Buildings here in Appalachia never seem to disappear
I discovered something this weekend – I am not really living in the Blue Ridge Mountain Area. I drive through it when returning home to Piney Point. I look forward to the day when I can drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, at least for a portion of its 469 miles. Likely a good time to do that is this autumn.
They just blend deeper into the countryside
Anyway, my drive from Blacksburg to my client’s location is through an area geologically known as the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The reason being is that this area is not like the igneous mountains to the east and west, but remnants of an ancient fold-and-thrust belt of sedimentary rocks. Basically the two ranges to the east and west “squeezed” a flat plateau into its current form. So this area was the major obstacle in the migration to the west back before the days of interstate highways (and any roads for that matter).
Yet for many, even as they are slowly dying, their usefulness continues on
From Wikipedia.org: “The United States Geological Survey defines the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division as consisting of thirteen provinces: the Atlantic Coast Uplands, Eastern Newfoundland Atlantic, Maritime Acadian Highlands, Maritime Plain, Notre Dame and Mégantic Mountains, Western Newfoundland Mountains, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, Saint Lawrence Valley, Appalachian Plateaus, New England province, and the Adirondack provinces. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which geologically belong to the Grenville Orogeny and have a different geological history from the rest of the Appalachians.”
Honestly, I’d much prefer to have a coastal Californian home with a cabin in the Sierra Nevada’s. That still may come when I finally find the nerve to launch a few of my entrepreneurial pursuits (still working on them in stealth).
Meanwhile I’ll make the most of this one year adventure. Next I’ll start exploring caves and do some river rafting.
