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Info for RVers... |
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...from a fulltime RVer |
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BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY (Page 5) Boone, Blowing Rock and Mast General Store |
Milepost
292 exit
(heading North) July 2-4, 2007 |
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Parkway
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| Below are places we saw along the way with links to separate pages, if applicable. | ||||||
| Mile-post | Attraction | |||||
| 292 | Boone | |||||
| When northbound, the roads to Boone and to Blowing Rock are at the same Parkway exit at Milepost 292. | ||||||
| To get to Boone, take Highway 221 and it's about 7.5 miles to downtown. I'd heard it's a worthy stopping point to explore Grandfather Mountain and Banner Elk, but we'd already been there. But I'd also heard good things about the KOA in Boone and also wanted to see nearby Blowing Rock and Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, so decided to make it a stop anyway. Also heard the Daniel Boone Restaurant had the best Country Ham Biscuits, but they're only open for breakfast on the weekends, so that part didn't work out. We ate at the Mountain House restaurant, but that really wasn't anything to write home about. | ||||||
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This row, along with most others through Row J, is heavily treed. Even though the opposite side of my house was wide open, the direction the satellite needed to be in order for me to get Direcway TV pointed directly into the tree cover, so no go there. But my neighbors in front in D1, Tom & Donna Wogan, were able to position to hit a hole in the trees and could get reception. I thought it was also funny that in talking with them, they pretty much echoed what the Schells said about what keeps them returning here. They said the staff is always so helpful and friendly and they love the clean, cool mountain air when they come here from their hot and humid Florida home. We had a nice discussion about corporate run vs. family owned campgrounds and how obvious it is that this is truly a family affair going on here. Bob Harmon's family built this campground 34 years ago and their hospitality has apparently been well appreciated through the years. His wife, Joan, has worked here with him for 21 years and says she appreciates being self-employed, but her real enjoyment comes from meeting people from all over. She was a real joy to meet and has a genuine enthusiasm for making her guests happy. |
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This KOA is more removed from a major highway than any I've ever seen - but that's not a bad thing in my book. It's still only 5 miles from downtown Boone and even though the last mile up Ray Brown Road is a bit steep, it's doable with no real trouble and the reward of staying on the mountain makes up for that, too. Only negative for me since I couldn't get satellite TV is having no cable TV (they're a bit too far removed for that at this time) and only one local channel came in with halfway decent reception. My Verizon cell phone worked fine and I was able to get online with my Verizon air card, but it kept disconnecting then reconnecting itself almost immediately - I don't know what that was about. They do have wi-fi that you can pick up if you're in the vicinity of the office. |
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| 292 | The Village of Blowing Rock | |||||
| Take Highway 321 and in less than 2 miles you arrive at this quaint little village and a bit further, the attraction for which its named. When we passed through here, they were celebrating the 4th of July holiday and it was all decked out for the occasion. We enjoyed the tour of and around the town, but if you want to taste the worst Mexican food ever (in my humble opinion), eat at Tijuana Fats. Granted, my mom and I are prejudiced by the great Tex-Mex we're used to, but even though we were really hungry when we stopped here, we couldn't even finish it we thought it tasted so weird. | ||||||
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Blowing
Rock
(the attraction)
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| Like many natural things not easily understood, a legend is told to explain the Blowing Rock. You can read about the Chickasaw maiden and the Cherokee brave who are memorialized here. Apparently even today some believe this legend because the workers are often asked where the Indians are buried. In fact, the rocky walls of the gorge form a flume so that when the wind is gusty, hats and light objects thrown over come back up. Ripley's "Believe-It-Or-Not" touts it as "the only place in the world where snow falls upside down" because it sometimes looks that way under the right conditions. | ||||||
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| 292 | Mast General Store - Valle Crucis | |||||
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There
are other ways you can get to Valle Crucis, but I just decided to
visit it while I was staying in Boone, so am including it here.
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| Charles Kuralt traveled through and said "All general stores are satisfying to visit, but one of them, the Mast Store, is a destination." | ||||||
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