I went about halfway through the Blue Ridge Parkway today. It's a beautiful road and it's been fun so far. I enjoyed stopping at some of the vistas and noticing small dots of far-off towns or mansions!

I like the history: construction started on September 11, 1935 (so another good 9/11 thing!), and employed a lot of folks through New Deal programs. Funnily enough, the Wikipedia page points out that there was an extension proposed that would have gone down to Marietta, GA, and that deal was killed by Congress on the 50th anniversary of the construction start date... and also, a complicated bridge (the Linn Cove Viaduct) had its ribbon cutting on 9/11/1987.

I didn't expect the parkway to have so many tunnels! They are even darker than the ones I commented about from out west! Also, I learned that the trick of honking the horn in the tunnel for the echo really doesn't work well with curvy tunnels.

I stopped for a stretch at a rest stop on the road and faintly saw a fleeting rainbow, but when I walked around a bit, it was gone. Later on -- and I'm not sure if it was an illusion because of the tree cover or what, but a rainbow ended on the road. I didn't spot a pot of gold, and I also didn't end up in Brigadoon by going through it.

I saw numerous deer as the day turned to evening. One was a baby that was barely bigger than a lab dog, and it wouldn't cross the road in front of me to get to its mama, so she went back to it.

I'm staying just up the road from Galax, VA, which is the home of the Old Fiddlers' Convention, which I'll miss by two months. The Little Theater showed a documentary (Fiddlin') about this a while back and it looked like a really amazing event, even though there was clear concern from community members that the tradition could stop being passed on because young people were less interested in learning the instruments and music, and it's basically not recorded or scored.

Oh, and this truck was too awesome to not share: