Oh it is so beautiful.....Ooops

It was very foggy when we woke up this morning – we could hardly see our fellow campers.  So we took our time getting ready to go until the sun was peeping out.  Our drive up to the Parkway from our campground in Buena Vista was short and really steep.  The camper performed perfectly on the steep drive and we stopped at the top to take a photo of the clouds in the valley beneath us.  With all the glorious fall foliage peeping out between the clouds it was like being in October heaven.

    The Parkway runs on a narrow strip of land that goes on for over 400 miles.  It is closed to commercial vehicles and is just two skinny lanes wide with a bit of mowed grass for shoulders, although most of the time it appears that one could not actually pull off onto the mowed area without getting stuck.  We were rolling along just thrilled at the beautiful colors and the blue sky when BANG there was a loud thump.  Rick yelled something (probably not a curse because he never does) and I looked out my window to see the side mirror hanging by a thread.  I gathered my wits about me and realized that I needed to grab that mirror.  But as I started to power the window down the mirror dropped off onto the shoulder.  I was not so polite in my response to that problem.  We drove ahead about a mile and found a pull off.  Left the camper and took the car back to see if we could find the mirror and perhaps duct tape it on.  No such luck.  That part of the road followed a steep drop to a small creek, where I am sure some minnows are looking at the mirror and wondering what it is.  Well @%@%@%.

    We now have only the small bottom part of our side mirror.  It is okay while we are driving the parkway as there is no way anyone can come up along our right side, but when we get to the freeway we are in trouble.  So our plan is to stay on the Parkway for two days until we get to Asheville, NC where we planned to stay for a couple days anyway.  During that time we will have to find a Ford truck dealer who can get us a new mirror, because there is no way we can drive on the freeways without it.  So good news / bad news.  We lost our mirror, but at least we are not in big trouble without it for the moment.

Our campground tonight is at Rocky Knob high on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  If you like to camp – especially in the fall when it is cool and everything smells of falling leaves – you will understand when I say that this place is spectacular.  A beautiful campground, a warm campfire, turning leaves and a clear, starry night.  May you all have the chance to get to the kind of vacation you love the most.  I am here.