20th Feb 2006
Following the unlucky fact that the high points of North Carolina 's Mt Mitchell and Tennessee's Clingman's Dome were closed for the winter (which we hadn't planned on), we decided to try our luck at one more place before heading home. Up north we went from Tennessee towards Kentucky, driving through Virginia as the high point for Kentucky was at the border between Virginia and Kentucky. It was an interesting drive through the Virginian coal country, seeing the small towns and shackled houses and passing banks called "Miners Bank". We made a toilet stop at a Burger King in a little town. A guy stared at me like I was an alien. Obviously another small town hick who didn't get out much and hadn't seen an Asian. Felt a little apprehensive (again, white supremist thoughts running through my head) but got through it. Passing the town of Appalachia, we made our way through the mountain range through the windy cliff-edge road and passing large coal mining trucks. We were headed to Black Mountain at 4,145 feet.
When we arrived in the area, it was covered with snow a foot high. We had to drive though this snow (luckly we had a SUV and 4-wheel drive) along a small road lined with pretty snow covered trees. The Kentucky high point was a short walk away from the road, so we trudged through the feet high snow to a boulder marking the spot. As the peak was shared with the Virginian mountain range, it didn't feel like we were at the top of a mountain, but with the snow around us, this site was one of the prettier ones we had visited in days. That was it and we were headed home. We had made five high points in five states in three and a half days.
We left Kentucky at 1.30pm on what would be a 12 hour drive back to New Jersey. From Kentucky we drove on Interstate 81 and 78 heading through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennslyvania before arriving home in Jersey at 2am on Tuesday morning. Driving through 14 states, 2800 miles (4500 km) and $400 in gas later, our road trip was over.
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