Leaving Tennessee And Finding More Snow

It seemed like Tennessee was a long State to cross and looking at the map we did cross it at its greatest distance, which from the Arkansas state line to the Virginia state line.

Just like yesterday we started with a blue sky which after a couple of hours turned very grey and yep, you guessed it, it started snowing. Not much but nevertheless SNOW. Getting across into Virginia the road is climbing to over 2000ft. Mountain top show up powdered in white layer of snow. As we go the road gets closer to the snow and finally… tadaa… we see white stuff on both sides of the highway.

While the I-40 carries a whole lot of traffic, the I-81 is a lot quieter. Even though this Interstate runs parallel and smack in the middle of the Appalachians it doesn’t have extremely steep grades. Some of them are bit long – but not really steep. Our van had no problem pulling the 7500pounds of trailer weight across the summits.
The Golden water tower in Knoxville

One thing we observed while being part of the traffic in Knoxville,TN were drivers busy with texting while driving. Tennessee law is saying this about texting and driving:

Current prohibitions:
Text messaging prohibited while operating a motor vehicle in Tennessee.
Drivers with learner’s permits or intermediate licenses are prohibited from using cell phones while driving.
Within less than 2 minutes Bea took these pictures from vehicles passing us on the right side, then doing lane changes at high speed. Both were women, who really should know better.

Virginia Welcome Center at I-81

Even though the weather wasn’t ideal, though sun popped out later, the drive through the State of Virginia is exceedingly beautiful. Lovely valleys are surrounded by impressive, though not dramatic, mountain tops. This year, spring will come late to this part of the country. Probably 3 weeks later than last year. We did not see the purple Judas Tree or yellow Forsythia. Only in the lowest places a tiny bit of green is visible.

Most places gas prices were still low at around $3.30/gal but the odd station owner must have thought to take advantage of the unknowing traveler setting the price at $3.79. Just 2 miles down the road and the price was back to the normal level.

Thanks for stopping by!