QC01-16 The Final Leg

March 27, 2010 (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (3) 32/61° - A cold start but it warmed up nicely. Well, relatively nicely. 61° isn't warm but it felt warm after the cold earlier. Bob and Pat took us out to Big Pines, the real mountains area of North Carolina. At least that's what it seemed to us. This whole area has winding hilly roads but as we turned off onto increasingly narrow roads the hills became steeper and the curves sharper until even the Blazer we were riding in struggled to continue on. While there are some nice homes scattered here and there most are what you might expect in the these mountains. The number of falling down homes, barns and assorted out buildings was astounding. We had to wonder about the people who built and owned them when they were new. Were they excited about their new homes and their life ahead? Or were they relieved to finally have a water proof shelter. Were they happy, sad, tired? Life couldn't have been easy for them in any case. We also had to wonder about the people who build and live there now - many, if not most, of them for the isolation rather than economy.

March 28, 2010 (Palm Sunday) Mars Hill, NC (4) 49/54° - Today was the day the Bishop came to visit Bob and Pat's church. There were, as usual with such visits, festive activities before and after the service. Though we didn't get involved in many of them, we enjoyed seeing the people at the main morning worship service. We've gotten to know many of them quite well. This afternoon Mark and Bob went with Robertjohn to Steve's home for a 2 hour country jam session -2 guitars, a banjo, a fiddle, and a bass. Great fun!

March 29, 2010 (Mon) Mars Hill, NC (5) 44/62° - Joy and Pat went to Walmart this morning essentially to pick up some Hot and Spicy Kraft mayonnaise - we haven't been able to find it in any of the dozens of food stores we've been in this winter - but picked up some other things as well. Later we helped Pat replenish their ready stock of wood - they heat their home almost exclusively with their fire place. John and Marti came over for dinner and Dominoes in the evening. Otherwise it was a day to hang out.

Q060210 Bob & Pat's driveway
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March 30, 2010 (Tue) Mars Hill, NC to Winchester, VA (395/4425 miles) 42/61° - We got off at about 8:45 (42°) and headed north into the mountains bound for home again. The weather was damp and dreary, as it was the last time we were on this road, but the mountains were beautiful, reaching for the low hanging clouds. At 9:04 we topped the gap (elev. 3760 ft) and descended into Tennessee. This part of eastern Tennessee is known for its barn quilts - we picked up a brochure locating many of them, which we will have to find someday - but we only saw two visible from the highway.

I-81 is always heavy with trucks, mostly 18 wheelers, and today was no exception. In addition to the constant flow past us, we passed several "Trucks Only" rest areas full to overflowing with them. Truck parking in one far too small rest area in Virginia was so full that we took a chance and went into the lot posted for cars only. We usually don't have a problem parking with the cars, Q is only slightly longer that a big car or pickup, but the spaces in this rest area were so small that we hung a long way into the drive lane. We decided to go on. The next area was much less crowded. In the rest area area just south of Radford, VA, where we decided to stop for lunch, trucks spilled out onto the approach roads so, again, we joined the cars.  but the car spaces here were long enough for us to fit. Although they weren't supposed to be there, we watched several long units, pickups with trailers, motor homes towing, etc., come into the car area and park along the side of the drive lane. We were lucky one of them was not behind us when we were ready to back out to leave.

Spring is definitely coming to Virginia. Yellow forsythia brightened an otherwise rather dull landscape all along the way and as we drove north, azaleas, red bud and flowering fruit trees joined the display. Many of the trees were beginning to show a frosting of pale green buds. And the day ended with a gorgeous red sunset, beautiful even though it was over a Walmart parking lot full of overnighting RVs.

Q060605 Camp Walmart Winchester, VA
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March 31, 2010 (Wed) Winchester, VA to Home (295/4720 miles) 45/61° - Up at 6:30 and off at 7:15 (45°) There was a beautiful sunrise to go with the sunset last night - and a full moon setting. After our traditional last-day-on-the-road breakfast at McDonald's we got back on I-81 and headed for home.

8:07 crossed the state line into West Virginia (45°)
8:37 crossed the Potomac River into Maryland (51°)
8:50 crossed into Pennsylvania (49°)

For the last couple of days we've been seeing sand colored Hummvees and similar vehicles on flat bed trucks passing southbound and northbound there have been many oversize loads most of which looked like beams and preformed concrete roadway for bridges. No relationship that we know of but interesting.

10:00 stopped at Carlisle, PA to dump our holding tanks and fill up with gas. (55°)

We'd forgotten about how crazy some of the drivers are in the greater New York metropolitan area (eastern PA, northern NJ, etc.). The closer we got to New York the crazier the driving was - usually peppy little (pseudo-sports) cars zipping in and out of traffic to gain a car-length or two.

3:17 home (58°)

Q060900 Home