The Beauty Around Us

Virginia and North Carolina Vacation: Day 5

By Linda G. on August 25, 2022

Wednesday, August 24, was the first day of SEVROC 2022.  This event ran through Sunday morning.  We last attended SEVROC in May 2018.  We attended SEVROC in other years as well: May 2008, May 2014, May 2015, and May 2017.

We got up around 6:30 am. We ate breakfast in.  We each had a Jimmy Dean Scrambles and orange juice.  I ate oatmeal in a cup as well.  Bob had a banana.

Shortly before 9:00 am “Skid” (Jim) and Sandy, the Texas gals (Debbie, Vickie and Kay) and “Pappy” (Jeff) left for a motorcycle ride.

At 9:15 am Bob and I left en route Newfound Gap, via Cherokee and US 441.  We stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, where I obtained a National Park Service passport cancellation stamp for both the Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The cancellation stamp is a rubber ink stamp that records the name of the national park and date of your visit. We would be driving on the BRP on our way back to Maggie Valley.

Our next stop was at Mingus Mill, located about 1/2 mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

 We arrived at our destination, Newfound Gap, at 10:52 am.

To thank the Rockefeller family for its assistance in establishing Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a memorial was built for Newfound Gap.  President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 2, 1940 at this spot.

Do you see the trail leading to the right side of the memorial? That trail is the Appalachian Trail.

When at Newfound Gap, one can stand both in North Carolina and Tennessee.

We turned around at Newfound Gap, leaving at 11:15 am, and drove back to Maggie Valley, via Newfound Gap Road (NC Route 441) and via the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We stopped at a couple overlooks on our way back down Newfound Gap Road (NC Route 441).

On the Blue Ridge Parkway we drove through FIVE tunnels and stopped at several overlooks.  

Leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway, we drove through Maggie Valley and fueled up at Exxon in Waynesville.  We drove across the road to Walmart, where Bob purchased a pair of reading glasses.  He forgot to pack his reading glasses.

We returned to A Holiday Motel and ate a tuna salad kit and a chicken salad kit for lunch.  Both salad kits include crackers on which to spread the meat salad.

We sat outside our room and chatted with “MT” (Tim).

“Skid” and company, who left for a ride this morning, returned to A Holiday Motel around 3:30 pm. Again, if you would like to know where the group of six rode, please check out Skid’s blog post.

While the eight of us were sightseeing, more of our friends arrived at A Holiday Motel.

Around 5:30 pm twelve of us left for dinner at BearWaters Brewing Company in Maggie Valley, not far from A Holiday Motel. 

The food was good, as was the service. 

Today’s map, excluding side trip to Waynesville.