Salem

Asheville, NC to Salem, VA. We got up this morning and drove down the road a piece to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway is a little busy in the mornings. I think that is because Ashevllians use it to commute from the southwest side of town to the northeast, or vice versa, because there are no lights. So what if you can’t go 70 MPH like on I-240, there are no trucks or merging traffic every mile, just a tree lined, windy 45 MPH cruise.

We stopped at the Folk Life Center just outside of town to get a map of the Parkway, but we were way early because they didn’t open until 9:00AM. So we took a little stroll on a nature path. When that left us still 10 minutes until opening, we got in the car and left. Forty miles later we stopped at the Crabtree Meadows facility to get that map and a Coke. Turns out there is a trail right there for a short hike to the Crabtree Falls. It is a loop, with one segment to the falls listed at .9 miles and the other being 1.6 miles. What they don’t mention is that it is a half-mile to the beginning of the loop. We took the shorter path to the falls and boy was it interesting, steep, rocky, and full of roots and all downhill. The 70′ falls were definitely worth the walk though and seemed taller than yesterday’s 90′ Pearson’s Falls. We hiked back the long way and that is the way to do it, the trail was a whole lot less rocky and because it was longer, it was less steep.

When we got back to the car after our 3-1/2 mile hike, we looked at the clock, looked at the map and decided that our best option was to go get something to eat at the “Snack Bar” right there. The food wasn’t the greatest, but it was better than the other option, drive 20 miles further on the Parkway, get off and drive 20 miles to Morganton, VA. When we finally did get in the car to start moving again, Donna remarked that we had so far gone 40 miles in 4 hours. With still 200 to go to our destination, we had better get cracking.

The Blueridge Parkway is a beautiful drive and a national treasure, but you can’t be in a hurry. We drove another 65 miles before we couldn’t take the slow pace any more and exited at Deep Gap. Sixty miles of US and State highways lead us to I-81 for the last 70 miles to Salem, VA.

Salem was chosen, like Asheville last night, for the presence of a minor league baseball team and like last night, we didn’t attend the game. By the time we got to the hotel it was 6:00PM and with the game starting at 7 there was no way we could eat and make the start. Plus we were tuckered out from the long day in the car and the strenuous hike to the waterfall. Donna wanted seafood so we found a place not too far from the hotel called Awful Arthurs. It is a local 3-location chain and while the food was not actually awful it was certainly not worth the $40 it cost the two of us to eat there.