Roadkill

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 15 Oct 2013 02:36

Monday 14th October

 

Bit of a slow start today and we were not back on the road until just after 1000 hours. This was mainly due to us walking back into Roanoake for a coffee first thing.  The covered walkway from the hotel that crosses the railway tracks had been cleaned after a fashion, but sadly the pools of blood from something rather dramatic that happened the previous evening were still there.  (I forgot to mention them yesterday) I also forgot to mention the railway tracks (overlooked by the hotel) which when we arrived in the late afternoon had a huge freight train rolling through the town. The same train was still rolling through 35 minutes later!!  Fortunately it was the only one and so we were not disturbed during the night at all.

 

We sped our way down the highway for 100 plus miles to re-join the Blue Ridge Pathway at Blowing Rock. Along the way Sarah continued the distraction that she started yesterday which was to try to identify the various items of roadkill! There should be an I-Spy book to help you identify the various species and how they look after being modified by a monster  truck and trailer, or just the average SUV. Yesterday we did sadly get our own squirrel  to add to the list, but in addition we saw, racoons, possum and a black bear! Today we saw much the same and goodness knows how long the various wild turkeys we saw on the BRP were going to survive as they seem to have little understanding of how to get over/under crash barriers!  Further entertainment was provided by the excellent FM radio that is broadcast from every major town along the way. We were slightly taken aback by one which seemed to specialising in Christmas songs until an advert interrupted the music to claim that it was the top station for music for Bar Mitzvahs.  Interesting mix!

 

Once again our trip was rather blighted by the weather which continued to produce low cloud along a lot of the glorious drive along the crest of the mountains. But every so often we were treated to stunning views across the long open valleys carpeted in the dramatic autumn colours of the fall. But these sights never coincided with Overlooks (parking spots) and so our photography was mostly frustrated again today.

 

We ended up in Weaverville which is a few miles outside Ashville where we had pre-booked a room in a B & B which turned out to be great. We walked into the small town and had Fish and Chips (well they call it that, but serve fries because chips are – crisps in our world!)