A Slightly Different Focus

Last weekend, I very much enjoyed being out and about doing photography.

At the same time — and to me perhaps the only thing better — I got to run the GTI down one of America’s greatest roads: the Blue Ridge Parkway.

My car is over-equipped for most of the roads it encounters. A GTI is the sports version of Europe’s most popular car, the VW Golf [Rabbit in this country —Ed.]; as I’ve found out, the go-fast folks at Volkswagen don’t fool around. So, while I-16 from Macon to Savannah might be almost painful, with its four lanes of no hills, few curves, and bouncy, broken concrete, something like the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway is exactly the sort of well-finished, scenic, and exciting two-lane twisty road my car lives for.

I loved it: a fantastic drive.

For those of you not familiar, the Blue Ridge Parkway was the result of stimulus spending … in the FDR days. It runs from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and took almost fifty years to complete. Let me tell you: it was very much worth the work.

It goes up, too. At one of the overlooks, I shot this photograph, looking back at where I’d just been — the Parkway’s sun-lit route through the mountains. In the distance, you can see not only more mountains, but also the dark rain clouds I was determined to outrun:

Blue Ridges, at Home (Click for larger)

They were indeed “smoky” mountains that morning. (Nice house in there, too. Would love that as a retirement place….)

At the top, I took a break:

GTI, plus 6053

In the background, there’s not only the sign proving the details, but also Gerald’s BMW R1150R motorcycle (and, for the record, a hog, just peeking out from behind the sign). We’d met in Asheville, NC, to do this route together, and let me tell you: I more than enjoyed trying to keep up with one of the few vehicles on the planet better able to handle this particular road than mine.

Thus, the tribute shot:

R 1150 R

At the end of the run, the GTI was dirty and breathing hard, yet satisfied indeed — as mounts do at the end of a race:

GTI (with Reflections)

I love my car. Thank you, Volkswagen, for something small, efficient, and yet enormous fun.

Thank you, too, to Gerald for a photography meetup in another state — and for sharing one of the greatest drives in recent memory. Kudos also to Doug, who was kind enough to look after the kids cats while I was gone. Appreciated!

Up soon: that Shortcuts post I’ve been promising forever, edited to reflect that it’s been, well, forever. Plus, more details on why I’ve been photographing all sorts of scenes in the Southeast. Thanks for checking back.