North Carolina: Road Trip 2012

If it is June, it must be road trip time for us. Thursday morning, we loaded the car, headed up the interstate, and spent two days at the house in Winegar Hollow so that Klep could attend the Cumberland Gap Homecoming and genealogical conference. I enjoyed two serene days of birdsong, reading, sewing, and watching the ground hog in the meadow. This morning, we loaded up, closed the house and headed across the mountains to North Carolina.

Sections of North Carolina are already in our "checked off" column. This includes much of the Western North Carolina with places like Waynesville, Sliding Rock, and Ashville. We have also made numerous trips into Randolph County shopping for pottery. We had never really "done" the northern section of the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Outer Banks. These were definitely on the to do list.


We left Tennessee on Hwy 395 from Erwin. At the top of the mountain it morphed into North Carolina 197, a two lane highway which descended and then climbed again through small hamlets, past farms, mountain streams,small country churches and through mile after mile of tree tunnels curving and twisting as it went. The temperature was a mild 72 degrees and for much of this part of the trip, we had the road to ourselves. We enjoyed the wild chicory, bright clear blue, orange day lillies, sweet peas, and Queen Anne's Lace. In Poplar Grove we passed a Church of the Brethren which used to be quite common in this region. Brummet's Creek, Tipton Hill, Red Hill, Toe Cane--all were on our way to the parkway which we entered near Spruce Pine.

The parkway gifted us with blooming mountain laurel, wild azaleas, and wild hydrangea. The rhododendrons at the elevation of more than four thousand feet are not blooming yet. We shared the parkway with numerous other tourists including bikers, motorcycles, and other cars. We saw at least 100 motorcyclist enjoying navigating the twists and turns as the skimmed along the top of the ridge looking down on mile after mile of mountains rolling off to the horizon.

At the Linville Falls Visitor's Center we stopped and hiked to the falls on Dugger's Creek instead of taking the longer hike to the large falls. Thunder was rolling in the distance and we really did not want to get caught out in a storm. Neither did we really want to hike for two miles. We saw some laurel that was in its prime when we walked down to the stream.

At mile marker 290 we pulled into an overlook as the storm overtook us. Looking toward the mountains, all we could see was the cloud and rain. The mountains were totally hidden. The temperature dropped ten degrees. Fifteen minutes more and the rain had eased enough for us to pull back onto the road and head north where we passed the point where Daniel Boone cut a swath through the mountains as he headed west toward East Tennessee.

We stopped at a craft center and browsed just before we were surprised by a detour off the parkway. We descended to Sparta, briefly crossed into Virginia, and headed down Hwy 89 toward Mt. Airy. We were thrilled to find blooming rhododendron as we moved down in elevation to below 2000 ft.

After passing field after field of cabbages, large rolling pastures, and numerous Christmas tree farms, we are tucked in for the night in the town that inspired Andy Griffith's Mayberry. Tomorrow we will play tourist.