It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and an even better day to drive to Rocky Top Overlook at mile marker 78 on Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park.
Other than wanting to spend Thanksgiving with Stephen and Jimmie, this was the other main reason to come visit. For years, I thought a photo of me and my brother was taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Mother and Dad would take us to the Smokeys but they apparently also did the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah. I have several photographs of those trips and I need to reassess where they were taken.
Two years ago, when I visited Shenandoah, I realized Rocky Top was actually in the Shenandoah National Park. It’s been my goal ever since to get back to the overlook and take my photo in the same spot.
As you can see, I finally made it! I left Jimmie and Stephen at 8 am and headed for US 29 which cuts up through North Carolina and southern Virginia. Before I hit US 29, I stopped for diesel fuel at the Mobil station on the way out. I filled up and then had to put air in the tires since the weather here has been down in the 40’s. I picked up a sandwich at the Mobil station and as luck would have it, there was a Dunkin Doughnut attached. I have this thing for maple frosted and glazed.
The line was backed up at the doughnut shop. There was one new employee and one experienced one. I think the new guy started that morning from the way he reacted to the work space.
There was one guy who wanted two dozen doughnuts and he became frustrated with the new employee. The experienced employee explained the situation and asked for a little leeway. The customer grew more exasperated until he had to eat crow. He kept naming the doughnuts he wanted and the new employee kept reaching for them and the customer kept screaming No! Turns out the customer had the name wrong. Karma!
US 29 leads you right past Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Liberty University and the deceased Jerry Falwell. Also, the former disgraced Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze. Freeze got caught using the University phone to contact prostitutes at massage parlors.
Jerry Falwell, Jr. is now in charge of Liberty University and there’s a big scandal down in Miami concerning him and his wife and a pool boy. I knew the University was pretty large but I didn’t realize the scope of the place. It’s huge!
US 29 eventually leads to Virginia 6 which leads directly into Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park. Traffic up was fairly light and there was very little on Skyline Drive. Of course, once I entered the park around mile marker 107, with the 35 mph speed limit on Skyline, it took another 30 minutes to reach Rocky Top Overlook.
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I took along a tripod to take my selfie, but there were enough tourists who stopped who were glad to take my picture in return for me snapping theirs.
It’s a nice overlook and is one of the more popular ones in the park. While there, I broke out the sandwich and had lunch.
It had been a four hour trip up and it was another four hour trip back to Greensboro. I had the option to camp out but it’ll be easier to leave from Greensboro tomorrow to either Stone Mountain State Park or Hanging Rock State Park – if I don’t get rained out!
The traffic wasn’t particularly heavy returning but Jerry Falwell almost did me in. There were two lanes of US 29 heading south and the right lane was slower because of a dump truck. I signaled and merged left and easily had plenty of room both in front of me and in back of me when someone up near the dump truck virtually stopped dead in the road.
Fortunately, my automatic braking kicked in and I reinforced its opinion with my foot on the brake. The big worry was the line of cars behind me. We went from 55 mph to 0 mph in a second or two. The car behind me managed to not rear end me and the other cars behind him managed to dodge him even though one had to go onto the shoulder.
I knew I didn’t like Jerry but I didn’t know he didn’t like me.
Tonight, Stephen, Jimmie and I headed to Elizabeth’s Pizza. I was Jonesing for a pizza. Jimmie had a stromboli and Stephen had a pizza. We got back to the house and after 9 hours of driving, I begged off and headed to do the blog and head to bed. I’m sure they think I’m the dullest human ever.
Tomorrow, depending on which forecast you look at, has 70-96% chance of rain with approximately the same on Sunday. I may not be day hiking.
