Sister Trip 2010 Part Thirteen

PART THIRTEEN

Breakfast was a special occasion.  The sisters sat in the Willows Drawing Room along with another sibling couple, a brother and sister from the northeast.  They were all treated to a candle-lit three-course breakfast of cranberry muffin and fruit, soufflé of grits and spinach, and biscuit with jam.

Sueann and Kathy left the Wright Inn relaxed and ready for the next leg of their journey, The Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Blue Ridge Parkway begins at the southern end of the Skyline Drive and it's terminus is in western North Carolina in the Great Smokey Mountains.   They were doing a short distance of the almost 500 miles of parkway.  They entered the parkway just north of Ashville, Virginia and stopped at the Folk Art Center and Allanstand Craft Shop.  There Sueann found a few treasures including a hand crafted cornhusk magnolia she got for each of them as a remembrance of their trip together. They could have spent hours there watching the craftsmen and women, but they were on a time schedule today so hurried along.

They stopped to enjoy the vistas of Lane Pinnacle, Craggy Gap,  and Ridge Junction. At one grand vista, Yadkin Valley Overlook, they stopped and enjoyed their lunch of left over bright green salad.  One more stop at Linn Cove Viaduct Visitor Center before they got off the parkway at Blowing Rock.  

They drove through town but decided time was of the essence and continued back on the Parkway to Deep Gap where another adventure began. First on US route 221 they traveled northwest to route 16.  Victoria picked a route off of 16 so we followed her advise and soon the road narrowed and had no divide line.  The next turn took us on a gravel road up the mountain.  Soon the turn was onto a dirt road and into what looked like a driveway.  The sisters decided to ignore Victoria and turned around.  

While talking with Forrest on the cell phone a small doe walked across the road!  The sisters found a truck stopped at an intersection with a ranger on the cell phone and asked direction to Marion.  She said you could not follow a GPS here and many roads were unmarked.  She directed us to turn around and following her directions we made our way right into the main street of Marion.