Four states in one day!

The sun shone down in Asheville, even as the forecast told of snow. I sped northward, constantly anticipating that around the next curve i would find piles of snow and ice, determined to make this good weather luck last as long as possible.

In all my days of driving on this adventure, I have faced precipitation very few times. (This is not counting the two months i spent in Oregon, where driving in rain is a given.) I faced an onslaught of snow as i approached Denver back in November, which eased within an hour. I fought rain (and low-hanging fog) as i crested the Siskiyou summit on my drive from Eugene to Auburn. and the majority of my drive in the western part of Alabama, from Mobile pretty much all the way in to Birmingham, was marked with rain. Every other day, though? Sunny skies, sparse clouds. I know that much of the rest of this winter has been brutally cold, and many of the locales I visited experienced unseasonable snow at other points.

I experienced some driving confusion trying to find the proper interstate in Asheville. This primarily has to do with the extremely silly nomenclature of I-26. Interstate 26, following the typical pattern of such things, ought to be an east-west interstate, but proceeds in a decidedly northwesterly fashion. Through Asheville, it runs nearly due north, and even has an interchange with my old friend I-40, which I just feel like should never happen. Somehow, as I left downtown Asheville, I found myself on I-40 heading west, a route that would take me to Knoxville, Tennessee. I stopped to ask for directions to I-26 West and was greeted with incredulous looks. "Well," I clarified, "it runs north, but it is called 26 West."

I have since learned that for a stretch in Asheville, I-26 West actually runs east. Now, what is the point of having a well-established system for naming interstates if you do not follow it?

Asheville is only about fifteen miles from the North Carolina-Tennessee border, which was a pleasant surprise. At about three other points on this adventure, I'd considered altering my route just to drive through Tennesse. These plans had never quite come to fruition. I had only decided to go to Asheville about a week ago while already on the road, so I hadn't had time to pore over potential routes. It certainly came as a surprise that morning when I looked on my map and realized I'd be traversing eastern Tennessee en route to West Virginia!

The sun shone brightly, illuminating mountains I was unaware existed in tennessee. Prior to this day, my only venture into Tennessee was at a rest stop in the middle of the night one summer on tour, so it hardly counts. I had envisioned Tennessee more like Kentucky - gently rolling hills, scattered horse farms, but an pervading sense of flatness. Instead, here were my Applachians, glistening in the crisp January sun. Perfect clouds rolled through the blue sky above, and I gaped at how idyllic the sight was.

I-26 terminates just past Kingsport, TN, and from there I picked up Interstate 81 North. This is another interstate that doesn't exactly follow the designation assigned it. I suspect that in this part of the country, the blame for these inconsistencies is twofold: hills and history. It is much easier to carve a straight path through the desert or a valley than the seductively winding Appalachians. Also, by the time the interstate system was created in the '50s, the eastern half of the country was criscrossed by state-to-state routes that had been well-traveled for centuries, compared with the relatively recent expansion of their western counterparts. (Did you know that Arizona became a state in 1902? 1902! That's the most recent of the 48 contiguous states!)

In eastern Tennessee, the interstate in question traverses a distinctly east-west route, but no matter. I knew it would take me into Virginia's softly rolling western hills and farmland that evokes memories of colonial days. I had previously driven on a stretch of I-81 on my Memorial Day adventure that brought me to drop in on my cousin who lives in Roanoke. In short time, I crossed from Tennessee into Virginia. I stopped at the Welcome Center to acquire another of those coveted road maps put out by the state Department of Transportation that put AAA's to shame.

I saw thick clouds in the distance, and envisioned that they held snowstorms and torrential rain, but my luck held. A sprinkling of snow graced the bucolic hills, and piles along the side of the roadway reminded me of winter's presence. The hills, both green and brown in late January, were lined perfectly with a white dusting. I couldn't have painted a better picture.

After a while, I-81 met I-77, an interstate that actually follows the rules by heading north into West Virginia. I-77 goes through the biggest tunnel in Virginia, the Big Walker Mountain tunnel. This is what it looks like in summer, but today it was covered in frosty drifts of snow.

To my left, the sun threatened to set, shooting beams of light through the bare trees to the west. The clouds thickened, a little more gray than before, setting the stage for a peaceful winter's day. I drove through another majestic tunnel, the the East River Mountain tunnel, and entered West Virginia. Four states in one day! My anticipation quickened as I neared the exit that would take me to Athens, West Virginia, where one of my dearest friends lives.

Cautiously, I slowed to the off-ramp. The roadside snow, sparse in Virginia, here consisted of freshly piled drifts of snow, and the road was thick with salt and sand. I followed WV-20 as snow sparkled on tree branches around me and the sun, thankfully, shone on. I got my first feeling of homecoming as I pulled into Sara's drive and scampered up to her front porch, flinging her to me in a heartfelt embrace.

Daily mileage: 254. Total mileage: 5,250.