Skyline Drive meets the Blue Ridge Parkway in Waynesville, VA. It continues for 465 miles, ending in Tennessee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is the last segment of our trip before we head for home. I don't think we will make it all the way to the end, but we're liking it so much here that you never know.
We left Big Meadows on Friday the 15th and traveled 142 miles to mile marker 86 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Peaks of Otter area and campground. While we thought the Peaks of Otter area was lovely, we weren't particularly impressed with the campground. The sites were small and unlevel, and the picnic table was down a steep hill from our site. Apparently we aren't the only ones who are unimpressed as it was practically empty on a Friday night in mid-summer. There was a very nice park service lodge next door with beautiful views of a little lake. We ate way too much at a seafood buffet there and tried to work it off with a walk around the lake.
The highlight of this stop was a day trip to Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Site. The park service has done a really good job of recreating the scene where, on April 9th, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the war of Northern Aggression...whoops, I must be back at Jeff Davis' house in Mississippi where we were almost three months ago and where the tour guide kept referring to "President Davis."
While we were in Shenandoah, we developed a problem with our generator, so we briefly left the parkway and spent Sunday night at a Country Inn and Suites in Roanoke, VA while we had it repaired. We were back on the parkway by 2pm and on to the next adventure.
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