30. Apr, 2016

30. Apr, 2016

MONDAY 20-10-08 

After another cold but very peaceful night we awoke to a lovely bright sunny morning with clear skies. There were no facilities within the campground and so we showered in the RV. This morning we intended to come off the Parkway, down the mountain and make our way to Roanoke to find a campground selling LPG as we were getting low and were increasingly relying on it for central heating and to heat our hot water. We also needed to top up with fresh water as we were down to 1/3 tank.

We had no luck at all in Roanoke and so made our way further down US11 South having had enough for now of the Blue Ridge Parkway it’s nothing like as good as the Skyline Drive which had been a pleasure to drive. The overlooks were large enough to take the RV as well as cars, the road was winding, yet wide enough to allow safe sideways glances by the driver, whereas the Blue Ridge Parkway is a bit of a rollercoaster ride. They really could have done a better job of building it. The vehicle is continually climbing then dropping, taking left and right hand bends, many of which were very sharp with dreadful cambers, sometimes I hadn’t dared to take my eyes off the road for fear of going over the edge, when we were near it that is, for much of the time the only views we had were of trees either side of us. I had hoped to be able to travel the whole 460 mile length of the parkway but the road was nothing like I expected and so we decided to mix and match, a bit of Parkway and a bit of US11 South which ran parallel. 

Soon after topping up with fuel we passed a hardware store coming out of Christiansburg and there on the forecourt was an LPG dispenser. I’d been busy scanning both sides of the road for mile after mile in the hope I could find some and avoid the need to find a campground to buy it, and the effort had paid off. With the LPG tank topped up all we needed then was water, but we were not to find a tap anywhere for the rest of the journey. I recall having the same problem once before, just nobody has a water tap available for use. Not to worry we had enough with us to last another 24 hours or so. 

We eventually found somewhere suitable to pull over for lunch during which we discussed the options and decided not to bother with any more of the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was no pleasure, just hard work for both me and the vehicle and we weren’t even getting the views. We decided to make for a place called Bland which is off the I77 North on the way to Bluefield. The reason being that the Appalachian Trail passes very close to there and we thought we’d find a campground close by or somewhere to dry camp and walk some of the trail tomorrow. On arrival it was like reaching the edge of the known world, Bland by name and bland by nature, I even had to back all the way down a road because it suddenly narrowed and came to a dead end with nowhere to turn round. 

Enough was enough and we decided to make for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee & North Carolina. We could if we so wished, enjoy a few days there to go hiking etc. We had spent far too much time in the cab driving the highways and byways and we needed to get out and do things, which is what it’s supposed to be about.

After another long journey we arrived at the Wal-Mart store in Newport, Tennessee. Good old Wal-Mart, they’ve saved our bacon again. In the morning we will make for a campground with full facilities so that we can get up to date with the internet, laundry etc and prepare ourselves for hopefully, a few pleasant days in the Smoky Mountain National Park. We’ll probably take a full 50 gallon tank of water with us as the State Park campgrounds tend to be very cheap and basic which suits us just fine. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Wal-Mart Superstore, 1075 Cosby Hwy, Newport, TN 37821 (GPS: N35.943895 W83.209949).

30. Apr, 2016

30. Apr, 2016

SUNDAY 19-10-08 

After enjoying another night with Wal-Mart as our hosts we made our way from Staunton back to Waynesboro to pick up the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway  www.bluerigeparkway.org  which is where we’d left the end of the Skyline Drive. The drive was quite different to the Skyline. The road was narrower and winding. This drive would be hard work in a large motorcoach RV. I soon concluded that there was no way I could drive 500 miles down this road. Many of the overlooks were constructed where there was no view, and non-existent where there was one. We had decided to leave the Parkway at about milepost 47 and drop down to Lexington on US60. This is an historic town which we wanted to have a look around. 

We managed to park the RV on a main road through town and very close to the town centre. We were drawn to a building not far away to find it was the former Washington College now called Washington & Lee University www.wlu.edu which was on our wish list of places to visit. The College got its original name because in 1796 a rich benefactor wished to give money to George Washington and rather than take it himself, Washington asked that the $20,000 be used as an endowment to help the College. After the Civil War the College pleaded with General Robert E. Lee to become its President which he agreed to. He was very successful in generating income and raising its status, and in time his name was incorporated in to the College’s name. 

When he died his office below the Chapel, which he designed and had built, was left just as it was when he last worked in it, and remains the same to this day. Beneath the Chapel www.chapelapps.wlu.edu is also a museum and the Lee family crypt. Although the chapel has a recumbent statue of Lee showing him in a restful pose on the battlefield above a vault intended to hold his remains he was not in fact interred in it. Instead he was buried below in the family crypt once it was completed. The remains of ‘Traveller’ Lee’s beloved horse are interred in a plot outside adjoining the crypt, as close to Lee’s body as possible. 

After wandering around the grounds of the very pleasant College we made our way to the house of Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at 8 East Washington Street   www.stonewalljackson.org . Jackson came to Lexington in 1851 to teach natural philosophy and artillery tactics at the Virginia Military Institute. This was the only house Jackson ever lived in with his family and he particularly liked to potter around in his garden. Jackson is buried in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, South Main Street, Lexington, built around the old Lexington Presbyterian Church which at the time was on the edge of town, but due to growth over the years is now part of it. 

After our very interesting visit to Lexington we made our way back up to the Blue Ridge Parkway rejoining at about milepost 63 and turning north for a few miles to reach the Otter Creek Campground. Having checked it out we decided not to stay. The pitches were close together and very uneven, we would have been sloping badly and I couldn’t even correct matters with our plastic ramps which go under the wheels, so off we set again travelling south down to the Peaks of Otter Campground. This was another State Park campground but it was much better than Otter Creek. We managed to find a lay-by style pitch and before long I’d disappeared in to the woods to find firewood. I’m a bit like a crocodile in these circumstances – nothing is too big to be grabbed and dragged away. Before long The Chef was cooking a stir fry on our portable gas cooker stood on a table close to the roaring fire. We, like other campers, could have purchased bundles of logs from outside the campground but why would you want to when you’re in a forest? 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Peaks of Otter Campground, Milepost 86.0 Blue Ridge Parkway, VA (GPS: N37.443646 W79.605164).

30. Apr, 2016