BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Park that runs along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains 469 miles from near Washington, DC, to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was built during the depression as a national work project and because it was built before tourism came to the mountains it runs through uninterrupted forest with magnificent views and without any commercial buildings or buildings of any kind in sight except for a few visitor’s centers.
As the sign says, the plant life pushed down from Canada during the last ice age 15,000 years ago left islands of far northern trees and other plant life on the tops of these mountains when the ice retreated. It is cool and wet in the clouds and so, so silent.
Susie and I made a seven hour circle through the Western Carolina mountains yesterday. We felt as if we were visiting another land, almost back in the Luneberger Heide of northern Germany. There were visitors from all over the world riding along the 45 mph road, including this little boy from Germany and his parents and this man proud of his motorcycle with a miniature car carrier behind him from Ontario, Canada.
Anyone visiting Asheville needs to spend an hour or more on the Parkway, visiting the highest point in the Eastern United States, Mt. Mitchell, on the way.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 