Rain...

Tuesday – May 5th - I awoke to the sound all campers dread – the sound of rain on the tent canopy. 7:48 AM. Packing a soggy sleeping bag and a wet, muddy tent is not fun. There was little hope of cooking the bacon and eggs I had planned to have for breakfast. I read for an hour, hoping for the rain to cease. I finally got a lull, and decided to pack up as quickly as possible, and hit the road.

The weather was lousy all around, and the Blue Ridge Parkway had several detours – three sections of the road were closed. That was annoying as hell. Squinting into a pouring rain looking for Detour signs on treacherous, wooded, back-country roads.

I began the day with no specific destination in mind, but it quickly became a matter of just trying to decide whether or not I should camp out. When I reached the peaks of the mountains the weather was decent, but down in the valleys it was solid overcast. All the campgrounds, of course, were in the valleys.

Views from the mountain tops - the valleys below were totally socked in:




So I kept driving, trying to get accustomed to the fact that I should be in no particular hurry. The speed limit on the Parkway is 45. Much of the time I couldn’t even drive that fast because of the curves and slick roads and the fact that my old SUV is carrying the heaviest load it’s ever carried. It was strange to have the cloud cover so low. Every few minutes I would climb through the clouds into relative sunshine, then descend again into a valley and wet, chilly gloom.

Not much sense in stopping for the scenic views of the valleys below!:


I got off the Parkway, and stopped at a campground to check it out. I didn’t like it. Meant for RV’s, it was basically a parking lot with electric poles. I also drove by two hotels, and didn’t like those either. Back to the Parkway. I kept driving, hoping to get past the weather, but it followed me! Finally, I saw a sign saying, “The Blue Ridge Parkway Enters Virginia.” Virginia? I had no idea that I had driven that far. I had a very detailed topographical map of North Carolina, but no map of Virginia at all, so I decided to give up the campground search, head for the nearest big town in Virginia and check into a hotel.

As it turned out, I crawled into a Howard Johnson's in Roanoke at about 9 PM. I sat in the room and ate sliced fruit, sliced cajun turkey and giant Snyder's pretzels - mostly because those were the only things I could reach in my car without unpacking it.

All in all, it was a lousy day.