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photo of the day: mist and gray

On Labor Day, Rob and I decided to drive back from South Carolina by a different, more scenic route: I-77 from Columbia up through Charlotte, N.C., to southwestern Virginia; switch off to the Blue Ridge Parkway until Roanoke, then head back home by way of Charlottesville and US-15/29 to I-66. It was a bit longer than our usual route — I-95 all the way — but certainly more interesting, with hardly any holiday traffic to contend with.

Soon after we crossed into Virginia, we hit a wall of the thickest fog I’ve ever been in — so thick that I could hardly see twenty feet in front of me. When we exited the interstate at Fancy Gap, the fog had only partially cleared, blanketing everything in a gray haze. As we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway, the fog thickened.

I’m sure there was a certain otherworldly beauty to our misty surroundings; I was just too tense to appreciate it as I drove, white-knuckled, through stretches of dense nothingness.

We finally found a break in the fog as we reachd Mabry Mill, a turn-of-the-century gristmill / sawmill that was, placards told us, the most-photographed location on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

As we continued on our way, we hit more patches of thick fog, but thankfully fewer and further between as we got closer to Roanoke.

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