Cross Country Trip, (Day 9), North Carolina

The drive through the rest of Lower Michigan was the worst part of the trip by far.  This extended into and beyond Toledo, Ohio.

The reason for this was the rush hour and crazy Detroit drivers.
I grew up in Detroit from 1949 - 1964 and I was familiar with the layout of the city to some extent and I had also worked in Detroit for my company from time to time in the late 90's and 00's but this was quite different than my memories.

I decided that I would never drive through Detroit ever again and figured that I would never need to be in that city every again.

My next stop was Hickory North Carolina.  We had lived there from 92 - 96 and loved the proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I also had a friend, a former coworker, that I planned to have breakfast with during my two day stay there.

I decided to stay in my former mother-in-law's house as it was in the process of selling and was still not occupied and I had a key.  Mom B had died the year ago and it was sad to be there without her and other family members.  This gave me an opportunity to take a break from the road and have a home base to wash the van that was covered in bugs and do laundry.  I also wanted to take a probable last trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway... I doubted I would be back again as we no longer had family there.

The next morning I had made arrangements to meet up with my former coworker at the place we often had breakfast when we lived there the local Crackle Barrel.  My friend Haven and I had the same job at the company we worked at in town and we got together when travel afforded it.

I had to be at the airport in Raleigh in the afternoon of the 16th so I had the day of the 15th to head up to Grandfather Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway and then head east to Raleigh to stay overnight and be sure I wouldn't be late to pick them up.

Grandfather Mountain is now a state park.  It was once a private tourist attraction but when the owner died it was handed over to the state to maintain.

The Mile High Swinging Bridge is probably the biggest attraction as well as the small zoo where kids can get a good view of all the animals.

These photos are from the park, bridge and zoo.