On Wednesday, we departed from the Shenandoah Valley and headed south, driving another 125 miles for our third stop in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and our continued exploration of the glorious Blue Ridge Parkway. And for the first time during this getaway, we did not know where we would stay overnight Oh, Ted certainly had done his usual pre-research and he had several options in mind, but no reservations had been made, nor plans made for the day.
This day turned out to be a wonderful serendipity.
Along the way, we discovered the New River Trail State Park which is another great ‘Rails-to-Trails’ conversion of an old railroad track to a biking trail. We enjoyed a wonderful ten mile ride on the trail that followed the river and included tunnels and bridges, The afternoon lightning and thunder that kicked in at mile eight was a great encouragement to step up our pace and get to our truck pronto.
Later that afternoon we visited the Blue Ridge Music Center which is a wonderful celebration of Appalachian music. We walked through the museum to see many of their wonderful audio-video exhibits that showcase the history of Appalachian music. Ted couldn’t help himself… as no other group was performing, and since it was so near to closing time, he got out his guitar and sang some folk music at the entrance to the Center. It was a great day!
We stayed at Fancy Gap (we think that nearly every town in the Appalachians has to have one of these words: knoll, gap, top, knob, ridge, holler…) which is a few yards off the Blue Ridge Parkway. On Thursday, we took a long ride north on the parkway and found one of the most photographed places: The Mabry Mill.
Look close, and you can see Sue, wearing red, in the window!
In addition to the beauty of the Parkway, we drove on several other county roads and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the country-side and homes of the people who live here. We stopped in the small town of Floyd. It is on the “Crooked Road” of Appalachian bluegrass music, and while no groups were performing on this Thursday afternoon, we sure enjoyed some good sandwiches at the Floyd Country Store. Our wine tasting at the Chateau Morrisette Winery was so fun and a great way to learn more about the history of this delightful area.
So glad you got to ride some of the New River bike trail. That is one of our favorites. We rode it all the way from Hillville to Galax and stayed in a nice BnB for the night. We need to ride it again!