Wed. Oct. 27: We heard rain coming and going all night but the temperature remained in the low 60s. We ate a quick breakfast and closed up the camper during a lull in the light rain. Just as we finished it really poured so we felt quite grateful to have avoided that! Back on the parkway it rained fitfully but most of the time we didn’t have much trouble with visibility. The overlooks were not as spectacular as we had anticipated until we came to ….There we were afforded a breathtaking view of the far below valley and the mountains beyond to the east. It felt like we were on top of the world. From then on we were treated to many other nice overlooks. We were now following what they call the Crest of the Blue Ridge and there were places where the land fell abruptly on both sides of the road. We left the Parkway at Roanoke to get lunch. We found the SoRo (South Roanoke?) Chill and Grill and had a nice lunch. But my wrap had avocado with some bad spots in it which tainted the taste of one half. When the waitress asked how our wraps were I showed her the black avocado. After talking to the kitchen she offered me a free dessert. So we all shared a big piece of peanut butter cheesecake. Yum! We continued north on the Parkway and stopped at a Visitors Center with a 20 foot topographical map of the Parkway, which helped orient us all. We spent some time looking at their displays and talking to a Park Ranger. This area used to be a bigger display of old buildings called Park Explore but none of it seems to be opened anymore. An interesting thing was that a production company out of Atlanta was there making a nonfiction movie about settler’s daughters who had been kidnapped by Cherokees and we saw some of the actors in make-up. Although the rain had mostly stopped and we had enjoyed some mostly sunny periods while we were in the Center there was a terrific downpour. When we came out the sun was again shining. We left the camper and truck at one of the overlooks near the Visitors Center and we all took the steep and winding drive up Roanoke Mountain in Jan and Lou’s van. It had some nice vistas but not any nicer than what we had seen already. Back on the Parkway we drove up and down between 1000 and 3000 feet with the truck averaging about 14 miles per gallon, in stark contrast to the 17 miles per gallon we had until we got to the mountains. We stopped at many overlooks and took a short hike to see the Roanoke River Gorge. At one point Jan and Lou just missed hitting a deer. Later on we had a buck run across in front of us, but it wasn’t as close as theirs. We pulled over at one overlook where we could also walk on the Appalachian Trail, which was now crossing back and forth over the Parkway in places. As we returned to the truck we saw a gorgeous rainbow over the mountain in front of us. For the next 5 miles or so we were driving right towards that rainbow. We set-up for the night when we got to “Peaks of Otter” campground around 6:00. As we pulled in an 8 point buck calmly watched us from next to the road before turning and walking away. We were all alone until one other camper joined us. The campgrounds are nearly shut down at this time of year and we haven’t been able to get water from the spigots. But the bathrooms with cold running water are still open. We started a fire and were content to snack on crackers and cheese and fruit, since we had had large sandwiches at lunch. The sky cleared off and filled with stars and we were ready for bedtime about 10:00. It had been another richly satisfying day on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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