Today, we left Montebello and headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weather was sunny and clear. Our destination is Fancy Gap, about the half-way point of the Parkway. There were several turnouts that had some beautiful views.

The first turnout that we came to was the Roanoke River Overlook. When the parkway was built, I'm sure they must have had a perfect view of the river. However, years later, the trees have grown, so we could only view the river through the trees.
 

Our next stop was at the Devils Backbone Overlook. As you can see, we have climbed over 1,700 feet in altitude. The view was fantastic. This is the Blackwater River Valley on the eastside of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  
 


This was a very relaxing drive and seemed uneventful. There were flowering trees of all variety, farms and villages along the way. The Blue Ridge Parkway was built after the area had been settled, so unlike the Shenandoah Skyline Drive that is in a national park, the scenery here includes a lot more cattle, farms and old abandoned barns and houses.


It wasn't until we entered the town of Floyd that the excitement began. We saw a Mexican restaurant where we decided to have lunch. Right across the street was a large section of the curb which would fit our truck nicely. There was a highway sign, partly covered by a tree branch ~ but hey, it was perfect, I thought. As I pulled next to the curb and into the parking spot, we realized that I had hit the highway sign and it was now wedged against our trailer. What to do? Well, first, we tried to find a policeman to report it. But Andy and Barney must have been having lunch at Aunt Bea's. The owner of a store came out who owned the car directly ahead of us and agreed to move his car so I could try to "unwedge" the sign. All I managed to do was scrape the sign down the side of the trailer despite how much I cranked the steering wheel to the left. I couldn't back up because the aluminum sign was bent and wedged against the awning arm and the seal on our livingroom slideout. Humility felt sooooo good at this point!!!!! It was almost my refuge! :-) We ate lunch and left "Mayberry"!
 

After leaving Floyd, we resumed driving down the Blue Ridge. Our last vista point was at Rock Castle Gorge. The sign has very interesting history of the gorge. As we left this lookout, we passed through a meadow area where several farms had been settled and are still in operation.


We looked for our next campground which was the Fancy Gap (name of the town) Cabins & Campground. It was a very nice place and very inexpensive. We paid $17 a night with full hookups. After eating dinner and writing a blog entry, we went to bed. At 1 a.m., Sharon woke me up to bring the awning in. The wind was howling and rocking the trailer. Rain was pelting the trailer. I pulled in the electric awning as fast as the motor would bring it in. Rain was coming in through the vents we have in the roof. So, I went around and closed them, along with the windows, just in case. Then the lightning and thunder started. It was quite the show! Our camping site was at the top of the drive and we were clearly a target for lightning! Roxie was going nuts, so I put her in bed with us. She got under the covers, but still jumped at the crack of thunder. With trailer still rocking from the wind, rain pelting our bedroom window and the occasional flash of lightning and crack of thunder and praying God to protect us, we fell back asleep....even Roxie.