I have now sufficiently recovered from the ordeal of blog title choice that I feel able to begin recounting our adventures.
Our final stop before departure was Bodo's Bagels, a worthy pilgrimage for any Charlottesvillian like myself. So away we went, Bodo's at our back, bagels on our fronts, and the open road stretching out before us long and windy, like a very long and windy thing.
Storm clouds had gathered over the North Carolina border, and we drove into a rush of rain as dusk fell. We made it to the Flintlock campground just outside of Linville, NC by 10pm or so, and set up our tent by a splashing creek under the auspices of a chilly, spitting rain. Our night was cozy, though, once we'd wrangled our gear and got in our sleeping bags.
Our last morning in Appalachia dawned bright despite the previous night's gloom, with fantastical cumulous clouds ambling intermittently across the sky like a herd of albino elephants.
That day was a wonderland of autumnal Appalachian splendor.
 |
| Such autumnal! Very fall! Wow. |
 |
| We hiked to Linville Falls! |
 |
| We saw this mushroom! |
 |
| We saw trees! |
 |
| David jumped around! |
 |
| So did Laura! |
After the descent from Linville Falls, we drove all the way to Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road linking Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smoky Mountains, stopping only for views and, once, a flock of about twenty wild turkeys.
 |
| An overlook view along the Parkway. Thanks, FDR! |
And with that, we bid our native fields and hills adieu, off to chase the great unknown.
(And by the great unknown, I mean a Days Inn just south of Atlanta.)
