Day One - MD to Atlanta

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<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">First day – June 27, 2013



Today started pretty early, got up at 4:15 and we were on the road by 5:00. The first few hours were rather uneventful driving out I-70 to I-81. Traffic was relatively light and a great change from fighting the hordes of people trying to get around DC. However, I-81 was loaded with trucks and after a while we got tired of driving around them or getting out of their way. Jill grabbed the map and found an alternate route for us – down a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The sky was extremely overcast and heavy fog hung in the valleys between blue-hued mountain ridges. It wasn’t the best day for sight seeing but driving the smooth-surfaced, twisting road was a fun experience. This might be a good place to mention that the new Caravan is a pleasure to drive and is the perfect vehicle for us and this type of road trip. The gas mileage is more than acceptable, topping out at 27 mpg on one of the Interstate legs today.

We passed a few interesting points along the Parkway. There was the Pucket house; home of a lady that bore 24 children, none of which lived past the age of two. In her forty’s she became a midwife and is credited with delivering over 1,000 babies.

We stopped at Mauby’s Mill. Mr. Mauby was a mountain engineer; designing and building a saw mill and blacksmith forge. His mill included various attachments to keep him busy when he wasn’t milling grain. He built a saw to cut boards, it used a three foot saw blade and a moveable cradle to hold the logs and move them past the saw blade. He also designed and dual blade jig saw – quite a unique tool.

As we continued our trip south on the Parkway we had a sort-of “deliverance” moment. We came around a bend on a curving, but flat, section and in front of us were two coonhounds standing in the center of the road. I, of course, stopped and waited for them to move out of the way. Well . . . they didn’t move, so I did. I slowly moved forward and they started barking at us. They moved in front of the car, at the front bumper; all I could see was the tip of their tails. If I moved left, they moved left; if I moved right . . . you guessed it. I couldn’t get away from them. This ordeal lasted at least 15 minutes, left, right, go, stop, right, left, etc. etc. etc. As soon as I tried to get by, one or the other would jump in front of the car to stop me. By this time we are about a half mile from het spot where this whole thing began.

It was obvious by now that my strategy wasn’t working so I went to Plan B: I stopped. I stopped and put on my four-way flashers and just parked in the road. After two or three minutes a van came down the road behind me, saw me stopped there and quickly went around me, sending the coonhounds to the side of the road. The van was closely followed by a Mazda (driving even faster) that sent them farther to the side. Seeing my chance for a get away, I hit the gas and took off. Fortunately there was no harm done and even though I kept look out of the corned of my eye, there was no overall-wearing, corn cob-pipe-smoking, shot gun-toting mountain man watching us.

Our lunch was an experience to remember. We ate at the Mayberry BBQ. I trailer along the road in the bustling metropolis of Fancy Gap, VA. The window of the trailer was much higher than a car window (or even our van window). So I yelled our order up to the guy sitting at the window, he told me the total was $13.45. To pay him, I put a $20 bill in a plastic cup which was inside a plastic soda case. Both of which were resting on a wooden ramp going up to the window. The guy then pulled a rope, pulling the tray, and my money, up to the window. Soon, my change, in the plastic cup, came sliding back down the ramp to me. When my order was ready, it too came sliding down the ramp to me. By the way, Jill’s BBQ sandwich and my hamburger were both very good.

Trivia Question: What famous TV star was born in Mt. Airy? Anybody? Anybody?

OK, I’ll tell you, Andy Griffith. His fictional town of Mayberry was modeled after his hometown of Mt Airy, VA. Fancy Gap is only a few miles from Mt Airy (remember the Mayberry BBQ?). We made a quick side trip to Mt. Airy. We walked Main Street and stopped to see Floyd’s Barber Shop.

Today we hit five states; MD, WV, VA, NC, SC, and GA. Tonight we are staying with friends about 30 minutes north of Atlanta. Among other things, we managed to find two Geocashes, one in NC and one in SC.

We bought gas for $3.12 although we saw some posted at $3.03, however, I think that was for cash only.

Thanks for reading our blog,

Don and Jill



(PS: Having trouble uploading pictures from my camera, will post them when I get it figured out.)

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Comments

[jay and pat]

coon hounds and Andy Griffith
Don and Jill, Your first day sounds like a good one. Thanks for the great play by play. Looking forward to your continued colorful writing. Jay and Pat.

[WeTravel]

You'd love it!
We're thinking of you often and know you would both be enjoying yourselves, well, most of the time - maybe not the room that smelled like stale cigarette smoke. Glad you are reading the blog and enjoying it. Don & Jill