It is time for us to leave Cherokee and go north. Today's and the next 3 night's destination is Roanoke, Virginia.
Blue Ridge Parkway's southern end is 5 minutes away from our motel in Cherokee and that's the preferred route for where we are heading.
Looking back at the Great Smoky Mountains from the beginning of Blue Ridge Parkway.
We are heading up and up into the Smokies and for significant parts of the journey we are literally driving into the clouds. Visibility is not great and we somewhat slowly follow the yellow line in the middle, hoping that no animal would attempt a sudden kamikaze in front of our car.
At times, it cleared up a bit and we can take some photos not being 99% white. Here is a shot from one of many outlooks from the southern part of Blue Ridge Parkway.
We threw in a self portrait for the heck of it. Yep, it is windy all right.
Plenty of tunnels abound as the Parkway cuts through the mountains. The approaches looked pretty much the same as per the next two shots.
A long distance shot of Di, waiting for Hans to finish his tunnel photography.
Well, we leave the Parkway after 2 hours and having driven only 60 miles. We need to get another 240 miles in driving done so we head to the Interstate 81. Its surprisingly quite scenic and we leave North Carolina and enter Tennessee (again) for a while and then into Virginia.
We stop at this traveller centre just inside Virginia off I81 to have our lunch (sandwiches which we brought with us).
Many highways or interstates are dedicated to somebody or something. This section of I81 as per below...
We are 40 miles south of Roanoke and the I81 truck traffic becomes very heavy so we do a quick right turn when we see a sign back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We go via some cute farming towns called Floyd and Check (that name led to a lot of corny puns!) and we get back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is close to our destination and shows Roanoke Valley.
Almost there. Di looks happy. It's been a long drive and, for her, some moments of nausea with the winding mountain roads.
We find our Super 8 motel is Daleville just outside Roanoke and just off I81 and settle in. Literally next to our motel is Rancho Viejo Mexicana, obviously a Mexican cantina, and that sounds like a great option for dinner. We also get a 10% discont if we tell them we are staying at Super 8.
Yep, Hans looks happy with his Dos Equis...
And Di's margarita was not bad at all...
For food, Fajitas Texana. Excellent and great value for dinner for two with drinks for $30.
We stumble back to our motel happy and very very full. Good night.
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