Hours and Days
Trip Start
Jul 2008
1
4
13
Trip End
Ongoing
Asheville,
North Carolina,
United States
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Skyline Drive
This morning we awoke, creaky but warm, and surprisingly dry, in our sleeping bags. The camp site was a beautiful one on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, and the tent, though pitched in the dark, had landed neatly in a mine-field of slimy fungi, without touching one.
Not Ireland.
Black
Our day was populated by friendly deer, suicidal butterflies, southern twangs, mountain laurel, oak trees in many colors, a creaky bumper, some very serious rustling in the undergrowth, backaches, poultry the size of your torso,
White
glass bottles full of sugar syrup, caramel color, and twenty-three flavors, and one small black bear. If ever given the opportunity, drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is both drive and destination, and even after fourteen hours on it, I would choose it's sinuous shade over the highway in a heartbeat. We are now camped out in a very normal motel outside of Asheville, N.C., have places lined up for the next two nights, and I am staying awake to send this message out into the void, while Caitlin prepares herself for tomorrow's event: It's a sprint, and we're calling it "10 hours to Memphis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Intensive testing on focus groups and small rodents show that exclamation points make things more exciting.
We're excited.
Chris
Quintessence
Comments
Thanks for sharing your trip.
I enjoyed your photos and reading about N.Carolina. Do you think some day the universal experience of sleeping in a smoky non-smoking room will vanish? News flash: You are in pulled pork sandwich country. Caitlin, those sandwiches are delicious! Try one if you get the opportunity. Wish you clear weather for the '10 Hours to Memphis'.
Writing
Loved you catalogue . . . has real flair. Makes me want to shed 3/4 decades and power down. Actually reminds me of when Mom and I camped off the beach in Ulladulla--mint! Keep the pictures coming.