Friday 7th. June 2013
We crept out of the house at 7:30am and set off south down Highway 220. The weather was warm but overcast. It wasn't too long before it began to rain. It wasn't heavy rain that comes and goes like we are used to, but gentle consistent rain that was with us most of the day. The GPS indicated that our journey to Charlottesville would take 6¾ hours and our estimated time of arrival would be 2:15pm.
We passed a couple of Amish horse drawn sulkies coming towards us in the rain while on Highway 220. All was going well until just after 11:00am when the traffic slowed to a standstill on the I81. This was the road on which we had experienced delays when we drove up from New York. The signs along the road had warned us that the road would be closed for road works and that we would be diverted. The radio said there had been an accident and two people had been killed. But the permanent nature of the warning signs made me think that the road closure was premeditated.  We inched our way to the exit ramp and then down a diversion road and then back I-81 and after 2¾ hours we were just 7 miles further down the I-81. Luckily after about an hour of stopping and starting and crawling along the freeway we came to a Rest Stop that had toilets which offered some welcome relief.
We crossed into Maryland (crossed the Mason Dixon Line) then West Virginia before crossing into Virginia.
At about 2:00pm we stopped at McDonalds and had a half pounder before moving on. I thought we could make Roanoke but the difficult driving conditions (large semi trailers moving from lane to lane and moving over for people entering the highway from the side) and the constant rain made us head for Waynesboro at the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We went to the information centre got some maps and some discouraging news about the weather here over the weekend. It seems a tropic storm has swept up over the area and is causing humid, warm and wet weather.
I put another US$40.00 worth of petrol in the car and then we booked into the Royal Inn Motel in Waynesboro at about 5:30pm. I estimate we covered about 380 miles today.
 It is a comfortable room and the all up cost was US$50.00 which included fast free Wi-Fi. We had a Mexican meal at the restaurant next door (Chicken Burrito California was US$10:00 and was too large to eat. It would have kept two men going for a week).
The TV news is optimistic that the clouds and the might clear sometime tomorrow.

Saturday 8th. June 2013
I woke up and peered through the broken venetian blind in the bathroom at the world outside. Yesterday's fog and rain had lifted, and although the sky was cloudy, it was high cloud and this lifted my spirits regarding our drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We had breakfast at a convenience store next to the Mexican Restaurant. It sold everything from fresh sandwiches to drinks and petrol and left the motel just after 8:30am.
We climbed up the hill onto the Parkway and took some photos of the impressive distant blue hills. At about 9:00am it started to rain and my heart sank. But 45 minutes later the rain had cleared and the sky was cloudless.

Blue Ridge Parkway, View at the beginning of the Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, log cabin at Humpback Rocks	Blue Ridge Parkway, 20 Minute Cliff, VA
Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, Otter Lake, VA
Rhododendrons along the Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, Peaks of Otter, VA
Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, VA	Motel at Meadows of Dan, VA

The speed limit on the Parkway is only 45 MPH and no commercial vehicles are allowed and so driving is relaxing. There were many "Lookovers" where you could pull over and enjoy the view and take photos, but not all lookovers had views and many were tucked away as convenient places to pull over and rest.
Every 30 miles or so there is an information centre run by the park authorities. These have clean toilets and usually a shop of some description that sells snacks etc. The views along the Parkway were spectacular and there is a new vista around every corner.
We made our initial target of Roanoke (120 mile post) by about 1:00pm and decided to push on towards Mabry Mill (180 mile post)  and the Meadows of Dan which is another 2 miles further on. The Parkway has mile posts along its entire length with Milepost 1, at the northern end, being just out of Waynesboro and Milepost 460 at the southern end in the Cherokee Indian Reserve in North Carolina.

We took a lot of photos of the old Mabry Mill, talked to the blacksmith and then moved on to the Blue Ridge Motel in the Meadows of Dan at about 4:30pm.

We had dinner in the local cafe and tried Fried Green Tomatoes. We did a little shopping in the general store and I bought a book on the history of music in the area and what Lee refers to as my "cappie." Which is a grey confederate soldiers cap.
 

The "French" pattern kepi, was the standard issue headgear to all army personnel, with dark blue band, sides & crown for generals, staff officers, and engineers. Kepis worn by commissioned officers and enlisted personnel had two patterns, specified by regulations in 1861 and 1862, respectively. The first pattern was a colored band, denoting the branch of service, with the crown and sides to be made of Cadet Gray cloth. The second pattern had a dark blue band for all branches, with the crown and sides colored according to the branch of service. The branch of service colors were as follows, Red for artillery, yellow for cavalry, and light or sky blue for infantry. More common than the regulation kepis, completely grey or butternut caps, or later, dark cadet gray imported kersey caps were issued and worn by troops throughout the war, in large numbers. Cap visors were made from leather or "oilcloth" over paste board.

