a long and winding road

The Blue Ridge Parkway is the longest, narrowest National Park in the world and is the most visited unit in the United States National Park System.

I love this road! If you have never spent any time on the Blue Ridge Parkway you have definitely missed a great experience. 469 miles on the crest of the Appalachian mountains through North Carolina and Virginia - calling it a scenic drive is an understatement.

It is very peaceful, with mile after mile of natural beauty, rolling along through the high mountain peaks to the valley meadows, the only sign being an occasional National Park Service brown informational sign. It is easy to forget the usual giant billboard signs and fast pace of the interstate traffic while you ride along... that is until you exit the parkway and are suddenly barraged by the outside world once again.

Construction on the parkway began in 1935, the craftsmanship of the CCC is evident in the many stone bridges along the way.

The iconic split rail fences line the roadway, a symbol of an earlier simpler time.

Take a ride back in time, follow the 'Crest of the Blue Ridge' - guaranteed to lower your blood pressure, ease your worries, and generally slow you down. Take time to see the wildflowers or an old home place or even hear some local bluegrass.

Blue Ridge Parkway

exploring

I asked the campground host if there were any hiking trails close by and was handed a brochure and directed to the nearby Devil's Den Nature Preserve.



We followed the cave trail sign (it says .43 miles) and stopped a couple of times to look at rock outcroppings and crevices along the way, wondering is this it? I thought it would be bigger… until at last we came to this sign...



Oh, HERE it is, wow! Buddy proceeded to climb down into, while I decided to stay out in the open...



He didn't explore too much, not having a flashlight, so not sure how far back it went into the mountain, but the air was definitely cooler coming out of there, beckoning to just come a little farther... can you see him in the picture below?

This fault cave is one of Virginia's more spectacular geological features. Rocks, forty to fifty feet high, create the entrance to the cave on the southeast face of the mountain. The trail to the cave is for the more vigorous hiker. For those who want to explore inside the cave, be advised to use caving equipment and exercise extreme caution. ~ brochure by Devil's Den Nature Preserve Foundation

Thanks to Edward Harris Carlan who left the 250 acres in his will as a nature preserve - "To be used for cultural and intellectual purposes..."

Devil's Den Nature Preserve near Fancy Gap, Virginia

old timey ways

National Park rangers were seen weaving and gardening last Saturday when we stopped for a look at the Brinegar cabin on the Blue Ridge Parkway.



We learned all about how Caroline Brinegar would make linen thread from the flax grown in the garden. She would load the loom with the linen thread going one way and wool thread the other way, ending up with a fabric called linsey woolsey, a warm fabric for general purpose use, kind of scratchy but very strong.

For softer and finer fabric she would use the linen thread going both ways on the loom, ending up with pure linen for shirts and sheets (hence the name bed linens).



When processing the flax for thread a byproduct was 'tow', which when spun became a very lumpy coarse thread, unfit for clothing but perfect for bags for apples or potatoes (hence the tow sack). It was the color of whitish/blonde (hence tow-headed or flaxen-haired).

The huge wooden loom was built in such a way (using no nails, but mortise and tenon joints in the wood) that it could be taken apart very easily and stored out in the barn in the summer when Caroline Brinegar had too much other work to do, then it would be brought into the house and reassembled in the winter.



The flax which was turned into linen thread was grown right outside in the accompanying garden, just like in the times of Caroline Brineger - the garden we saw was being tended to by another ranger (you can see the flax growing in the picture above, center - it looks like tall grass).

This stop was a very pleasant surprise, we learned a lot and were entertained by the ranger's knowledge and stories. She obviously loved her job of demonstrating weaving and telling others about the old mountain ways.



This cabin was built on this spot in 1880 by Martin Brinegar. His wife, Caroline was still living there when the National Park Service bought it in the 1930s, the deal was that she could stay there as long as she wanted or as long as she lived, but she decided to move away to live with her daughter because "it was getting too noisy".

Blue Ridge Parkway scenes

photo album here

singing in the rain

The beautiful amphitheater at the Blue Ridge Music Center (at mile marker 213 on the Blue Ridge Parkway) - looking over the mountains, country music under the stars, only $20 to see Ricky Skaggs perform, well it sounded like a good idea at the time...


The closer it got to 7 p.m. the darker the clouds became, the folks in charge were watching the radar backstage…

They came out and said we had 2 options, move the entire show over to the Ruritan Center or stay here, the 700+ fans overwhelmingly voted to stay.

The first act of local boys came out - Scott Freeman and Friends - and played, scooting their equipment back to avoid the blowing rain.



Then Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder came out, he said he would do his impression of Gene Kelley…

Even with umbrellas everyone got thoroughly soaked, but it was not too cold and the music was great!