Lynchburg to Asheville, North Carolina

When we arrived last night in Lynchburg, I thought the car was having problems with fuel as the rear of the car was covered in black soot from diesel exhaust. I have an engine booster on the car which is an electronic gadget that increases performance. This has two settings, low boost and high boost. It suddenly occurred to me that it was on high boost, so I called up Chris in the UK, who had fitted the booster several years ago, to ask him. The High/Low switch is not clear and it turned out I had been on high boost all the time, using up more fuel than I needed to!!

We left the hotel at around 9am and drove out of Lynchburg to find a gas station with diesel. In the States, I think only one in five stations have diesel.

On our way to find gas on an overcast morning with low cloud.

We found a gas station with diesel and I spent nearly fifteen minutes filling the car to the limit. US pumps have larger nozzles than in the UK and, as a result, it's not possible to fill my car at full speed, as the pump simply cuts out. So, it was a long slow fill!

Finally, we were on our way for a long drive of over 500kms to Asheville, North Carolina. We could have taken the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Asheville, but at a restricted speed of 45mph all along the Parkway, it would have taken us about 12 hours!. Instead, we headed on good roads to a town called Roanoke where we joined Interstate 81. As soon as we were on the freeway we saw flashing signs saying the freeway was closed due to blasting. We then made the decision of the day. We turned off on to back roads about ten miles before the road closure. It was a good road running alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains and with the weather greatly improved, we made good progress. We reached the 81, past the blasting, and as we drove south we saw the most incredible traffic jam on the northern carriageway. It went on for miles! With the traffic just as heavy going south, we knew we had avoided a similar jam.

Our drive now took us due south and across some magnificent Virginian countryside. The leaves on some of the trees are starting to turn, but we are about two weeks too early to see the true fall colours. Still, we took some photos and hopefully they show the autumn hues.

We continued our drive on Highway 70 until we turned up into the mountains to rejoin the Blue Ridge Parkway near the town of Boone, named after Daniel Boone, the famous American pioneer. The drive was through the most wonderful green countryside, with virtually no traffic. At one point we went past fields full of Christmas trees. They ran in perfect rows over the crests of the hills by the road.

 

More trees turning colour as we neared the Blue Ridge Parkway. Apologies for the smudges, which are from squashed bugs on the windscreen.

We drove past this field of wild flowers in front of a school. The splash of colour reminded us of the wild flowers we had seen in Namaqualand, South Africa on our African drive in 2005. Click on the link to that drive and you will find similar photos of wild flowers.

We crossed from Virginia into our thirteenth state of the drive, North Carolina.

 Returning to the Parkway near the town of Boone, with a hundred and fifty kilometres to go to Asheville.

As we drove on to the Ridge, we saw this sign about the Eastern Continental Divide.

Compared to yesterday's poor weather on the Parkway, today's was absolutely perfect. You could see for miles across the mountains from either side of the road. There are viewpoints all along the Parkway and here are three, from the dozens of photos we took, as we continued our drive.

 

The road goes through various memorial parks, this one was named after Moses H Cone. The estate was donated to the State in 1950. The wonderful white wooden mansion house is now used as a park craft shop.

 

Another great view from one of the elevated sections of the Parkway.

 Soon after leaving the Moses H Cone house, we became stuck in road resurfacing works and so decided to turn off and drive parallel to the Ridge and then return for the last 60 or so kilometres into Asheville.

It was a great decision to make as the road back to the ridge was a twisty winding mountain pass, a lovely drive which at one point went alongside a lake created by this dam that was pouring water down its face.

We reached the Parkway once again and now we were driving at over 5,000 feet, the highest section of the road we had been on. At several points I noticed that the distance we had driven was the same as our altitude! It's the first time I have ever seen that. Anyway, try as we might, we never actually were able to photograph the moment on the Garmin when the two figures were the same. This is as near as we came!

About five kilometres from the Asheville turnoff, we stopped at the craft centre. My cousin, Basil and his wife Margaret, had been to the craft centre and told us it was well worth visiting.

Wendy entering the centre where we spent a very enjoyable half an hour and managed to buy some gifts for the family.

We left the centre and drove the remaining few kilometres to our hotel, The Inn on Biltmore Estate.

Front Royal to Lynchburg, Virginia

Front Royal is at the northern end of the Shenandoah National Park and the beginning of the Skyline Drive, which becomes the Blue Ridge Parkway, winding along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountain range for nearly eight hundred kilometres.

Our hotel was only a few kilometres from the park entrance, which we reached around 10am.

The weather was reasonably clear and we were hopeful we would be able to enjoy the spectacular views of the mountains and valleys as we drove the Skyline. We reached the visitor centre, where we parked and took these photos looking down across Virginia.

Sadly for us, within a few kilometres of the visitor centre, we drove into thick cloud and mist and our visibility was cut to less than a hundred metres.

It continued like this for the next eighty kilometres. It was a big disappointment as we saw very little of the countryside. The weather started to clear slightly and Wendy was able to take one more photo of the valley below us.

