Road Trip Day 3: Blue Ridge Parkway

We left our sketchy motel in Fancy Gap behind and got straight back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped at the Blue Ridge Music Centre to eat our gas station breakfast sandwiches and then continued down the road. Allan also bought a souvenir coin. He has a collection of small souvenir coins from around the world. His logic: affordable and easy to transport.

Allan stopped at almost every overlook (he really loves the views). We stopped for lunch and hiked up to some waterfalls.
There were a few different viewpoints for the waterfalls, which Freya loved. We got some good photos of Freya peering over the edge, but we had to be careful! Freya loves splashing around in water. We had our crisp rolls while at one of the viewpoints before heading back down the small hill to the car and continuing the journey.

Allan insisted on driving, mainly so he could get out at every viewpoint. His first compromise was only to stop at viewpoints where you could view from the parking lot (rather than having to walk beyond the parking lot before you got the view). His second compromise was what he called “drive-bys”, where he would pull into a viewpoint, open the window and I would take a photo.

That evening, we eventually made it near to the end and went to a high viewpoint to watch the sun go down. It was a pretty colorful sunset. Unfortunately, we still had about a few dozen miles to go, and now it was getting dark (you know what that means 🦌).

Finally, our Blue Ridge Parkway drive was complete! We hit mile marker 469, got our obligatory photo next to it (after driving past, doing a dodgy u-turn and heading back on ourselves), then headed into Cherokee for some dinner and celebratory beers.

We stopped at Angry Elk Brewing. They brew their own beers, but also combine the beers to make different combination. They also stocked a locally made strawberry cider. We each went for a taster flight of four 1/3 pints. The snakebite, IPA and jalapeno sour were very tasty. I also liked the chocolate strawberry, which was their stout combined with the strawberry cider.

After our stop in Cherokee, it was one final hour on the highway before we stopped for the night in Franklin, NC. One more day of driving 🙃.

Allan’s deal if the day: a combo of combos at Arby’s - a lot of food for ~$10, served by the nicest server you will ever meet.Baca selengkapnya