Blue Ridge--let's get going

This picture shows Loretta, mostly hidden, along the Green Rock Trail, the only trail we actually walked on the whole trip. (One thing we want to do the next time is walk several more trails.) This one runs less than a mile, but does get steep toward the end. We enjoyed all but the stair-step part, which got to Loretta's arthritis.

I feel a need to speed this story along somewhat. These pictures give an idea of what we drove though on most of the first day on the Parkway.

I'll put in one more picture here.

We spent the night at Otter Creek Campground, one of the nicest parts of the Parkway for us. A restaurant sits beside the Parkway, with the campground behind it. One section accommodates RVs, the other tent campers. We enjoyed our site; it had quiet, a nice tent section, good picnic table, plenty of room for a camp fire, and easy-to-use parking and access. Here's a picture of Loretta on our site.

Blue Ridge--back to the fun part

So we took a nice long break and several pictures at the West Virginia/Virginia state line, which has a turnout.



We headed down the grade rested and in a better mood. Based on the map, I felt certain that we had no more than five miles left to drive in the steep grades. Actually, we had only one more long downhill of about three miles, not as twisty and probably at no more than 6%. That morning, a 6% grade would have intimidated me. After the previous thirty or forty miles, I felt relief at the relative ease of that last run. Once we reached the bottom of that ridge, we found more familiar terrain similar to western West Virginia. That is, we had not left the mountains but we had crossed the crest and reached less hostile terrain.

Route 33 runs smoothly to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where we stopped for food, fuel and a choice. We decided that we had seen enough of US 33 and that we could skip 40 miles of Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park to which it leads. Instead, we took I-64 to Waynesboro and visited the trailhead of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We asked about local campgrounds at the visitor information stand, and the nice lady there referred us to the 340 Campground at Staunton. We found it clean, comfortable and quiet. When I find my notes, I'll edit this to add the price. I think it might have cost $22, a good rate.

We noticed four separate parties with motorcycles in the campground. The number of motorcyclists on all parts of the Parkway provided one of the suprises of this trip.

Unable to use the bed frame, we decided to use the plywood and mattress in the tent and simply pile it all on top of everything else when we left, leaving everything else except the pottie in the minivan except when we were using it. That worked very well, and we slept well that night.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Broken Bed, 10% grades

Maybe this picture shows the angle at which we parked the van a little better. That's a factor in this part of the story.

We had a short walk from our space to the nearest restroom. We knew that a shower existed, but it had been built further into the campground and we didn't look for it that evening.

I went for a short hike, but I couldn't follow the map or the map was wrong. I walked about a mile altogether. At the place where the map didn't seem to match the terrain, a house converted to offices was centered on a large lawn. A large rust-colored dog patrolled the lawn. I don't know if the dog had been intended as a guard dog, but he didn't bother me as I found my way back to the paved road.

We ate and prepared for bed. Deciding to leave most of the camping gear outside and not bother with the tent made that easy. We made up the bed and laid down to rest. We noticed a cracking sound, but a quick check around the minivan didn't reveal a source for the sound, so we went to sleep, even though many of the other campers (and their children) went right on enjoying themselves.

I felt the cold quickly. Having Loretta to cuddle with improved that somewhat, but I also noticed that the sloping bed left me uncomfortable. I kept having to move "uphill" and rearrange the quilt.

I slept through the night all the same except for one trip to the restroom. I decided to go without shoes because I had trouble finding my sandals or slippers. I failed to realize then that the bed had already moved enough to cause that problem. I couldn't find a light, either. With no light, I stepped into a cold patch of mud at the edge of our sight. All in all, I had a tough trip to the restroom.

I went right back to sleep after the restroom trip, and awakened at first light. I soon realized that the bed had moved forward almost to the backs of the seats. I decided to get out for a better look.

Standing barefoot on the ground, I noticed that I could see my breath. So much for the idea of travelling in summer so that we wouldn't have to deal with the cold. This was my first taste of the difference altitude makes.

