When I first requested time off work for this trip, I was planning to head up to Minnesota and drive along the Northern Shore of Lake Superior. After determining the trip was too expensive for me to stomach, my thoughts turned to more familiar and intimate settings. I decided to arrange my travel around seeing my sister near Asheville, NC, and the rest of the trip gelled together from there.
It started off with a couple nights north of Atlanta, where I hiked along Sweetwater Creek and met with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Once that was done, I stopped at several coffee shops (a new obsession of mine), including Alma and Bizzare Coffee near Canton, Ga. At the end of the day, I was at my sister's house and stayed there for three nights. We visited the town of Blowing Rock, spent a day in Asheville, and spent time with the pets before I had to leave for Roanoke at the end of the weekend.
On the way to Roanoke, I stopped at Mt Jefferson State Park, before visiting my absolute favorite State Park on the East Coast - Grayson Highlands. After saying hello to the wild ponies, I arrived in Roanoke at the end of the day. The morning after, I set a course for Natural Bridge State Park, about a 45-miute drive northeast of Roanoke and ended up driving to the Peaks of Otter along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I also visited two waterfalls - The Cascades, and Apple Orchard Falls. I wanted to take the parkway all the way to the James River, but road work interfered with those plans.
The next morning started off very slow and unsatisfying. I visited the Roanoke Star before going back to my hotel to try and figure out what I should do next. I ended up deciding to drive two hours east to Charlottesville, stopping at a gas station I'd had my eye on for a while to get a chicken sandwich along the way. My trip to Charlottesville ended at Wegman's Grocery - a store I had been anxious to get back to after first visiting their locations in New York. I splurged on roughly $125 worth of snacks to ration out over the next several months.
I was on my way to Savannah after that, but I stopped at Mayo River State Park on the NC-VA state line to photograph a small but gorgeous waterfall. I visited PERC Coffee, an Atlanta-based roaster that one of my favorite coffee shops in Orlando consistently keeps in stock. After almost having nowhere to sleep the previous night due to a mix-up with my credit card at the hotel, it was a nice palate cleanser. Once I was caffeinated to my satisfaction, I headed home, stopping to visit my grandparents along the way.
With that out of the way, here's the photos.
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