The Blue Ridge Parkway & Chimney Rock

Thursday 25th May
Chimney Rock is a monolith of granite which juts out as an outcrop at the top of a cliff. There is a viewpoint at the top which overlooks the whole valley and where the US flag flies. Usually there is an elevator that takes you to the top, but today it was broken so the entrance fee was reduced by $2 as visitors would have to climb the staircase, all 26 levels, to get to the top. I was not looking forward to it but with plenty of stops to catch my breath we finally made it. The views were stupendous. There was also a webcam up there, we what’s app’d Bruce to look on it, but there was no wifi so the message didn’t go straight away and when did receive it we were in our hotel for the night.

The sun was shining so we put down the roof of the Mustang to enjoy the drive. From Chimney Rock the road climbed very steeply and twisted back and forth in almost continuous hairpins winding up to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains where we joined the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic route through the mountains. We kept our eyes peeled as the cyclists we spoke to last night had seen a bear roaming around on the Parkway yesterday and took a photo to prove it. I was very envious; I would have loved to have seen that. But today there was no sign of any bears. There were many stopping places to allow travellers to pull over to enjoy the spectacular views and we did so a couple of times, but had to press on to be sure to get to a town to find a bed for the night.

Arriving at Boone we were pleasantly surprised that it was a sizeable town, enough to have quite a choice of accommodation. By now the rain was lashing down unrelentingly. We parked up in the high street and dived into a coffee shop to take advantage of their free wifi. Scanning the internet, we found several good deals for places to stay. Time was getting on so we plumped for the Comfort Inns and booked a room. It was not the smartest of hotels but our room was pretty large with a couch and a kitchenette and a king size bed, all very clean and tidy. We took advantage of the laundry facilities to do a load of washing and drying whist we went into Troy’s Diner next door. It was a reproduction of a typical 1950’s diner with turquoise and pink fluorescent lighting, chrome and turquoise leather barstools, black and white tiled floor and red leather bench seating – very classical. All that was missing was rock and roll on the jukebox. The food was very cheap but very tasty with the best service we have had so far this holiday. After that it was time to return to our rooms to sort out our bags and get some sleep.Read more