14Apr10(Wed) – Driving, KY to BRP Virginia

We still had a bit of Kentucky to drive through in the morning. How are we handling all the driving? Derek has developed a multiple personality disorder. He kept speaking with a drawl. I told him to stop taking photos while he’s driving and in a belligerent southern accent, he told me he can multitask – “I cin draaahve and ah cin take photos and ah cin listen to muuusic and ah cin spit and chew gum awwl at the sayme tahme – whereas YOU cin’t even do two things at waaaahnce. That’s rahhhhight. You cin’t even cook and shut up at the same taaaayme.” I just rolled my eyes, and tried not to encourage him by laughing. He went on for quite awhile. Finally he asked me an Atlas question (still in character) and I told him I wouldn’t answer it until he spoke normally, which you could tell was an effort for him to remember how to do.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Hazard, because we liked the name. We found the Riverview Diner, definitely alongside water, but, considering there were no windows on that side of the building, not much of a view. The place was worn in but endearing, flowered scalloped curtains framed the windows, ripped red carpeting lined the floor, and an old couple ate in companionable silence at one of the brown formica laminate tables. Our efficient and friendly waitress had a halo of curled hair. She spoke with a drawl, called us both honey, and told us ‘coffee was a brewin’. I just knew the food was going to be good. At the table, Derek kept slipping back into his drawl, just a little too loudly for my comfort, and I kept kicking him under the table. They probably would have thought he was making fun of them, and it seemed too hard to explain he was just slightly demented. Finally, and not too softly, he switched to a haughty British accent. “I do say, I suppose this is much bettah.” Sometimes, I wish I could sit at the next table.

And then….more driving. A few miles of West Virginia, and east into Virginia, though keeping to the back roads led us on a tortuous route. Sometimes, Derek’s muscles would cramp from having to hold the steering wheel so tightly from one turn to the next, and I would begin to feel nauseous even trying to peek an eye at the Atlas while being thrown from side to side by sharp curves.

But we persevered, bit of windy road by bit of windy road, wending our way towards home, and by evening, we reached our goal for the day – the Blue Ridge Parkway, whose mountains, due to some trick of trees and atmosphere, actually look blue. We didn’t get very far before we lost the light, and since we wanted to drive the Parkway in the day, we began looking for a place to stay. The parkway itself, at the point we were at, cuts through a National Forest, so there weren’t many options. Using pockets of civilization and service, we looked up via blackberry unique, historic places to spend the night in nearby towns, but nothing came up that had a free room. We were just about to pull off at the closest town ten miles off the path, when we hit the Peaks of Otter, which has a Lodge on the Parkway. We thought it a sign of continuing good luck, and didn’t even care that they didn’t have their restaurant open.

We carried stuff to our room, and were both a bit taken aback at its starkness. In fact, from the outside it looked a bit like a concrete prison. We had to laugh at the bare, unadorned concrete walls and stark furniture. What a room for our last night! We didn’t really care though. We were just happy to have a conveniently located place to stay. We dug our cooler out of the car for the first time in a week and opened it just long enough for an awful stench to escape. We quickly shut it, not wanting to look at what might have become of hotdogs, eggs and veggie burgers after a week of no ice.

As there was of course no microwave, I made do with ramen noodle soup slightly softened by moderately warm water, and Derek slathered some questionable organic peanut butter on two week old bread, with jelly. It was quite the feast. For the first time of the trip we decided to watch a movie. Derek offered me a few choices, mentioning that he had wanted us to see Steven Spielberg’s first film, ‘Duel’ on the trip. I like ‘The Bearded One’ so I was happy to watch Duel. Until I realized it was about endless scenes of driving and car chasing. I’m not a huge fan of car chases in the first place, but an hour and a half of it, after having spent days upon days staring out the window of the car, was a bad combination for me. I ended up fast forwarding through the last fifteen minutes because I simply couldn’t stand to look at the road or people driving anymore. If you like cars, and Spielberg, then you’d probably like this film, but I was happy when the last crash was done.

We woke up in the morning to a gorgeous view of the Peaks of Otter over Abbot Lake. There are many options for fishing and hiking, and it’s definitely the appeal of the lodge – its spectacular location. With that kind of view and access, who cares about the room? It’s functional, and that’s all that matters. A quick breakfast at the lodge, and we headed off for our last day of driving.

Caption:

1. Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

2. View from a pulloff at the BRP in Virginia

3. Derek, just a little crazy

4. Peaks of Otter from our back door at the Lodge, on the morning of 15Apr10

5. Back entrance to our room at the Lodge

6. Our room

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