April 25 - Blue Ridge Parkway

At each Parkway entrance a directional sign indicates 'north' or 'south'. North, toward the north end of the Parkway, leads to Shenandoah National Park. South, toward the south end of the Parkway, leads to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.Outstanding scenery and recreational opportunities make the Blue Ridge Parkway one of the most popular units of the National Park System. "America's Favorite Drive" winds its way 469 miles through mountain meadows and past seemingly endless vistas. Split-rail fences, old farmsteads and historic structures complement spectacular views of distant mountains and neighboring valleys.The Parkway incorporates several recreation areas, some exceeding 6,000 acres. These parks within the Parkway have visitor centers, camp grounds, picnic areas, trails and, in many instances, concessionaire-operated lodges, restaurants, and other facilities.Building the Parkway through mountainous terrain was a monumental labor. Authorized in the 1930s as a Depression-era public works project, the Parkway was more than a half-century in the making. It was the nation's first, and ultimately longest, rural parkway, connecting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Enduring standards for parkway engineering and design were pioneered here.
Beautiful vistas of rolling mountains. So different from our BC Rockie Mountains, but still so beautiful. I can only imagine what it was like before those bugs ate all the trees though!
We left the parkway at Asheville, after only travelling 87 miles of the 469 miles of it's length.
These purple flowered trees are all along I-40 between Asheville and Hwy 66 where we turned down towards our RV park.
See this picture? See the water on the windshield? That's rain. If you could see the Miata, you would see it driving along the road with the top down!!!!! I TOLD Clive to pull in at the rest stop and put the top up because it was going to rain. It looks like rain, doesn't it? Yeah, it's rain. LOTS of rain. Rain on the windows. Rain on the tonneau cover. Rain on the seats. Rain on ME!
We looked kinda silly pulled off on the side of the road, scrambling in the pouring rain to get the tonneau cover off and the roof up. Actually, I think we probably set some kind of record there!!!!! Came home as two drowned rats, but it was a fun day, anyway!
Oh yeah, about three miles down the road the rain stopped and it was sunny and warm all the way back to the RV park!