Blue Ridge Parkway

I picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway again. On the map the distance doesn't seem long, but the combination of twisty mountain roads and the 45 mph speed limit take up the whole day. Back at the Shenandoah visitor centre, there was a comment in the guest book that said: Blue Ridge Parkway is nicer and there is no charge. It was signed by someone from North Carolina. The next person wrote: So go home! But I can see why. The mountains are higher here and the scenery is grander. But that whinger neglected another fact: Shenandoah is a wildlife refuge. Blue Ridge is not. It is thinly settled.

Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi, at 6684 ft. A tragedy gave this peak its name. Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a professor at UNC, decided to measure it more accurately to refute another's claim about its height. On his way to visit Old Tom, a mountain friend of his, Mitchell fell to his death near a waterfall. A nearby peak is named Old Tom. See how serious academics can get?

I left the Parkway at Asheville. The Parkway continues into the Pisgah National Forest and ends at the Great Smoky Mountains (named for the mist that surrounds the peaks), but I didn't have time. I had to be in Atlanta by nightfall.

It was interesting to hear the accent get broader the further south I went. At a petrol station in South Carolina, the cashier said thankee.