We thought we’d try the scenic route today so found the Blue Ridge Parkway which extends 479 miles along the ridge of the Appalachians. It was worth the effort as the views were great (awesome as they say here) and the area around the road was full of flowering shrubs – azaleas and rhododendrons. It was a single carriageway and had a 45 mph limit so we stayed on it for about 30 miles before crossing to the Interstate 81.
We hadn’t travelled more than a few miles when we came across bad congestion – stop start traffic moving very slowly. We saw several vehicles making their escape by reversing up the on-ramp and considered joining them but decided to be law-abiding instead – a big mistake.
There were notices saying that the I85 was closed further down and that the traffic was being guided along a detour. As soon as we could, we escaped down a side road and, using Google maps on my iPod, I found an alternative route along state highway 675. On reflection, I think lower numbers are better for State highways. All went well for the first few miles and it was good to get moving again. But then the road became very narrow and unpaved.
It was still very scenic but we were a little unnerved when we found we would have to ford a stream that looked quite deep. I paddled across first and found the shallowest route and David followed with the car. On the other side we met a couple in a 4x4 coming the opposite way, so thought we’d better find out what the road was like. They told us it got a lot worse; there were 7 fords altogether and the first was the shallowest. Also, that the pot-holes got so large, a car like ours could disappear. This was not good news so they persuaded us to turn around and invited us to their place for a glass of iced tea before we continued our journey.
Tony and Jennifer have a lovely home, set in 3 acres of grassland and on a housing estate where all the homes have 3 acres of grassland. We had a good chat before we returned to join the traffic detour. It was a very long trip and we eventually arrived at our destination in Lynchburg, VA, at around 9 pm.
Someone told us that the reason the I81 was closed was that one of the local Sheriffs had shot and killed his wife on that road, earlier in the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment