h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Peaks of Otter Campground- Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia – 29 August, 2006

We drove up to a high overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway last night to pick up cell signals for the phone and for h2g2 on the laptop. In the dark, I drop the laptop’s inverter into a cup of cranberry juice and tonic water. When I plug the wet inverter into the cigarette lighter of the Toyota it blows a 15 amp fuse. We need the Toyota lighter receptacle to power its braking system air pump when it is under tow. The fuse is impossible to fix in the dark. In the morning I locate the fuses (bless Toyota for including a fuse puller and spare fuses) and buy a new inverter at Wal-Mart…The whole regrettable incident was certainly Mrs. Phred’s fault for leaving the cup on the console, an obvious trap in which to drop the inverter.

We drive the Blue Ridge after dark for nearly 100 miles and catch dozens of deer, badgers, a possum and a skunk in the headlights. The speed limit on this beautiful road is 45 MPH…no commercial vehicles allowed. I took some shots of Roanoke after dark from a mountain top. The 500 mile road was constructed as a make-work project on orders from President Roosevelt during the depression. It’s lined with hardwoods which must be even more spectacular in the fall.

We saw the National D-Day memorial in Bedford today. It can’t compare to the roses, white crosses, sea view and statuary in the American cemetery in Normandy. More boys from Bedford (per capita) were lost from the 116th infantry division than from any other American community.

We drive on to Lynchburg…Mrs. Phred asks me innocently if the name comes from lynching people...I hum "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday…. But I suspect that the town is named for a man…probably a man who made a difference….There is almost certainly is a man named Lynch in the city history…The local High School football team possibly carries on his name as the “Lynchburg Raiders” or the “Lynchburg Patriots”. Maybe he operated a tavern for tired travelers….perhaps a bawdy house… I hope he is not a banker or a merchant…or a tobacco planting slave owner… I imagine a Colonel John Lynch raising and training a local militia and organizing an insurgency with hatchets and flintlocks against the hated redcoats…sowing the local roads with improvised explosive devices…or maybe a Doctor Thomas Lynch fighting tuberculosis and yellow fever with soldiers from both sides in a quarantined hospital in unimaginable conditions during the Civil War….sawing off blackened gangrenous limbs and comforting the dying.

We visit a winery in the remote hills of Appalachia. The wines are what one would consider dessert wines, made from a variety of fruits and even hot chili peppers…personally I prefer Sauvignon Blanc, but I buy six bottles of pear, blueberry and apple wines. They still fly a tattered Confederate flag here...and display other politically incorrect symbols.

Here are some pictures; including the promised symbolic wave to Skankyrich from the 2,175 mile Appalachian walking trail…I didn’t walk the whole thing… Yet.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=553587626

What's the odd moat/fountain/wet thing?

So that's Appalachia? Do try to find some hairy farmers in overalls who think it's still 1932 living in a backwater cabin and trying to catch FDR on their newfangled radio.

The moat/fountain/wet thing is part of the D-Day memorial....

I'll look for toothless banjo players.

I hope those mountains aren't owned by coal mining companies.

Phantastic!

The Skanky Wave is on my wall, to remind me that somewhere in my mind is an Appalachian dream and that these wild places are fairly accessible. You never know, one day...

Thanks for the thought; I really do appreciate it

Weren't those neat pictures? As usual, Phred has taken us on one of his fantastic journeys. Thanks be to Phred.

Hi Mr. and Mrs. Phred,

What a beautiful Appalachian Trail.

Those old farm tractors and ploughs look so forlorn just abandoned.
I presume that the tall wooden buildings are the tobacco barns.

Sorry about the problem with something falling into a cup of something!. How fortunate that you knew what to do.

War memorials are such sad places. Was the plan of Omaha beach on a plaque?

Each time you mention something like that and I remember something else about it. Actually about a place in Cornwall on the river Fal where Eisenhower had his HQ. I always go and have lunch at his old HQ - which is now a restaurant, when I am down there. History just seeps through every inch of the place.

The weather looks as if it is being kind to you.
Incidentally why was that car so close to your large home in that photo?

It is always so good to hear from you.

Christiane

That close car is one we are towing...it is referred to as a dinghy by the community of full time travellers....

Thanks Phred.

One lives and learns.!

Very sensible!.
Hope you are enjoying the wander around.
I guess that if I were you two I would make that my way of life until I had explored all of your beautiful country!.

Regards.
Christiane.