Fall Foliage of the Southern Blue Ridge Parkway
It’s 0130 and I’m wide-assed awake again. My work schedule and the nature of my work have certainly taken a toll on my sleep wake cycle. I’m not sure that it will ever fully recover. My body feels as if it’s had enough rest and it’s time to get back to work, but I have a long day of driving ahead of me and I know that I need to get more sleep. So I lay there and try to trick myself into shutting down. It doesn’t work. After what seems like an eternity, it is finally time to get up and hit the road. It’s still dark out but this is by design. The objective is to make the most of the daylight and it will take about two hours to get to the starting point.
Soon after we moved to northeast Tennessee, we explored a small section of the middle of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina. We didn’t have time to travel far, but we did see some bears and some breathtaking mountain scenery. Ever since we got that first glimpse of the Parkway, we’ve been talking about trying to driving the entire route in the fall to check out the brilliant blushes of color in the foliage that precede the transition to cold, dormant grays of winter. We love a good road trip.
Time always seems to be scarce, but we have really come to embrace the value of living for the moment and not letting our lives slip away without doing the things that we want to do and seeing the things that we want to see. A small window of opportunity presented itself. We knew we couldn’t complete the drive, but we decided to do what we could as a day trip. Without the kids.
One of twenty-one tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Cherokee and Boone
Cherokee, NC is technically the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, as evidenced by the way that the mile markers run, but it is closer to home than Rockfish Gap, VA (which is on the other side of Roanoke), so it became our starting point. It wasn’t the first time we’ve done something assbackwards and it won’t be the last either. To get to Cherokee, we take I-26 to Asheville and then I-40. Simple enough that one could do it in their sleep.
We pulled out of the driveway and we were finally on our way. Cold air on. Check. Window cracked. Check. Aggressive music courtesy of SiriusXM Turbo. Check. Despite the standard preventative measures, the no sleep slump inevitably kicked in. Supplemental ordinances were deployed. Shifting in the seat. Stretching. Pinching myself. Opening the window more. Then closing it. Opening it again. Stretching again. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my first time working through this song and dance. I have it down to a science. All I had to do is get over the hump and all would be well.
My wife pitched in as well with a heapin’ helpin’ of nippin’ and bitchin’, which is always appreciated. As many ways as there are to help someone stay awake if you are concerned about it, this is by far her preferred technique. I believe in giving credit where credit is due. It’s highly effective and she’s damn good at it. A master. Before long, I was so pissed that I couldn’t fall asleep if I wanted to. Dammit. Maybe this trip was a mistake.
Then, as quickly as the tensions mounted, they completely dissipated. We both just paused and hit the reset button without saying another word about it. One of the great secrets to staying married is knowing that every hill is not worth killing for or dying on. Every potential fight or argument or disagreement doesn’t have to come to fruition. It just isn’t necessary. Who is right and who is wrong isn’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things, is it? Our love for and commitment to each other is much stronger than these rare minor annoyances and irritations.
We figured it would be best to get a little fuel and do a little bladder decompression therapy before actually getting on the trail, so we found suitable accommodations in Cherokee. I was over the hump, the sun was coming up and our adventure was about to begin.
A play-by-play description of any scenic drive would almost certainly fail to do it justice. Photographs sometimes fall short as well, but being worth a thousand words and all, I’ve included some samples for the sake of brevity. I’ll let them speak for themselves, more or less. As lovers of the mountains and lovers of the fall we are undoubtedly biased, but the drive was stunning. The contrast in the colors. The variations in the terrain. The fresh, clean smell of the mountain air.
The pace was slower than I expected, often with a 35 mph speed limit, but given the twists and turns and changes in elevation, this was appropriate. We didn’t see any elk, bear or deer this time, but we did see some wild turkeys. Not unexpectedly, things got more congested as we approached Asheville, with cyclists and joggers out in full force. The further we got from Asheville (in either direction), the more serene and raw. Don’t get me wrong. We love Asheville. That part of the trail was still beautiful. It just had more of a city park feel.
We did have one notable human interaction at a place called Graveyard Fields. We had never heard of it and had no idea what it was, but we soon found that there are hiking trails and waterfalls as well as one of very few actual restrooms along that part of the parkway. We weren’t really dressed to hike and we were trying to see as much as possible. That said, it was time for a break, so we decided to make a quick stop to check out some of the signs and to figure out what the place was all about before easing on down the road. It was so packed that we had to create our own parking spot. The beauty of four wheel drive. There was a group of Amish people, one of them in a wheelchair, near the beginning of the trail. They were talking to a group of women from Louisiana who were trying to explain how with all of the hurricanes and power outages in Louisiana, living there is pretty much the same as being Amish. The Amish response was, of course, stoic. We’ll have to go back there to explore some time. If the little old Amish lady in the wheelchair can do it, we really don’t have a valid excuse.
We had planned to bring food, but time got away from us, as it often does. Maybe I should have gotten up and thrown something together rather than laying in bed pretending that I was going to be able to get back to sleep. The time would have been better spent. We were fully prepared not to find anything and to chalk it up as a fasting day. We came by a small town called Little Switzerland right off the parkway. We decided to stop and ended up grabbing a bite at place called Switzerland Cafe. It shares a shopping center with The Little Switzerland Books and Beans and Switzerland General Store. The barbecue was really good and the apple pie a la mode was fantastic. It was definitely worth the stop. Little Switzerland was a pleasant surprise.
We got back on the road and eventually passed through Boone, NC. Daylight was fading fast and we realized that it would be a good time to pull off and start heading back home. We made it past the area that we had seen years before and we figured that it would be an easy spot to find when we are ready to complete the drive. There was just enough time to hit a couple of thrift shops on the way back. It was a day well spent with my best friend.
THUNDER! Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ahhh
THUNDER! Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ahhh
The astute observer may have noted that all of the photos above are either of me or the landscape. “Wait… What if this is all just a great big elaborate attempt at establishing an alibi. What if they really didn’t just let it go after all? What if he let her go off a cliff?” Nothing to worry about! All is well.
