We’re off on a road trip to Florida! After having searched for airline tickets, and finding no easy way to go, we decided to drive. We are taking 2 weeks to get to Venice, Florida where we’ll be visiting our dear friend Deeny for 10 days. Along the way, we’re going to stop at several places that Christine is interested in. She got hooked on an old TV series called Christy, which is based on the popular Catherine Marshall book about a young teacher who goes to a mission in the hills and hollows in the Tennessee/North Carolina area. In the series, Christy hails from Asheville and mentions Knoxville, so we have both places on our itinerary.
On Thursday, October 26, we left Binghamton for our longest, straight-through driving day ending in Front Royal, Virginia. We were on I-81 the whole way, leaving New York and passing through Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and into Virginia, 321 miles. With only a couple of rest stops, with one being a picnic lunch, we arrived in Front Royal, VA at around 4:00pm. The reason we picked Front Royal is because it is the location of the north entrance to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. Skyline Drive was something I wanted to do. We drove along Skyline Drive on Friday, October 27.
It’s peak leaf peeper season and so Skyline Drive was absolutely stunning. The Drive is 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Drive was built in the 1930s with much of the support work being done by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC), the program in the Depression that put people to work building infrastructure. The Drive is a winding route through the Blue Ridge Mountains that has many, many scenic overlooks. The fall colors were really glorious, although it was a bit of a hazy day so the scenic views across the mountains and valleys was a bit muted. We actual did see warning signs that there were wildfires in the area. I saw 3 plumes of smoke on a mountain in one area, but I don’t think the smoke contributed that much to the hazy. It was just a hot, hazy day.

There are some 76 scenic overlooks along Skyline Drive. The elevation along the ridge goes up and down from about 2,000 feet to nearly 4,000 feet. All of the overlooks are gorgeous with long-distance views across the valley or through gaps. We did pull off into several of the overlooks.






Even though the overlooks are spectacular, my favorite part is all the forest drive-throughs where the trees are right along the roadway.



We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Big Meadow visitor center. After lunch we walked through the displays about the formation of the Shenandoah National Park. The idea for the park began in 1924. I have never thought about all the land that needed to be obtained for the formation of our national parks. It’s a sad thing to think of all the families that were displaced. And apparently, a lot of the initiative for displacement came from a so-called study of the “hollow people,” that said these people couldn’t take care of themselves and needed to be relocated.
The park was dedicated by FDR in 1936 after 5 years of development. The work done by the CCC was pretty amazing. And the park, especially Skyline Drive, became immediately popular.


We left Skyline Drive about 2/3 of the way. Because we had stopped so many times to take in the view, we were running a little late to our stopover in Roanoke, VA. which was another 120 miles. I had planned that we would be off the road and to our stopover destination each driving day by 4:00pm so we needed to get a move on.
We spent an uneventful night in Roanoke, VA. We had our first stay in a Tru by Hilton hotel. We generally are Hampton Inn people, but we thought we’d try Tru for a change. They definitely have slimmed down accessories, no closet, no drawers, just a bunch of hooks and a long shelf across one wall of the room. There was just a tiny mobile desk that Christine used. Tru does include breakfast, so at least that was nice.

Saturday morning, October 28, we decided to see what downtown Roanoke looked like before heading to our next stopover. The tallest building in Roanoke is a Wells Fargo bank. Nearby was a Tudor-style large building that peaked our interest so we headed for that.


As we neared the Tudor building, we noticed a visitor center and museum, so in we went. The museum was about O. Winston Link. Christine wondered if he was a relative of Edwin Link, the blue box airplane simulator guy of Binghamton. No, he wasn’t. O. Winston Link was a famous photographer who spent much of his career in love with steam trains running mostly on the Norfolk and Western railway line. He made these incredible black and white photographs of trains. You wouldn’t think that was a thing you got famous doing, but Mr. Link was clearly an artistic master. We watched a wonderful film about Mr. Link, which was quite interesting, and then viewed many of his train photos that were on display. Another thing Mr. Link did was record train whistles and there are apparently several LP albums of his recordings of steam locomotive whistles. I love the sound of train whistles!



After the museum, we walked across the street to the Hotel Roanoke. We thought maybe the lobby was worth a look. For a fancy, historic hotel, the lobby was nothing to get excited about. The hotel was built in the 1880s by the Norfolk and Western Railroad and is on the National Register of Historic Place.
And that ended our short visit to Roanoke. We hit I-81 again to travel 260 miles to Knoxville, TN. The scenery was really nice as I-81 goes along a valley between mountain ranges, so we saw mountains nearly the entire drive. After another picnic lunch at a rest stop, we rolled into Knoxville, TN right around 4:00pm. We checked into another Tru hotel and settled in for a 3-night stay. Our room was just a bit different than the Tru in Roanoke, but it was comfortable enough and we were happy to be off the highway. I don’t think I’ve ever visited anywhere in the state of Tennessee, so this is a new state for me.
We’ll tour around Knoxville for the next two days.
How much fun to take your time and see some east coast places you’ve always wanted to. I do love the road picture with the yellow trees! Enjoy!
Thanks, Ronna. I thought of your Dad, and Eric, when we drove past Bristol on our way to Knoxville. I recall some of the stories of their trips to Bristol. Hope you’re well. Take care!