6/08/2008

On the road - coming home

We decided to drive home taking Hwy 77 through the mountains and over Fancy Gap to Hwy 81 and then turning on Hwy 66 to come to the Washington Beltway and home. This drive is an hour longer but more scenic and less stressful than hitting the "beach traffic" on Hwy 95.


If you look closely you can see that when Jim took this picture he caught a hawk enjoying the air currents.


We noticed that there is a little less traffic but nothing seems to stop the trucks. They are always your companions on the journey on this route.
















I love the calm spacious vistas of the Shenandoah Valley with the blue mountains as a backdrop.














When ever I ride this way and enjoy these views I think of the early settlers who came down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania and settled this area. They had to cut timber and dig out rocks to make room for themselves as they cleared paths for their lumbering wagons to move along. My Hoods, and Harrisons and Shaffers and Halls all came this way in the mid 1700s and lived a time in Augusta and Rockingham Counties before moving on south to settle in Mecklenburg County, NC.

I am feeling like pulling out my genealogy records and doing some "root" work.

1 comment:

Granny Sue said...

I remember one trip through Fancy Gap. A van had somehow straddled that guardrail and was teetering over that lovely--but precipitous-view. The poor fellow who'd been driving was sitting with his head between his knees. Had to have been quite a scare!