Views From the Passenger Seat

We spend a lot of time on the road, travelling from place to place, and have developed a routine. We generally alternate the driving duty.  It only took Trevor a little while to get used to driving an automatic on the wrong side of the road, it took longer for both of us to get used to driving a much bigger vehicle.  Bendy, steep, mountain roads really hit the confidence but we keep on truckin'  But apart from helping with navigation, what does the passenger do?

Other than the usual (passing gum, tuning radio, checking the driver has the keys before locking the van), the passenger has 2 duties...
1. Watch for points of interest - amazing scenery, interesting sights at the side of the road, historical markers, unlisted attractions, etc.
2. Be camera ready - when we first started travelling we'd see things but by the time we grabbed the camera the opportunity was missed.  Now the passenger has the camera around their neck and it's nothing for us to take upwards of 100 pictures from the road.

We've said before that it's not always about the destination and it's not always about the stops on the way.  Sometimes it's the route itself.  We learned this lesson on the trip from Nashville (Tennessee) to Asheville (N.Carolina) which took us over the Smokey Mountains.

Sometimes you can see so much of the road...

Sometimes  the view ahead promises a change in environments...seeing real mountains in the distance was a real joy.

Sometimes it's a glimpse of beauty between the trees (have to be quick to snap these)

And sometimes it's just the sky

 Now roads get us where we need to go but sometimes the road is what you go to see.  So many people told us about the Blue Ridge Parkway that it just about became the reason for going to Asheville in the first place. It's a scenic byway, much loved by bikers, that goes all the way from the Smokey Mountains to Virginia. It's one of those bendy roads that challenges the confidence but the views make it all worthwhile.  We only drove from Asheville to Craggy Gardens so there's a lot more for us to do if/when we ever go back.

So,  at mile 365 on the Parkway, at around 5500 ft elevation, what should pull into the same Craggy Gardens parking lot?  Our first fellow Escape Camper...meet Andy Warhol!

 Which just goes to show you never know what you might see on the road.