April 7-13, 2014 - Blue Ridge Parkway, Part 2

We left Lake Powhatan Campground after 2 PM on Monday although we had tried to leave before 10 AM. Darn tree!!! So we headed up to Virginia where we could ride the rest of the Parkway. We had to spend another night at a Walmart, but that put us close to the border. We stayed at the Fancy Gap KOA. It was a great RV Park. Because we got there before lunch, we were able to spend the rest of the day getting our camping gear packed.  The plan was to do a day ride on Wednesday, but to leave for a two day trip the next morning.

You never know what you have to move so you can take a shower...

 

We left the next day headed south on the Parkway. We knew that we were going to run into that road work again, so we were not surprised when we got to the detour.  From there we took off on side roads.

Wayne checked out the view

Unlike the Smokey Mountain Park, the Park Service here left the old buildings in place.

Can you imagine raising 3 children in this little house? 

 

We finished our day by going through Mount Airy, the home of Andy Griffith. They really celebrate him and the whole "Mayberry" experience. Aunt Bea's restaurant and Mayberry gift shops!  What a hoot!.

We had a great site, the cats loved it.

 

We packed up the bikes and headed north on the Parkway, planning to camp for the night in Shenandoah National Park. This section of the Parkway is much different than what we've seen so far.  Now it is running through farms, near homes and close to towns.

This is the Puckett Cabin. The site is a preserved log home, with rail fencing, that was the last home of Orlean Hawks Puckett (1844-1939). Puckett was a mid-wife who helped assist with the delivery of over 1,000 babies from 1890-1939. 

The Mabry Mill, what a beautiful setting.

Rake's Mill Pond. His mill was best known for his unusual advertising scheme, he allowed his customer's the sole privilege of fishing for brook trout in his pond as they waited for their grist.

We weren't close enough to tell if this was a church or a castle, so we picked castle.

Lunch was on a hillside

Some of the views were right out of a country painting...

 

Look closely, This deer was not bothered by us at all.  The Critter Count for this trip was 15 deer, one badger and one turkey.

After 265 miles, we finally made it to camp.

 

 

 The next day we went back to camp via the regular highways. Not near as nice a view, but still very interesting. 

We had to detour around a truck accident, so we headed up to the parkway and headed home that way.  The total for the trip was 504 miles. Once we got home we decided not to move the next day. We stayed put and did maintenance and relaxed. We needed it, The weather had been cold and we were pretty worn out after our ride. When we did move, we were headed back to the coast, to the Jacksonville NC area.  It should be warmer!