Page 98 - USA ROAD TRIP SUMMER of 2000

demonstrating quilting and basket making. I’m always taken by

the ingenuity of construction and mechanics that people of that
age could imagine and produce with trees as their only resource.

As we left the parking lot, it rained! But it was a brief shower that
washed away the haze for a while and we were able to get some

of the long hoped for views of the valleys so far below. What a
genius and “crazy” idea it was to conceive a park system as a road

along the tops of a mountain range for almost 600 miles at a time
in American history when the populace was “conquering” and

“taming” nature to the needs of man. Thank goodness we had
men like Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Stuart

Udall and Harold Ickes.

We are in Roanoke, Virginia for the night. For the past hour, the

thunder has been rolling down from the mountains to the east
and the rain has been coming down in sheets. We have heard hail

on the metal window ledge. They are putting emergency flash
flood warnings on the TV and have cancelled the Virginia Tech

football game for tonight. Heavens!! This must be serious. Perhaps
the rain will completely wash away the haze and we will have clear

skies tomorrow??

BLUE RIDGE NATIONAL PARKWAY

Monday - We got an early start with leaden skies overhead. But,
Lo and Behold, as we drove up the steep incline out of the

Roanoke Valley back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway we got above
the cloud cover into blue skies. It was a beautiful sight looking

down on the white fluffy clouds and eerie to hear the morning

traffic noises of the day coming up through the clouds.

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