Travel with us along the
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic highway that connects Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.
The Parkway encompasses a 469-mile drive through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, along mountain crests into National Forests of North Carolina.
A gorgeous misty morning along the Parkway just SW of Waynesboro, Virginia
This is Buena Vista Viewpoint at 2,325 feet.
This vine makes everything look beautiful and ghostly. . . it is a vine called Kudzu
(aka Japanese arrowroot)
(aka Japanese arrowroot)
The vine is native to Japan and southeast China and first introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. It was thought to be a great forage plant and ornamental.
The vine was utilized and planted as a tool for soil erosion up until the 1950s. Kudzu looks innocent enough but it grows out of control quickly and little did people know that it will overtake anything in its path, including native plants, trees, abandoned homes, cars and telephone poles.
Kudzu grows at a rate of one foot a day with mature vines as long as 100 feet. It is estimated that kudzu covers approximately 7,400,000 areas of land in southeastern U.S.
LYNCHBURG, Virginia
Sculptures and markers line the 139 steps of the Monument Terrace erected to commemorate Lynchburg citizen who fought and died in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and present day.
The Confederate Statue stands tall at the entrance to the national district called Court House Hill.
The district consists of a variety of styles of architecture with several churches, court house, government buildings and commercial.
Lynchburg is known as the City of Churches and is home to more than 30 churches predating 1900.
The 3rd First Presbyterian Church built on the hill in July of 1899.
Established in 1850, the United Methodist Church is on the Court House Hill District.
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| Photo courtesy of Kipp Teague, Flicker |
In Oct 2016 a yellow brick church celebrated its 150th anniversary. The Jackson Street United Methodist Church was built by people coming out of slavery in 1869.
The White Rock Cemetery organized in 1885 would be Lynchburg's first black cemetery.
Another style of architecture on the hill (The Young Women's Christian Association)
J.W. Wood Building. Built between 1851-1853 as a warehouse. Today, this is Amazement Square, located in historic downtown. This hands-on children's museum offers four floors of interactive exhibitions, workshop and educational programming. All ages can paint on the walls, explore life on a farm, create a rainstorm over downtown Lynchburg and rock out on stage in a band of your own.
Along the James River below the Cushaw Hydroelectric Dam.
The KOA owners have a sense of humor!
Just a short walk down the hill from the RV sites is a tenting area and a large pond.
Of course, near water and especially ponds, there are a lot of nature's little creatures milling around.
This bug looks like a cross between a praying mantis and a stick bug;
not yet able to identify what this is.
This grasshopper thought for sure it was hidden so well the nasty photographer wouldn't capture it! 👀
And, of course, an army of frogs (bullfrogs) live in the pond.
I had to throw this picture in - it was taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Looks like a cartoon character. "Hang on for dear life" - the photographer is going to get you!
One afternoon, we drive the other direction (east) from the KOA to the Natural Bridge - one of many tourist attractions along the way.
You must enter through this building to get through to the park and walk downhill and a series of steps for approximately a half mile to the Natural Bridge.
This tree has a history: it died in 1980 at the ripe old age of over 1600 years old. It was the oldest and largest known in the world. It is an Arbor Vitae. It is 56 inches in diameter. The Arbor Vitae increased only about one inch every thirty years.
Cedar Creek
The bridge is constructed of all natural grey limestone. It is 215 feet high (55 feet higher than Niagara Falls) 40 feet thick and 100 feet wide.
A little further down the trail, you come to a Monacan Indian Outdoor Museum. There are a few volunteers from the tribe of Monacan people that share their knowledge about the history and primitive lives shared in the late 1600s. They dress in costume and answer questions people have.
Palisades were built as defensive perimeters to protect the tribe from wild animals and intruders. They were built of hard wood posts and waddled with saplings - often seven feet tall and packed with mud to build a wall.
This volunteer was extremely informative and we so enjoyed his stories about some of the history, his life living in the area and what people say while visiting this exhibit. People can get so rude that they even posted a sign before the exhibit:
Here is a portion of the signage:
October 1, 2019
We leave Lynchburg KOA and travel to Utts Campground, Fancy Gap, Virginia (Blue Ridge Parkway)
Up the hill in the farming community is the RV Park and a gorgeous sunset
The next day, we drive down to Mount Airy, North Carolina (a half hour drive from Utts Campground in Virginia, to Mt Airy, North Carolina)
DOWNTOWN MOUNT AIRY
(aka Mayberry)
A stroll down Main Street in the "Friendly City" reminds you of the town of Mayberry, the town setting of the popular '60's TV series "The Andy Griffith Show."
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| Photo courtesy of visit mayberry.com |
Andy Griffith grew up in Mount Airy.
A statue of Andy Griffith and a young Ron Howard (as Sheriff Andy Taylor and Opie Taylor) was donated by TV Land.
The famous Sheriff Taylor's police car. Mayberry has four restored squad cars which are used to provide tours of the town, the Andy Griffith house and Museum, Floyds Barber shop and other TV show points of interest.
On the outskirts of the town are several 'antiques and collectibles.'
And, this one is self-explanatory
We spend another three days doing a portion of the south end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, staying in Boone, North Carolina. We opted to not go any further as a portion of the highway was closed further south.
The beautiful Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina
Downtown Boone (population approximately 20,000)
The Appalachian State University is a public university in downtown Boone.
We leave Boone and the Blue Ridge Parkway, heading down to Asheville, North Carolina.
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