212/365 - Vacation, 1st Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2011 - Day 7

One last view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We had actually planned to take two days, Saturday and Sunday, to drive home on the highway. We realized that we had forgotten to get Kristen and Mark magnets from the parkway (we usually bring them home magnets from our vacations and vice versa). Our plan was to get on the parkway at Roanoke, VA, get the magnets and get back on the highway. I think we both didn’t really want to leave, and we ended up staying on the parkway from mile post 119 to the end, and then the whole Skyline Dr. (105 miles).

At 8 p.m we stopped for dinner at Skyland Lodge, an old resort lodge with a beautiful view of the mountains.

While we were waiting to be seated I was commenting to Paul that I liked this picture of a bear.



The hostess came by and she had obviously overheard me saying that. She said she had taken the picture while the bear was in a tree (with a long lens - lol). She must have taken a liking to us because she put us at a window table right away (it was very crowded). We left there at about 10 pm and then had a 40 mile drive down the mountain in the rain. I was glad to get to the Center City Motel. I told Paul I felt like we were home (we had started out from there last Sunday night).

Tomorrow it really is home all the way on the highway!