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 after-the-fact, 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 when I was doing the trip, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little larger than I do in my later blogs.
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Another quiet day with more remote work and then more walking around downtown Bryson City. This time, my companion got his exercise by walking down "School House Hill" from our bed and breakfast into downtown. We looked in some of the shops we'd not gotten to before, and my companion found a nice gift for his parents in the Christmas shop. We finished off the day with dinner at Pasqualino's Italian Restaurant, which my companion likes to visit whenever he's in town. Below are some pictures of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad train which is based in Bryson City and does excursions out to Dillsboro and back with a ninety minute layover for lunch and shopping. My companion did that trip a few years back, but decided not to do it again this time.
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!
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