I put my socks and shoes on my feet after cleaning the mud off as best I could with a paper towel. (The idea of washing with cold water in that cold did absolutely nothing for me.) Then I surveyed the damage to our home-made PVC bed frame.

The bed had indeed slid forward, but in the process some of the PVC (plastic pipe) legs had broken. Standing on the ground, I could see that the center leg on the front had snapped off and at least two tees were also ruined. When we studied the whole frame later, we found that six of the nine legs had either broken themselves or broken the tees into which they were inserted. The bed frame was ruined.

We showered in the nice showers at the back of the campground, but skipped breakfast for right then because we felt sure we could find something to eat at Glenville. Then, cold, hungry and discouraged, we simply piled everything into the minivan and headed out.

Once we warmed up a bit, we realized that we had another beautiful day ahead of us. We stopped at a convenience store in Glenville. I don't remember what I ate that morning, but I began to feel better within about two minutes.

We had a nice drive for about 60 miles, with a stop at the Wal-Mart at Elkins for supplies. Once we got east of Bowden, the rises and drops became steeper. Soon the minivan motor began working hard. I didn't know how much further we had to go before we reached Virginia, but I looked forward to that. The map showed Route 33 turning about 10 miles past the state line, and it looked as if we'd be following a valley for at least twenty miles. In the meantime, the road was the steepest route I'd ever driven.

We had quite a ride reaching Virginia. We would climb steeply for three or four, with curves that we would take at speeds from 15 to 30 mph. Then down. When I saw a sign on one crest that said "8% grade next 3 miles," I knew I had a tough drive ahead. I drove carefully and handled it safely. The next crest sign said, "9% grade next four miles"; the one after that "10% grade next three miles." By the time I read that last one, I had begun to be nervous. All the same, I kept driving. The alternative was to go back the way I had come, over the same roads. I kept hoping for the next downgrade to be the last long, steep one. I had begun to smell the odor of burning brake material, which is a scary smell.

By the time we arrived at the bottom of the 10% grade, I had begun to tire. Loretta suggested that I follow the example of the car ahead of us by pulling over for a rest. I did, and as we came to a stop, smoke began to blow off the brakes. The smoke continued and increased for a few minutes. I am profoundly grateful that Loretta suggested we stop. I had not completely used myself up, but the brakes had given all they had. We let them (and me) cool off for about twenty minutes.

The next upgrade led us to the West Virginia/Virginia state line.

Blue Ridge--first day out

That's Lil the Road Dog. She'll go anywhere.

The last post had us leaving our familiar territory, headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway on US 33.

We continued south and crossed the Ohio River near Pomeroy, Ohio. Route 33 crosses West Virginia without entering any large cities, and we had a very pleasant drive through the mountains past Ripley and several smaller towns.

Through here, the terrain is distinctly mountainous and beautiful, but not as steep and twisty on the road as Southern West Virginia, where Loretta's extended family lives.


We stopped after a wonderful afternoon of scenic travel at Cedar Creek State Park, east of Glenville, WV. The park, located a few miles off US 33, offers a scenic setting, clean restrooms and showers and lower rates than Ohio State Parks. We paid our $17 and got the last open space in the park, #1. Space #1 has a fairly small level space, probably big enough for the van, but it was muddy. We decided to park on the other side, which slopes "but not that much" we thought.



You can't see all that well in the picture, but that's Loretta at the picnic table and the van with the hatch open. We decided not to bother putting up the tent; we were tired and we really didn't plan to use the tent anyhow.

I didn't think to keep daily mileage, but we fuelled up on the way out and again at Arnoldsburg, WV, a distance of 154 miles. Our fuel mileage was 21.7 mpg, better than usual.

Blue Ridge Parkway, beginning

So we finally got around to planning the trip to, along, and back from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had always wanted to go from the northeast end to the southwest end. Loretta had no preference, so that made the first decision easy.

