O Happy Day! Today’s ThrowBack Thursday (TBT), like some other recent TBTs, is an amalgam of photos from three different trips. And what sort o’ trips might these be? Well, this sort: (1) the southern Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, (2) The Known Hike (Table Rock), and (3) a nature Preserve just outside of Charlotte.
If you’ve taken the time to read “Cedric, DAMMIT! The Man, The Plan, The Disease” (and for crap’s sake, why wouldn’t you?), then you may recall a thing or two about The Worst Two Weeks of My Life. The saga began when, in July 2017, a panic attack prevented me from boarding a flight for a long-anticipated trip to Europe. Since I knew this panic attack was caused by my Parkinson’s Disease (PD), I went ASAP to my PD specialist. At the time I was taking only one medication for PD: pramipexole. We decided to switch my medication, from pramipexole to carbidopa-levodopa. (For details of how this went, see the July 2017 section of The Disease). I decided not to risk exacerbating my anxiety again by getting another flight to Europe, so I was left with two weeks of time off from work, but nothing to do with it. I had long been considering a weekend trip to the city of Roanoke, Virginia, so I decided to make that happen – except that I went in mid-week rather than a weekend. According to Google Maps, the drive to Roanoke should take a little over three hours. But I decided to allow a full day for the drive to Roanoke, so I could take the scenic route. And so, just after crossing the border into Virginia, I left the interstate and got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway (BuRP). The first stop I made on the BuRP was the Mabry Mill. And that, gentle reader, is where our fun begins…
My next stop along the BuRP was the Rocky Knob Information Station. I didn’t get any photos of the Information, but this scenery was also present:
Where to stop next? Howsabout the Rock Castle Gorge Overlook?
Next up: an area known simply as “The Saddle”…
Continuing along the BuRP, my next stop was at Rakes Mill Pond:
Chugging right along here, I next stopped at Trail’s Cabin. I have no comments on this particular set of photos; I’ll let you read about this place in the first photo:
Next, I rolled on down to the Pine Spur Overlook. Check it out: I’ve added a shot of Cahas Mountain for your viewing pleasure…
As I approached the Roanoke exit, the sun was setting over the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was purdy:
Sadly, the rest of the above trip was awful. As previously stated, these were The Worst Two Weeks of My Life. My anxiety was as bad as ever, though it alternated with a dangerous (meaning borderline suicidal) depression. I continually felt physically exhausted, my brain constantly seemed to be in a fog, and I couldn’t make myself eat. So I ended up spending most of the next two days in my hotel room watching TV and feeling awful. But let’s put that behind us and move on.
Skipping about 5 weeks ahead, it’s now August 2017, and I’m feeling much better. So much better, that I decide to make another attempt at Table Rock. As you may recall from last week’s ThrowBack Thursday, my previous attempt at Table Rock failed in the sense that I couldn’t find the trail, but was still enjoyable as my companion and I found a nice lakeside trail to hike instead. This time I got more detailed directions, AND looked at the route on Google Earth to confirm these directions wouldn’t send me back to the same gated road that had stopped the previous attempt. It worked. I arrived at the trailhead with no trouble at all, though this time I was solo. So here now is your sampling of scenery from the trail to the top of Table Rock:
I will conclude this week’s TBT with a quick jaunt inside the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, just north of Charlotte. This outing occurred in early March 2018:
And with that, another TBT is in the books. Come back next week to see the architecture of Asheville, North Carolina!
Voyages with Parkinson's 