The Meadows of Dan is significant in our travels as it is the beginning of the Crooked Road, which is the home of Old Timey  Music.
Today we drove about 185 miles in total.

Sunday 9th. June 2013
The clouds were high and the day was warm as we set off at about 9:00am and continued to travel south along the Parkway. We stopped at the Blue Ridge Music Centre. This is a museum as well as a place to hold concerts with a huge open air amphitheatre and various places for smaller performances and displays.
We were entertained by Aubrey the Park Ranger who demonstrated some of the more unusual instruments played in the area. These included the Mountain Dulcimer, the Hammer Dulcimer, Dobro and the Autoharp.
 

Blue Ridge Parkway, cabin near Puckett cemetery	Blue Ridge Parkway, cabin near Puckett cemetery	Blue Ridge Parkway, VA
Blue Ridge Music Centre and Museum, VA	Blue Ridge Music Centre, Aubrey playing a dobro	Blue Ridge Music Centre, log fence, VA
Blue Ridge Music Centre, VA, Open air auditorium	Blue Ridge Music Centre, playing in the breezeway	Blue Ridge Music Centre, playing in the breezeway
Blue Ridge Parkway, Cumberland Knob, NC	Blue Ridge Parkway, Cumberland Knob, NC	Blue Ridge Parkway, Mabry Mill, VA
Blue Ridge Parkway, Mabry Mill, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, Mabry Mill, VA	Blue Ridge Parkway, Mabry Mill, VA

We then drove further south west and crossed the state border into North Carolina. We drove up to Cumberland Knob (Milepost 220), took some photos of the valley below and then drove north again back into Virginia and back to the Music Centre. Four of the locals played in the breezeway at the centre. There were two fiddles a guitar (played by Peewee) and a banjo. One of the fiddle players was "mouthing" the words to the tune he was playing and with some coaxing sang the song for us. His voice was pitched high and he sounded quite like Ralph Stanley.
We then drove further north up the Parkway back to Mabry Mill where there was another band playing but this time for people to dance/clog to. This band consisted of a guitar, banjo, stand up bass and harmonica.
At 2:30pm we decided to set off home. We eventually got back onto the notorious Interstate Highway 81. The traffic was horrendous, and driving is hard work with semi trailers weaving in and out of the traffic amongst the cars. One semi trailer "blew" a rear tyre about two cars ahead of us and we were showered with bits of rubber and tire. The shoulders of I-81 is littered with remains of tyres and treads from the semi trailers and trucks and I guess someone must come along and pick up all the pieces now and again.
It wasn't long before our good luck ran out and the traffic slowed to a halt. We crept along for nearly an hour before coming to what appeared to be the cause of the congestion; two lanes of traffic moved over to the adjacent two lanes. Why this caused such a congestion, I'm not sure. Maybe it is just the effect of slowing down the huge volume of traffic on this road.
I was determined to get off the I-81 this evening as it could only present delays in the morning if we had to travel along any of it. As we drove up the exit at Harrisburg at about 8:30pm, they were closing one lane along the Highway meaning that there would be huge delays there in the morning.
We filled the car with gas (US$53.02) and booked into the nearby America's Best Value Inn (US66.59 and this included a continental breakfast. The room was quiet, clean and the airconditioner worked well. As we pulled into the petrol (gas) station the place was swarming with small bugs in the warm evening weather. They were everywhere.
We went to bed about 11:00pm.

Monday 10th. June 2013
When we woke it was overcast and spitting with rain. We left the motel at about 9:00am for the 3 hour journey north to Sayre. Within a few minutes the rain was quite heavy and we encountered the first semi trailer spraying up water from its tyres and this made me glad we had pushed ahead yesterday and were no longer on the madhouse of the I-81.
We arrived at Sayre in the rain at mid day just as the GPS had predicted and had a well earned rest.

Tuesday 11th. June 2013
The low rain clouds had gone, but there was still rain about and the sky was cloudy. We relaxed around the house. My laptop is becoming un usable and is overheating each time I do something slightly more technical such as use Photoshop or Lightroom. When it overheats the keyboard stops working and has to be closed using the mouse.