I looked at the maps about a week before we left and discovered (again) that US 33 crosses the Skyline Drive a few miles north of the place where it becomes the Blue Ridge Parkway. Route 33 is a US Highway, so I expected the route to be less difficult than local mountain roads, and we could use it to stay off the freeways. See prior posts for my attitude about freeways. (Basically, they're good for speed, but you don't get to see much.) This simplified the trip to "trailhead." Just follow the signs for US 33, no problem.

The trip home from the south end we planned as a simple freeway trip. Interstate 75 comes close enough to the Parkway that we'd have no trouble reaching it. We figured that we would have had enough scenery by then and we'd want to save time getting home.

Finally, Friday, June 29, came and went. We got a good night's sleep. We could not load our gear until Saturday morning because of where we live. In this complex, people go through vehicles looking for things to steal often, so we don't leave anything valuable in our van.

We set the bed frame in the minivan, loaded the most of our gear, and put the plywood and foam on top. (There's more on the bed in postings from January or February of 2006.) We added a few last things (cooler, water jugs, etc.), said our goodbyes, and headed out.

We had a beautiful, warm day for the start of our trip. We took I-70 east through the city to US 33 and turned south. That was the last freeway for several hundred miles.

We drove the first few hours in familiar territory. On a previous trip, we had noticed that US 33 hosted a very heavy rush hour into Columbus from south of Lancaster. This time, we came through on Saturday and notice much lighter traffic.

We stopped at a Subway in Athens for lunch. After that, we headed out to new territory for both of us.

Blue Ridge Parkway background

I've been putting myself through another adventure with this thing, trying to figure out how to send a link to it to a couple of friends of mine, and also how to search for a specific blogger or blog. No luck.

I may or may not have mentioned that I'm working toward writing up our Blue Ridge Parkway trip, which we had wanted to take for years and actually took the first week of this month. I guess I'll get started.

Loretta actually rode on the Parkway as a child. She only got there once for about an hour, but it left such an impression on her that she still felt motivated 40 years (or so) later. I had read about the Parkway as a unique place for years, and I don't remember the sources. All the same, I felt certain that the trip would prove worthwhile.

Of course, wanting something does not mean getting it. We had to choose in 2006 whether to make the Parkway trip or go to Arizona. I wrote about the Arizona trip in February and/or March of 2006 in this blog. I'll be mentioning the bed frame that we made for that trip in writing about the Parkway trip.

Finally, things began to come together this year. We realized that we needed to go this year, because we'll be living on the road, but mainly in dry climates. Most likely, when we visit the East, such a sustained effort won't happen. Maybe, but not likely.

I had been able to save enough vacation time to make the trip, partly due to having over five years in my job, which increases the amount of vacation I get. This came in handy both for the Arizona trip and for this one. I feel very good about this, not having had a "real" (paid) vacation since 1995. Loretta had never been on vacation in her life, so the travel is even nicer for her. Loretta hasn't been working due to an injury, so time off for her didn't concern us.

The money never "really" came together, but we realized in May that we could come close enough, as long as we didn't spend more than one night in a motel. We have been using the minivan and its bed for short trip since the Arizona trip, and we knew we had a good setup there. We had bought a tent that can be attached to the hatch of the minivan, and this gives us a nice camping setup.

So I put in for the week including July 4 off, and I got it. This suprised me a little, because someone else at the office was scheduled to be off that week. In a small office, that can become a problem, but I let it be the boss's problem, not mine.

We could not find the several pounds of literature that we had received from various tourist agencies and vendors along the Parkway. We counted on getting information along the Parkway to find campgrounds and any other needs.

Finally, we brought our camping gear down from the "attic" of ur apartment. Nothing was broken or neglected, so this part of the trip didn't give us much trouble.

The next post will get us to the Parkway, maybe onto it.

I just notice the "add image" button at the top of my editing page. I'm going to see if I can do this.