This is a retrospective blog of my seven-week exploration of Virginia along with a journey through the Shenandoah National Park and on down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, North Carolina. 'Retrospective' means simply that it wasn't written during the trip, but is being written in hindsight a little over a year later. Baaswell Sheep accompanied me and is writing the blog in the way he's done my later blogs, since he's so good with the color commentary. Unfortunately, since I didn't plan for this blog back them, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little bigger than I do in my later blogs.
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Our time in Damascus comes to an end as we pack up and head towards our next destination: Salem, little sister city to Roanoke. (In truth, we would have liked to have stayed in Damascus a few more days, but the room was only available for three nights, and my companion didn't want to fool with settling into another inn.) We had a nice time at this place and want to give a little shout-out to them. Our room, the 'Brother Bear' room, was far from fancy, but it was comfortable and served our needs quite well, and the little garden area beside the building was a great place to hang out in the evenings after dark until we were ready to head upstairs and go to bed. Note that in the last picture, my good friend Poe Possum makes an appearance. He did a number of photo ops during this trip, so be on the lookout for more candid shots of him enjoying this journey with us.
Note: The Dancing Bear Inn suffered damage from Hurricane Helene later this year. It has reopened, but only the main house is available, and the family has renamed the business to "".
Wilson's Cafe, Damascus, VA
Before we left town, we had lunch at Wilson's Cafe, getting a nice shrimp and grits. My companion generally likes having a dinner meal at midday, like folks did in the old days, and then having a lighter meal in the evening, so a place like this works out very nicely. It was also quite a treat to sit at a table made from an old treadle sewing machine desk!
US 58 / US 221: Damascus to Salem, VA
After lunch, we took the scenic route east, winding through a section of the Blue Ridge mountains on US 58, which brought us to Hillsville. We didn't stop there, as we plan to come through there at the end of our trip as we journey down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead, we got on US 221 and kept going towards Salem, taking a break a little further north in Floyd, Virginia.
Salem, VA
After checking into our hotel, we took a quick drive into downtown Salem, wanting to see where the library was located. Unfortunately, we didn't see any long-term parking near it, so my companion will have to look for another library branch to work at tomorrow. He went in and worked for an hour, but it was too late to walk around downtown Salem. Instead we headed back to the hotel and got dinner at a Hardee's.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
Our time in Damascus comes to an end as we pack up and head towards our next destination: Salem, little sister city to Roanoke. (In truth, we would have liked to have stayed in Damascus a few more days, but the room was only available for three nights, and my companion didn't want to fool with settling into another inn.) We had a nice time at this place and want to give a little shout-out to them. Our room, the 'Brother Bear' room, was far from fancy, but it was comfortable and served our needs quite well, and the little garden area beside the building was a great place to hang out in the evenings after dark until we were ready to head upstairs and go to bed. Note that in the last picture, my good friend Poe Possum makes an appearance. He did a number of photo ops during this trip, so be on the lookout for more candid shots of him enjoying this journey with us.
