! Unfortunately our outside temperature sensor is temporarily out of service - it needs a new battery - but I guess it was several degrees below freezing. We woke at about 5am to the beep of our Carbon Monoxide alarm - were we being overwhelmed by lack of oxygen? No, the alarm was having a meltdown due to low battery levels - we had flattened our camper battery by running the heater overnight to keep us and our water pipes from freezing. Imagine this: Juergen and I at about 5.30am, outside in a heavy frost trying to get the generator to start to stop the infernal beeping of the alarm... Not a pretty sight, but ultimately successful, and we were able to once again turn the heater on. Luckily the only other campers - tenters - had left sometime during the night - to avoid freezing is my guess - so we were only disturbing the early morning hunters with the noise of our generator.
After such an early awakening, we left the campground by about 8.00 - which is extremely early for us - and began to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway in earnest. It was so cold that this mostly meant driving into overlooks and looking out the window at the views. Sometimes, if the view was especially fantastic, Juergen would put his window down and take some photos. This is the type of sightseeing we have always sneered at when we have noticed others doing it... We did get out of the truck on occasion - to go into the camper to eat and, in the early afternoon, to sleep! And we did venture out to take photos as well - we have the evidence to prove it! The Parkway is very pretty, but the haze in the valleys on both sides of the ridge made it very difficult to capture it effectively with the camera. And it seemed to be more of the same as we had been seeing on the Skyline Drive.
Since we wanted to get to the coast just inside North Carolina and also find some warmer weather, we left the Parkway at Roanoke and headed east through Virginia. We spent Saturday night at a beautifully appointed and well cared for State Park at Smith Mountain Lake. The weather was certainly much milder on Sunday morning than we had been having of late. We wandered a bit around the lake area taking a few photos, and I don't think either of us was wearing a jacket. We left Smith Mountain Lake and tried to follow the back roads south toward Danville. After missing several intersections - they just didn't seem to exist or weren't signposted - we wound around, well out of our way, and finally happened upon the Hwy 29, which took us directly south to Danville. It is quite a large city and we basically wanted a supermarket and some wine. We try to avoid the centres of larger places, but soon discovered that only shops within the city limits could sell wine on Sundays. There are always new regulations in every state we visit and it takes time to catch up with the ones that affect us. We found what we wanted and continued on to the Occoneeche State Park to spend the night. This campground was in no way up to the standard of Smith Mountain Lake - the bathrooms urgently needed attention and it seemed that we were the only campers who weren't hunters. Dead deer hanging from trees at one site were an indication of this. In the morning we couldn't find anyone to pay for the night, and left without even a small amount of guilt about it!
On Monday we drove the rest of the way to the Atlantic Coast. We wanted to go to the Hampton Roads City area. Just outside of Suffolk, which is almost on the outskirts, we passed by some cotton fields ready for harvest. It was the first time I had seen cotton growing, so I found it interesting. We also drove past some swampy areas, which brought to mind the scenes from a number of movies set in the Deep South! But we also got the smell, which is not yet available at the movies - not so pleasant!
Hampton Roads seems to be a collection of smaller cities, which all run into each other. We went there because we knew it would be our last chance to shop at a Trader Joes on our trip. So we found the one in Newport News and stocked up on all our favourite items (except a few which were missing from their shelves). We spent the night at the First Landing State Park, which is right on the ocean, just north of Virginia Beach. Reaching the ocean has definitely made a difference with the weather - it is noticeably milder.

Wednesday, 8 November 2006 Yesterday we drove south into North Carolina and spent the night here at Currituck Sound. It rained heavily the whole night - it sounded just like the rain we get at home! This morning the rain has stopped but there are large puddles everywhere. The sun is trying to come out and the air is extremely humid. But it is mild and this is much more pleasant than the sub-zero temperatures of a few days ago.