By Shelby
This week was pretty slow. The weather was great, in the 70s and sunny all week in Asheville, North Carolina. For some reason, all the libraries were closed on Mondays in Asheville. We drove to a nearby town to work from their public library Monday. After work, we went to a local southern food restaurant called the Moose Cafe. I got North Carolina mountain trout, cheese grits, and collard greens. Spencer got meatloaf, ham, mac and cheese, and chicken and dumplings. We both had biscuits with apple butter. It was all very good.
Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked from the University of North Carolina Asheville library. They had much better hours than the public libraries. The campus was beautiful. All the flowers were blooming and everything was green. After work, we relaxed and watched movies.
Thursday, we drove 8 hours north to Culpeper, Virginia. Half of the drive was on the Blue Ridge Parkway. To break up the long drive, we made a few stops for short hikes. The first hike went up to a viewpoint from the top of a mountain. It was a little hazy, but still very nice. Our next stop was an overlook of Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet. The next hike was after our lunch stop. Again, we walked a short trail up to a viewpoint.
Our last stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway was the Linn Cove Viaduct, one of the most famous locations on the road. We walked a trail that went under the viaduct and continued on past it. We were able to get the postcard photo of the viaduct by going down a side trail and climbing up a rock. After that, we drove on a few more hours to Virginia.
Friday, we went on a 10 mile hike up Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. The first few miles of the trail went through the woods under the trees. Then it opened up into an interesting bouldering section. We had to climb up and down massive boulders and through narrow crevasses. It was very cool.
There was a very weird looking boulder along the trail. It looked wrong and unnatural. Of course we had to take a picture of it. After that, the views started getting good. We were walking along a ridge now, as we approached the mountain peak.
The top of the mountain was very crowded with people. I couldn’t imagine how busy it was on weekends. There were large groups of middle schoolers on a field trip, apparently. It wasn’t exactly peaceful up there. But the view was great. We could see the mountains in all directions. We ate lunch before heading back down the mountain. It was getting very hot out by then, and we were very glad we were going downhill. We drove back to Culpeper and stopped at Planet Fitness to shower before getting Chipotle for dinner. We hung out at a park and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Saturday, we went grocery shopping and then drove north three hours to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We stopped at Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey. Along the drive, it started hailing and raining really hard. It was a complete white out. We had to pull over for a while until we could see again. Hershey’s Chocolate World was very busy. We did the free ride that explained how their chocolate was made. Then we walked around the gift shop for a bit before heading out to Planet Fitness back in Harrisburg.
Sunday, we spent the day at a library. Spencer’s allergies were pretty bad, so it was probably good to spend the day inside. We worked on the website and then played video games. Next week is our last week on the road. We will work from Harrisburg before driving north back into New York.
Fun Facts from Week 52:
- It takes 270 cocoa beans to make 1 pound of Hershey chocolate.
- There are 200 scenic overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which spans 469 miles.
4 responses to “Week 52”
You made it 52 weeks… Will miss the blog!
It’s definitely been an adventure! It will feel weird not writing a blog post every week.
Wow! 52 weeks. I will miss your blog. I enjoyed every week of your trip.
Thank you! It’s been fun!