We are still traveling (off and on) the Blue Ridge Mountain, weather permitting. |
Stayed the night in Waynesboro, V.A. on Friday, October 7th. Thursday October 6th. traveled about 1500 kil. during both days. We are now on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Roanoke Mountain Campground, Virginia. Elevation 3,000ft. We intend to stay here for a few days to rest and ride out the rain storm. |
October 7, 2005 One of the reasons we have pulled over here is because the fog is so heavy that we cannot see in front of us. It has been raining for two days now because of a storm front from Florida. Spent the day in the city of Roanoke. This use to be the largest city in Virginia in 1960's with 67,000 pop. It was a large Railway Centre, years before that they canoed all their staples along the rivers. All of Virginia's coal went through here heading to Norfolk, and elsewhere's. |
Can you imagine that we were headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway and got caught in that fog. It was so think we could not see more then 3 feet in front of us. We quickly turned around, with me keeping an eye for traffic outside while directing Denis.
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We are now staying in a campground neslted in the Southern tip of the Shenandoah Valley not far from the City of Roanoake. This will give us a chance to explore Roanoake.
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We went to the Railroad History/Virginia Museum of Transportation today. Denis was in his glory. The Museum is home to the largest collection of diesel and steam locomotives in USA as this was a primary means of transporting goods and they all had to go through Roanoke to get to the coast at one time. But I think he felt a bit old because one train similar to this one was built in 1950. His birth date, even the same month but he was a few days older. |
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. This is an "An Old Town Market" in Roanoke. The market is the oldest such market in continuous in Virginia. Dating back as far as 1882. The market includes shopping, produce, art galleries, and restaurants. Great bread down the right side of the road. Not cheap though. We had lunch here and they had a WiFi internet that we could use. There is much more to see here including a professional teatre & planetarium with IMAX. Hope we have time to see it all. |
It has been raining for 3 days now, non stop.
October 8, 2005, it has finally stopped raining. Apparently there has been a really bad drought here and everyone says the rain was needed. I noticed the tomatoes/potatoes were really ugly and in the stores the price was very high for any produce. I remember thinking how lucky I have been living in St. Catharines with all the availability and low price of the vegetables there. It really does take leaving a country sometimes to appreciate your home. Below is a suburb of Roanoke, Salem. I believe it is a town on it's own but in the boundaries of Roanoke. Now a college town. A lot of beautiful homes. |
There is a lot of great institutions built by slavery in Virginia. For example the bricks where all made from scratch right on this property by the slaves. This is now a college administration office.
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We have noticed that instead of rebuilding new institutions they just convert the old building to suit their needs. Canada should start doing that instead of always building new government building. |
Even a church built by slaves. I pray there have been changes all over the world.
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October 9, 2005.
There is so much to see in this area. Most of the building above are
200 years old. So much of the civil war was in this area.
Slavery was predominant here. Yesterday we went to "Explore Park" on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Each person tells their stories for the roles they are playing at the "Explore Park". They did a great job. They made you feel as though you were part of that era. After we left it felt like we had gone back in time. The re-enactments and buildings/artefacts were so real and educational. Great place to bring children and big kids. We loved it and the people were so nice. |
Settlers came from the north and lived in Wig Whams. They make these out of Oak bark. Inside they seem quite warm and comfortable.
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A blacksmith. Denis could not get over how little coal is needed to heat up a room (1 bucket). I had to ask the blacksmith not to talk about it any more or else I was afraid that Denis would convert to coal to save money. Ugg... |
A grist mill.
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The boats use to haul their goods down the river.
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October 10, 2005.
We were at Bedford, V.A. to see D Day Memorial and then to Johnson's
Orchards then to Peaks of Otter Restaurant on the parkway, it was a very good day but we
had to go back to the trailer the long way because of the fog. The
fuel is going to cost us on this trip. The people we have met have all been so nice. I really think we have the best neighbours. We are different from them but while traveling here you find out just how different our culture is which is what makes us different. |
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This is the D-Day Memorial, in Bradford. The memorial is there for all the men who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The strips on top of the arch is what the flyers had on their planes only for that day. For recognizing all the service branches and Allied nations that participated in the Allied Expeditionary Force.. Etched on the arch is the word "OVERLORD", the code name for the operation. Dedicated to: Americans, Rangers, Canadians and British. |
We went to "The Johnson's Orchard and Winery" just below the Peaks of Otter. I kept thinking I was drinking fruit juice and it was such a small Dixie cup but it ended up having a bit of a wallop. The bar keep had this habit "one for you one for me". It soon became a party and I did not have a clue as to how the wine was tasting but Denis did. |
This was the view from the restaurant on the Blue Ridge
Parkway, Peaks of Otter, the food was good, I really liked my sweet potato
chips and southern chicken but Denis hated his Virginia Smoked Ham, he said
it was too salty. . |
October 12, 2005. Yesterday we decided to travel even though the fog is not lifting. Denis is being careful since we really do not get a lot of fog back home. We are headed on HWY 211 (along the Blue Ridge Mountain) to the town of Floyd then back up to the Blue Ridge Mountain to a CG called Rocky Knob. Elevation 3572ft. This is around 40 miles but in this fog it took about 1 1/2 hours. Still through out this trip I am impress on how nice the people are. |
This is the visibility on most of the drive. It's not bad here but scary when we are going around the mountains or a curve. Tense. |
We went for a hike after setting up camp. A nice change. You can see the fog in the background. I hope it lifts. |
Denis liked the looks of this picture. He said it was post card perfect. |
October 13/14, 2005. Still at Rocky Knob CG, on the Blue Ridge. It finally cleared up and spent a day touring and a day in the town of Floyd. The towns people were very friendly. After doing laundry, postal, internet at the library we had lunch at the local dinner and went into the shops. Virginia has this chain of grocery stores called Food Lion. While looking in there I noticed there were 2 prices. One a regular price and another a MVP (lower) price. I asked the cashier what the MPV price was and she said I would need to fill out an application for it but they were out so she passed her card through for me so that I would get the discount. That was nice of her. Later I shopped at a health food store and there was a regular price sticker on everything and then what I thought to be a written red sale price. When we got to the cash we found out there is a lower price for the residence and a higher price for the non residence (tourist). Denis of course expressed his views on that to the owner. He said (O ya, sock it to the tourist). |
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This is the restored Mabry Mill. There is a restaurant here and this is the first time I tried grits. I really liked it. |
Went to a Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store. The first hour was Gospel music (the music is the same it's just the words that are different) and after that there were 3 more local groups playing superb regular blue grass. Had a good time and the ribs across the street were tasty. |
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playing their sets in the Country Store some artists played outside on the sidewalks. I
guess they just love the music. The other bars and coffee houses had different music going on also. Apparently every Friday is music night but every other Friday there is 1 hour of Gospel music. |