October 14, 2013. Page Two. A Fog Lifts From the Blue Ridge Parkway.

October 14, 2013.  Page Two.  A Fog Lifts From the Blue Ridge Parkway.  First, it was the United States Congress and POTUS who messed with our long-awaited trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Today, it was the elements.  After two days of rain, today the mountains were socked in by fog. 

We bypassed the first 100 miles of the Parkway by driving a highway which paralleled the Parkway.  When we finally got on the Parkway - well, the pictures tell the story.  Overlooks looked into the clouds.  There just wasn't much to see.  When we passed vistas into the Shenandoah Valley, there was no turn out, so we couldn't stop to take in the beauty.  Where there were turn outs, the view was completely obscured by the clouds. 

So it went for the next thirty miles.  Then, the clouds began to drift away.  Autumn's beauty was revealed.  The colors are not as deep nor as plentiful as they were in Vermont and New Hampshire.  However, it was beautiful all the same.  Who knows what the next few days will bring.  Perhaps, we'll see more.  Maybe, we're too early.  We'll see.  If we're too early here, we should be just right as we turn back north toward home.  

So, the first day of the Parkway drive is laid by.  By the end of the week, we will pop out near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We can hope the government shutdown will have ended by then and that we'll be permitted to cross the Park to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood.  But, if not, there is always another way to get there.  Truthfully, we don't mind missing Dollywood anyway.