Blue Ridge Parkway - Day 6 - July 7, 2022

 

My motorcycle seat is still wet from two days of rain. It is made from alligator skin. How can it be wet? Gators live in water, and they don't get wet. It is one of life's mysteries. 

Skyline Drive is a continuation of the Blue Ridge Parkway - it is effectively the same road. But Skyline has a 35 mph speed limit (compared to 45 mph on the BRP). It has fog lines on the roadway, a center stripe, and passing is permitted. They also charge a fee at either end, but there are two interim entrances where there is no fee station. 

We saw much of the same scenery as with the BRP. 




Buttercup found a lookout with a rock outcropping. He was in heaven. 









There is a lodge and visitor center mid-way. Buttercup is a retail animal, and we could not get him out of the gift shop. 


Skyline Drive was built by the CCC - a Roosevelt era/depression era jobs program that built much of the national parks, and is part of the national treasure which is the National Park Service. The benefits of that program live to this day.



There was significant time spent on navigation. 



And some times, we could not agree or get it right. 


We pulled into Front Royal, Virginia and it was time to feed Magellan. If he does not eat on a schedule, he gets hangry. Nobody wants that, and we were now ten minutes beyond our lunch window. 



While the Front Royal civil war battle is not as famous as others, it was still very significant. Recall that we stopped at Lincoln's birthplace, and we were close to traveling to Appomattox Court House (site of the surrender) - but for the rain. With all of this yankee-palooza, and with the significance of the Stonewall Jackson campaign, we always intended to see the civil war exhibits relating to Front Royal. But there aren't any. They tout a driving tour, but all of the old structures mentioned in the driving tour are gone! Why wouldn't they mention that? Regardless, it was a very nice drive. 



There is a Confederate memorial:


There is also a train caboose. 

It did not rain today. We'll see about tomorrow, as we head off to Parkersburg, West Virginia. We had a short day, 142 miles.

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