Wednesday 12th. June 2013
It was a nice day with no wind and broken clouds just above the hilltops. We decided to drive to Ithica (about 45 minutes away) and check out the Buttermilk Falls. We walked the half mile or so up the falls and took photos along the way alongside all the rock pools. We then drove further north around Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) to the Taughannock Falls. We first viewed the 215 foot high falls from the top and then drove down to the bottom, parked the car in the US$7.00 car park and walked for ¾ mile up to the base of the falls. The walk was tree lined and very picturesque as is most of the USA we have visited. In fact we are starting to take much of the beauty for granted.
At about 3:00pm we headed home, bought some petrol on the way and arrive back at Lee & Cloudia's just before 4:00pm.

Thursday 13th. June 2013
Today we head back to JFK Airport in New York. The GPS indicates that it is a 4 hour journey but  part of it is along the notorious Interstate 81 highway. So there could be delays. It began raining at about 3:00am and when we woke up at 7:00am the clouds were low and the rain gentle but continuous. The local weather station was predicting 1" - 2" of rain and possible flooding.
The good side of the rain seemed to be that not as many people were on the roads. The downside was that the semi trailers threw up and huge mist of water from the road every time they passed us or if we approached them from behind.
We left at just after 8:00am and headed towards the Interstate 81. Thankfully the rain seemed to stop all road works as well and we had a free run into New York City. With a couple of stops on the way our journey to JFK Airport took about 4 1/2 hours. The rain finally stopped just as we approached New York. I had programmed the GPS to take us along toll roads, as this provided the shortest journey. We paid US$13.00 to cross over the George Washington Bridge and then US$7.50 to cross over the Bronx Whitestone Bridge. The GPS only got confused once, just as we got off the George Washington Bridge an interchange it thought was there had been demolished and had been replaced by a straight piece of road instead. It soon corrected itself and, thankfully, we hadn't gone astray.
About 2 miles from JFK we moved off the Van Wyk Expressway and filled the hire car up with petrol. As we entered the airport there was a BP petrol station we could have used but it was very busy. During the fortnight we had been driving the car we traveled 2,526 miles (4,025 kms). We handed the car back undamaged at about 12:45am and caught the air train around to Terminal 7. We checked in our luggage, went through a very thorough security check (empty all pockets of EVERYTHING, shoes off etc) and wandered up to the United Club lounge at about 1:40pm to relax as we waited for our plane to San Francisco to leave at 5:15pm. Why so much leeway: we could have quite easily have been grid locked on the I-81 for two or three hours, but this time we were lucky.
 

One needs a good GPS to drive and navigate around the USA. Carrying a concealed weapon is legal in Pennsylvania but not just across the state border in New York State.

The United Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco was uneventful. We flew on a B757 - 200 which seemed quite old. The entertainment system was at least 30 years old with old monitors above the aisle and headphones that barely worked. The selection of music was woeful and the tracks seemed to be mixed with other channels. They did provide Business Class with neat little Video players if they wanted them. United seems to be a budget airline with economy class having to pay for their meals.
As we flew over the Rockies there was a red tinge in the atmosphere and one can only assume that it was the sun setting through the smoke of the recent bushfires.
The flight was 6 3/4 hours and we arrived in San Francisco at 8:45pm local time. Our flight to Sydney on United leaves at 10:45pm.
Our United Airlines flight from San Francisco (B747) was delayed because United decided at the last moment not to honour the free flights they had promised some of their employees and families. There was no problem with having the seats spare but if they were going to have enough fuel etc, which seemed implausible for 10 or so people. However there wasn't a manifest and so they couldn't tell which of the passengers on board were the ones who had to disembark. Two of them had figured this out and weren't going to 'fess up. So we waited an hour before United figured out which were the two passengers who had to get off. We eventually took off an hour late.
We were on the upper deck and it was spacious and comfortable. The entertainment system was on a par with the best we had found on any other airline. This leg was slow and although we slept most of it (completely lie flat seats) the 14 - 15 hour flight was tedious.
We arrived in Sydney just after 6:00am and declared our Moroccan wooden boxes and cleared customs without any problems.
We didn't know we had to get our boarding pass for the next leg of our journey, a domestic flight to Adelaide, at the international terminal. This boarding pass then entitled us to a free trip on the QANTAS shuttle bus to Terminal 3. But for some extraordinary reason, before we could enter the shuttle bus, we had to go through another security check and have our hand luggage X Rayed and walk through a metal detector. All this just to board a bus!! QANTAS has gone mad. By about 8:30 we had made our way to the lounge and waited for our 12:30pm flight to Adelaide.