11:15 AM Entered Blue Ridge Parkway from its start (repeating the first few miles).
11:15 AM Entered Blue Ridge Parkway from its start (repeating the first few miles).
By now, I had become an expert on taking pictures of myself using the camera's timer. I took many more pictures at Blue Ridge Parkway. Unlike Shenandoah National Park, where the road goes ALONG the mountains, Blue Ridge Parkway goes ON the mountains. These mountains are called the "Blue Ridge Mountains", but it is the same range as the Shenandoah Mountains. The views were also the same kind of views, only better in every respect. I did not go on as many hiking trails as I did at Shenandoah. Again, the flowers were plentiful and beautiful (plenty beautiful). The bees were even more irritating than at Shenandoah, because there were more of them here. The valley views were fantastic.
2:35 PM There is an exceptional viewpoint on the Parkway just North of the town of Buena Vista[25]. I stopped there, and tried to take a picture. Unfortunately, the camera's battery had run out, since I had been taking so many pictures using the timer. I drove off the Parkway to Buena Vista and bought a new camera battery there; then drove back to the viewpoint, took my picture, and started driving South again. I repeated about 10 miles of the Parkway three times by doing this, but I did not mind -- the viewpoint is "simply maahvelus"! By the time I left that viewpoint, it was 3:15 PM.
7:20 PM Left Parkway at the town of Troutville. Rating withheld. Had dinner at Burger King.
8:00 PM Checked in at Travelodge in Troutville.
License Plates:
| GANESA | VA | Mitsubishi Coupe |
| 2B LWYER | VA | Nissan Sentra (2B TRVLR) |
| $35.15 | Chase | Days Inn | Staunton, VA |
| $4 | Cash | Lunch -- Subway | Staunton, VA |
| $7 | CB | Gas | Staunton, VA |
| $14.61 | Discover | Two Camera Batteries -- Buena Vista Shopping Center | Buena Vista, VA |
| $3 | Cash | Dinner -- Burger King | Troutville, VA |
Ate free breakfast, then checked out at 10:15 AM.
Went to lunch at McDonalds in Roanoke, which is the largest city on the Parkway in the state of Virginia.
11:15 AM Entered Blue Ridge Parkway.
An' the views just keep gettin' better an' better...
I drove South towards the North Carolina border, then left the Parkway just before crossing the border and entered I-77 Southbound.
When I was coming North from Charleston, SC (on my way up to Washington), I had entered North Carolina on Highway 17. There was no visitor center on that road. I-77 has a Visitor Center in North Carolina at the Virginia border, and I wanted to go to there to pick up some "Motel Discount Guides" and North Carolina travel information brochures.
"An' I thought Blue Ridge Parkway was nice..."
I-77 is a "typical" rural interstate freeway at the Virginia-North Carolina border. There are two lanes going in each direction, and about 100 feet of land separating the Northbound side from the Southbound side. That's the "typical" part. But there was something unusual about this "rural interstate freeway". In this patch of land between the lanes, there were flowers of all colors, shapes and sizes. These looked like they had been planted on purpose -- the individual plants were in a straight line, parallel to the lanes. The plants were grouped together according to the colors of the flowers (red, yellow, purple, white, pink, orange, and different combinations of those colors). It was fantastic!
3:15 PM Entered North Carolina on I-77. 139173 miles. The visitor center was at the border, and I was there for the next 20 minutes. The whole point of this detour was to get visitor information, and I did not find anything important there! But I did pick up some "Motel Discount Guide"'s. Then started driving back North on I-77 towards Blue Ridge Parkway.
3:45 PM Virginia on I-77; 139184 miles.
4:05 PM Back on Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Drove South towards North Carolina. I could have gone directly from the visitor center to the Parkway in North Carolina, but I did not want to miss a single mile of this road!
4:45 PM North Carolina on Blue Ridge Parkway; 139211 Miles; immediately left Parkway.
5:30 PM Checked in at Surry Inn at Dobson, NC.
Later that night, I got very hungry. Dobson is a small town. But unlike Manassas, Dobson has no restaurant (major chain or local). I drove around the town at night and looked everywhere. I did not find any restaurant anywhere in Dobson! The nearest major city (Winston-Salem) was about 60 miles away. My stomach told me to go to Winston-Salem for dinner; and my brain told me it's time to go to sleep. I compromised, bought some bread at a gas station in Dobson; then listened to my brain and went to sleep without eating any dinner.
License Plates:
| IM TUGS | VA | Buick Skylark |
| $40.47 | Chase | Travelodge | Troutville, VA |
| $5 | Cash | Motor oil -- Chevron | Roanoke, VA |
| $3 | Cash | Lunch -- McDonalds | Roanoke, VA |
| $13.66 | CB | Gas-n-stuff at Citgo | Fancy Gap, VA |
| $3 | Cash | Food at Citgo | Dobson, NC |
[25] Appropriately named town: In Spanish, "Buena Vista" means "Good View".