One of the more inventive uses I made of the Blue Ridge Parkway was when I was assigned (as a Deputy Sheriff) to take a prisoner captured in Loudoun county (the northern-most county in VA) down to Charllottesville. I had a young female deputy as a shotgun and the prisoner (a check-kiter) in the back of the cruiser. It was a beautiful day and I decided to take the BRP, as Route 81 had not been built yet. (This was in the early 70's) As we wended our way down the Parkway, I decided we needed to stretch our legs, so I pulled off into one of the viewing areas and pulled up next to what was clearly a hippie van.

Both the prisoner and I smelled the rich perfume of the devil weed and he hollered out of the rear window "COPS". Immediately I saw three people run from the other side of the van and throw a couple of those really intricate head-shop bongs and about a pound of grass over the edge of the look-out. So I got out of the cruiser and after adjusting my mirror-shade sun glasses, giving my southern-style deputy hat a tilt forward, and making certain my .357 was snug in its custom built Jordan thumb-break speed-draw holster, I approached them.

I immediately noticed that all three were standing there watching me nervously, but what I really noticed was that the female had nipples the size of carriage bolts under that tie-die. So I went up and without a word, looked over the edge of the retaining wall to the ground about a 1000 feet below, barely seeing the brightly shattered pieces of the broken bongs .

"I see you got rid of the grass...,

but I could still write you for littering in a National Park...

if I only had jurisdiction..."

And then I walked back to my cruiser and drove away.