Then it was back into more cloud and some heavy rain.

We decided to cut the drive short and turn off the Skyline and head for Charlottesville, about 60 kms away. We came down out of the mountains into lovely sunshine. We reached Charlottesville at around 12.30pm and drove to see the famous University of Virginia, founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.

The busy street running alongside the university where we parked and had lunch after looking around the campus.

 University of Virginia

The Rotunda.

We went into the Rotunda and saw this marble statue of Jefferson.

The Rotunda Library where students were studying in the alcoves.

The marvellous Rotunda ceiling with its circular roof light.

Thomas Jefferson and the curving staircases leading up to the Rotunda library.

The Rotunda from the front with Jefferson's statue in the foreground.

When we returned to our car, we saw this 'Newfie' puppy belonging to one of the car park attendants. Apparently it was 14 weeks old and was gaining one pound in weight per day!

We left the university area and drove through the centre of Charlottesville passing this statue of Lewis and Clarke, the two men sent by Jefferson to explore the western part of the country.

We drove about 10 kms out of the city to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It's a wonderful place designed and built by him on top of the hills above Charlottesville. We had a very good guide, Tom Nash, who showed us round the house and gave us a detailed history of Jefferson, most of which was totally new to me.

The beautiful façade of the house with its domed roof.

You can just see the university Rotunda through the trees from the house.

We walked down the hill past the graves of Jefferson and many members of his family.

We left Monticello and drove about 100 kms to Lynchburg. As we approached our hotel, The Courtyard by Marriott, we passed the 5,000 kms mark of our drive.

Tomorrow, we continue our drive along the Blue Ridge Mountains to our next stop in Asheville, North Carolina, where we are visiting the incredible Biltmore Mansion, the largest house in the US.

Chestertown, Maryland to Front Royal, Virginia

We left Chestertown at 9am for the drive north-west to Gettysburg. It was very misty and there was a slight drizzle as we headed for the Bay Bridge that takes you across Chesapeake Bay in the direction of Washington and Baltimore.

Approaching the Bay Bridge.

 

Once over the bridge we skirted Baltimore.The weather improved considerably and, for the first time in several days, we had some bright sunshine. We crossed from Maryland into Pennsylvania, our tenth state of the drive.

We reached Gettysburg soon after, at around noon, and headed for the visitor centre.

Outside the centre is this lifelike statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting on a bench and nearby is a plaque inscribed with his famous Gettysburg Address. To read it, click on the photo and it will open in another window and then you can enlarge it. To return to the blog, click the return arrow of your browser.

 

We went into the centre and decided to see the twenty minute film, narrated by Morgan Freeman, telling the history of the Battle of Gettysburg. It was well worthwhile, especially as I really did not know much about the Battle other than it was a pivotal moment in the American Civil War.

After the film we were directed up some escalators into the Cyclorama, a 360 degree painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. I was amazed to learn that the painting was done by a French artist, Paul Dominique Phillippoteaux, and was first exhibited in Boston in 1884. The painting is 360 feet long and 26 feet high and depicts the fighting on the third day of the Battle. It has been painstakingly restored at a cost of millions of dollars and was installed in the visitor centre in 2008.

After leaving the centre, we took the car and drove through the battlefield, passing dozens of cannons, statues and memorial stones to the various regiments who fought in the Civil War. Below are some of our photos of Gettysburg.

The Eternal Flame dedicated by Franklin D Roosevelt on the 75th Anniversary of the Battle in 1938.

 

One of the perfectly restored cannon close to the Eternal Flame monument.

 

Yet another row of cannon.

The statue to the Confederate General, Robert E Lee, whose defeat at Gettysburg heralded the beginning of the end of the Civil War.

 

 

We left the battlefield after about an hour and drove past the Eisenhower Conference Centre on our way out of the park. President Eisenhower's former home was nearby.

We then had a wonderful drive through beautiful countryside on very quiet back roads, which took us out of Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, which is number eleven in the list of states we have driven through.

Our next destination was Shepherdstown and then Harpers Ferry on the banks of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. The road into Harpers Ferry took us down to the rivers through a lovely street with old houses.

By the river we saw John Brown's Fort, the place where the abolitionist seized the armoury and then was captured and subsequently hanged.

The Potomac River just below where it meets the Shenandoah River.

We then drove back up through the town to a viewing point high above the Potomac. It was a fantastic place to look down at the river.

As I was filming, I noticed this man fly-fishing in the river. I said to Wendy, "Wouldn't Kenny love to be doing that!"

Next to the viewpoint was the derelict Hilltop House hotel, a very sad-looking place. If you look closely at the building in the photo below, you will see that the central part of the hotel front has collapsed.

We left Harpers Ferry to drive the 65 kms to Front Royal in Virginia. This Honda motorbike and trailer overtook us on the freeway.  It's what I call 'luxury' motorbike riding!

Entering Virginia, twelfth state of the drive so far.

We ended our drive at Front Royal, just 10kms from the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway that winds its way for nearly 800 kms through the mountains. I am really looking forward to the next couple of days.