The Blue Ridge Parkway: The Top of the World

It took most of two days, but we drove all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, starting west of Charlottesville, VA and ending at the south entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.  It was the most amazing drive.  It follows the ridge line of the mountains and many times as we drove there were breathtaking views both to the left and right of the road.  The turn-outs were plentiful, the rest stops clean and well marked.  We ate dinner one night in Mount Airy, NC, where Andy Griffith was born--there was a vintage black-and-white police car a la Mayberry in front of every other business.  We took a detour to visit Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC--the oldest general store in the country.  It was all sloping floorboards and creaky stairs--loved it!  We would have gone to the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest point on the Parkway, but by the time we got there the mountain was experiencing a very localized and rather fierce rainstorm, so we took a picture out of the car window and moved on. We spent two days on top of the world with very few other cars or people.  It was so, so beautiful.