As soon as Jim suggested we go to the Blue Ridge Parkway I immediately started singing the wrong words to the re released Laurel and Hardy song, which to anyone in the UK of our approximate vintage was a big 'hit' in our earlier years (Not the original, the re release, you understand, we are far to young for the film!)

When you get there you realise how it got its name. The distant blue hills are caused by the fact they are covered with trees, which appear to turn blue as they recede. The official blurb is ....

The Blue Ridge Parkway, sometimes called "America's Favourite Drive", is the most visited unit of America's National Park System. A drive down the Parkway provides stunning, long range vistas and close-up looks at the natural and cultural history of the southern Appalachian mountains. It is designed as a drive-awhile and stop-awhile experience. The Parkway meanders for 469 miles and connects Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.
 http://www.nps.gov/blri/

"On the trail of the loansome pine"

from the film 'Way out West"
sung by Laurel and Hardy

On a mountain in Virginia
stands a lonesome pine
just below is the cabin home
of a little girl of mine
Her name is June and very, very soon
She'll belong to me
for I know she's waiting there for me
´neath that lone pine tree

In the blue ridge mountains of Virginia
on the trail of the lonesome pine
in the pale moonshine
our hearts entwine
where she carved her name
and I carved mine
Oh June, like the mountains I'm blue
like the pine I'm lonesome for you
In the blue ridge mountains of Virginia
on the trail of the lonesome pine

We did the bit from Mt Pisca to just over the Virginian border. The route is strange in that it was built for cars (with a strictly enforced 45mph speed limit.) There are very few houses, no advertising bill boards, or any of the normal roadside paraphernalia of modern American life. All places of interest are off spur roads. I believe most of the road was built in the great depression to give men work. It was a great investment for the future... Pity there is no foot path beside the road, but hey ho you can't have everything, it's a lovely place.