While still on the fence myself, I'm starting to teeter in Obama's direction.

Politics is truly the Mother of All BS, right?

Leaving for West by god Virginia at noon tomorrow. I can't wait to get to the assorted junctions of interstate highways to sit and burn gas but no miles. The otherwise small town of Wytheville, VA, where I-77 and I-81 come together briefly, is always particularly fun. If I am really lucky, there will be a number of bumper thumpers along the way so that most of what is normally a 5 1/2 hour trip on rural freeways through a number of my beloved Appalachian ranges will turn into 10 hours that feel like Los Angeles at 5:00 for the entire length. If I am truly, truly blessed, I will get to crawl through the tunnels at both Big Walker and East River mountains at 5 miles an hour, with lots of stop and go. I love breathing fumes in long tunnels.

The selection of books on tape or CD at Cracker Barrel ain't what it used to be (or there just aren't that many really good books out recently that both a 13 y.o. and a 55 y.o. enjoy listening to. If we have a good, long book to listen to, neither of us much care how long it takes to get somewhere.   Just south of Mt. Airy we run out of NPR stations with a budget to spend on interesting programming, and just north of Mt. Airy we run out of NPR stations with enough power to pick up at all except on the ridgetops.

BUT, just outside of Winston Salem, we'll catch our first glimpse of Pilot Mountain, with it's promise of what is to come. Another 35 miles and we are beyond Mt. Airy, crossing the Virginia line, and heading up that long, 7 mile grade through to Fancy Gap. It will be daylight, and we are having a late fall. Much more colorful that we had thought, given the lengthy and severe drought we are still experiencing. That first long mountain of the Blue Ridge hugs the left side of I-77. Looking out the passenger side, the Piedmont drops away as we climb. Mt. Airy and the rest of the Arafat Valley spread out below us in a scene made for a postcard.   We are literally and laterally climbing up the side of the first of the mountains. No other mountains obscure the the vista to the right of us for almost that entire 7 mile climb. Just below Fancy Gap the grade steepens just a bit, the road curves and heads into, not just up, the mountain. Right at Fancy Gap, we cross the bump of the ridge. From here on, the view in every direction will be of long ridges, high valleys, and steep, narrow hollows. We still have 200 miles to go, but this hillbilly heart of mine knows it is home.