From sea to shining sea

Blue Ridge Mountains

Mabry Mill

We have crossed the entire country, from the state of California on the Pacific Ocean to the state of Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean.  We will no longer be heading east.  We will now be heading north.  We arrived in the state of Virginia on Monday, the 30th of September.  We stayed in a campground on top of a hill just one mile from the entry point to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Nicest campground so far.  Very quiet.  Yesterday we got up and started out on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It is beautiful.  Lots of trees and vines growing up the trees.  There is a hint of color change in the leaves now.  Some branches were brilliant red while others were still green.  It was a beautiful view looking east from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  You could see the layers of the mountains even through the summer haze.  We stopped at Mabry Mill for breakfast.  I ordered buckwheat pancakes, which is their specialty but was warned by the server that I may not like them.  We compromised on two regular pancakes and one buckwheat pancake.  And she was right.  She also insisted I try cornmeal pancakes and sweet potato pancakes at no charge.  They were much better.  Mabry Mill is a working mill for grinding flour.  It has been in operation since the area was settled.  The mill has also been used as a photograph on postcards for many different states.  Our intention was to drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway to the Shenandoah National Park 200 miles north.  We traveled about 80 miles and left the Parkway for wider roads.  It is a beautiful road, but not big enough for a motor home pulling a car!  We felt much safer on the highways.  We departed at Roanoke, Virginia, found a Walmart and a KOA...and we were happy!

Poplar Forest-front view

Poplar Forest-back view and Pete and Linda

Today we spent most of the day getting caught up on paperwork, phone calls and much needed R&R.  This traveling is exhausting!  We took an hour drive this afternoon to a place called Poplar Forest.  Most people have never heard of it, and we hadn't either until Pete bought me a book titled Twilight at Monticello by Alan Pell Crawford.  The book is about Thomas Jefferson's final years, after he left office.  Poplar Forest is a retreat he built on land he inherited from his father-in-law.  It is here he came when he needed a break from public life.  The house is octagonal due to Jefferson's facination with octagons and European architecture.  There are poplar trees on the grounds that were planted 20 years before Jefferson inherited the property.  The house and grounds are still being renovated and won't be done for several years.  The road that lead to the property is gravel and we had to go over a little wooden bridge just big enough for our car! Our GPS often takes us the shortest route and doesn't consider the condition of the road. Thank heavens we didn't have the motor home!  But we are glad we made the trip.

Tomorrow we are heading for Shenandoah National Park (via highway, not Parkway).  We will be staying through the Labor Day weekend.  We hope to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  We are now keeping our fingers crossed that Hurricane Earl doesn't reach Washington D.C. area.  Cheers!