Road Trip, Part II

So, I arrived in Blowing Rock NC around 5pm. Seriously, this is the
cutest town I have ever been in, even cuter than Idyllwild (which was
pretty damn cute). It had two stop lights, one gas stations, and one
main street (aptly named Main St.) which several shoot offs with inns
and bed and breakfasts. I had my pick of places to stay, so I pulled
into a parking lot, turned on my computer, and hooked onto someone's
wireless to check out prices. Eventually, I found one that I liked,
and walked down to the Inn. The lady who owned it, Judy, was really
nice, giving me a discount because I was there alone, I guess because
she wouldn't be feeding two mouths. She sent me to this really cute
room, with a queen sized bed and a private bathroom, which worked out
wonderfully for me.


I pulled my large bag into the room (regretting
the big duffel by this point in the trip), showered, and then headed
out to find the namesake of the town, Blowing Rock. It was just
outside of the town, and of course, included a fee to see it. Typical.
$6 later, I was standing on this huge rock, over looking a huge
valley.


The view was amazing, even with the haze.

The rock is supposedly part of this old Indian legend where a warrior jumps off
and then the wind carries him back to his true love, who is waiting on
the rock. Whatever, I saw some kids spray some Mountain Dew over the
top of the rock, and all that did was piss off the guy standing below
them, who got Mountain Dew all over his head. There was nearly a throw
down, but the teenager apologized, and everyone went back to being
happy and enjoying the view. Anyway, so I checked that out, and then,
as is with the beauty of traveling alone, I left, didn't hang out and
ponder life, didn't really look at the gift store, didn't try to get
more out of my $6, I just left. I went back to the Inn, parked the
car, and then walked up to Main St.

I had dinner at this Mexican
place, which was actually pretty good for East Coast Mexican food.
Then I walked around, looking in all the little shop windows, since
most stuff was closed by this point in the evening. I stopped to get
some ice cream at this really cute ice cream parlor that had a line
out the door when I drove in, and was still packed inside when I went
in after dinner.

One scoop of English Toffee ice cream, and I was
happy to walk around the town park. This is where I sat to watch the
sunset over the mountains. What really struck me was the way people
gathered at this park. It was a Sunday evening, and there must have
been 30 kids playing in the park, and a whole bunch of teenagers
playing volleyball, while all the parents stood and talked to each
other. Everyone was happy, carefree, not worried, not stressed, just
seemed so different than the big city life. It was a nice change of
pace, and I enjoyed sitting and watching for quite some time.



Eventually, the bugs got unbearable, so I walked some more, and then
went back to the inn. Tried to stay awake to watch Desperate
Housewives, I don't think I quite made it to the end before I passed
out. Slept very well, and then ate a nice continental breakfast on my
front porch, in my rocking chair:

It was incredibly relaxing, and
pretty much exactly what I had in mind for this trip.

So, I eventually had to leave Blowing Rock to make it to my final
destination. I drove another 20 minutes and finally made it to
Grandfather Mountain. This mountain is one of the tallest in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, just shy of 6,000 ft.

Not too impressive by
California or Colorado standards, but still, standing on top of it,
you feel on top of the world. So, you pay at the bottom to drive up,
and then there is all this random stuff you can do. I was on sort of a
time limit, since I had to be back in DC the next afternoon, so I
couldn't just hike the entire mountain (can't say I would have been
that excited to start at the bottom, either). I drove up, stopped at
the animal sanctuary, where I was able to see some bears and a bald
eagle (and supposedly a cougar, who was hiding). This was cool, but
basically was just a zoo with a fancy name.





Then I continued up to a
parking lot, where I left Betsy and made the hike up to the summit.
The initial hike up was not too bad, although, with the humidity,
there was a lot of sweating going on.



Once at the top, I walked across
the mile high swinging bridge and over to one of the peaks, which gave
some amazing views.







I then decided to hike down the opposite side of the mountain.

Now,
the original reason I didn't come up this new trail was because I
didn't want to go up on cables by myself. Yea, forgot about that on
the way down, until after I had scaled three large rocks and then came
to the cables. Lovely. Little nervous about my knee, but it seemed to
work out, and I made it out alive.





I did get into a fight with a tree
that left my shoulder cut up nicely, and I think bruised, but I was
fine otherwise. I have realized I make poor decision when it comes to
mud, consistently placing my foot in the muddiest possibly area of any
puddle. Thank goodness my shoes are water proof. I made it back down
to Betsy, and enjoyed the A/C for a few minutes before trekking back
down the mountain and heading north again. Well, at least north was
the plan. Did I mention that I did this entire trip without an
official map? My only resources for this trip (after the initial yahoo
maps map to get to the parkway) were those random ppamphlets you can
pick up in hotels. This was not the original plan, but by the time day
three came and went, I decided to not buy a map and to attempt to make
it home based on signs and hotel maps. It worked, with a slight hitch
when trying to get to a major highway in NC, and instead going through
a random town called Wilkerboro (Colleen, this is when I called you,
while staring at the cow in the truck in front of me). Anyway, made it
back to the highway, and then eventually to the 81, which parallels
the parkway up to the top. I stopped for lunch at Shoney's (Cara's
favorite restaurant ever), which is basically Sizzler (didn't realize
this until I sat down, but by then, it was too late). I ended up
spending the night in Staunton, VA, which is, at first glance, a truck
stop type town. However, once you go into it, there is a lot of rich
history, and a really cute downtown with lots of red brick and white
pointy roofs. I ate at this restaurant that looked dead from the
outside, but was in full swing inside. It came highly recommended from
the hotel staff, and did not let me down. I had stopped at WalMart in
NC earlier and bought a book…it's funny, Walmart looks the same in
North Carolina as it does in California, but the southern accent just
cracks me up, it somehow matched the whole scene. So, I sat, read my
book, ate some salad (I figured I better get some sort of actual
healthy nutrient on this trip), and just relaxed. By this point in the
trip, I was completely used to eating along, and in fact, can now say
it is quite liberating. Sort of along the same lines as going to a
movie alone. You can eat whenever, as little or as much as you like,
and you don't have to worry about the bill at the end (well, I mean,
you do have to pay, but no splitting or figuring it out). I then went
back to the hotel and just hung out Caught up on some emails and made
a couple of phone calls, and then went to bed.
Tuesday morning was pretty much all about driving. I made it back to
DC in about 3 hours, which included a nice stop at Old Navy along the
way. I then stopped in at Trader Joes before dropping my stuff off at
home and then returning the van. Oh, and of course, I arrived just in
time for the heat wave to hit DC, so, since I have been back, the heat
index has yet to go below 80 degrees (I think the low might have been
like 77 last night, but with the humidity, the index was still higher
than 80). It is supposed to drop this weekend, but I will be in
Arizona, enjoying the heat there (which, I might add, I am looking
forward to, being that it will be dry heat…), so any temp drop here
does nothing for me.
Anyway, yea, so that is my trip. It was one of those trips that I
won't forget about any time soon. I highly recommend getting out by
yourself and just driving, with no real plans or destination. You have
a lot of time to think, to figure stuff out, and you learn to be more
comfortable with yourself as your only company (well, and Betsy). I
saw part of the country I probably would have not otherwise seen ever,
and got out of the city to enjoy some fresh air and great views.
Definitely a summer highlight.

And now, I leave you with some failed wildlife pictures:
Obviously a deer:
And, even more obviously, a bear:
Caterpillar hanging in the trail:
A flower on the move: