Blue Ridge Parkway, Day 3

Monday, August 26 – The views just don’t stop.  Almost every overlook has another fantastic view.

Today we picked up the speed a little bit.  We’re still thoroughly enjoying the BRP, but we’ve gotten to the point where we slow down as we approach a scenic overlook, and if it doesn’t look like it could be the best view we’ve seen so far, we keep going.  After all, when including the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah, we’ve already driven over 300 miles on parkway at reduced speed.  However, we simultaneously glad and sad that the parkway is closed north of Asheville, which means that we’ll have to do the last 50 miles or so on local roads and the interstate. 

One overlook we didn’t want to miss was Jumpinoff Rock.  That just sounds fun – even though we don’t plan to jump.   Plus, it will allow us to stretch our legs a little bit with a ½ mile “hike” to the lookout. 

(I say “hike” in quotation marks, because Sandy is still wearing her wedge sandals.  However, that was a more sensible shoe choice than how we started off the morning.  Earlier at the B&B, I noticed that she had put on her paten leather dressy sandals to go with her dress.  My reaction: “What shoes are you wearing?!”  Her response, “What?  I wanted to look nice.”  You look fantastic, but this is the Blue Ridge Parkway, not Park Avenue! J  Then we laughed about the time when she put on her loafers when we were in Iceland on a day when we were taking a tour that involved a hike.  You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl!)

It was a beautiful panorama at Jumpinoff, and we saw a few hawks circling their prey in the valley below.