It kind of got me thinking about my situation. Here in Buena Vista we\'ve been skating the same couple or three one mile runs for so long they are probably getting tire grooves from being carved up so much. It dawned on me that there must be something else, something that we have yet to skate.

So, Steve (the one other longboarder in town) and I headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to have a look around the parkway. I had always thought of the Parkway as a way too steep with bad pavement, turns out, I was wrong.

We began to drive and discovered a lot of good, fairly long runs within 5 mile of where we got on the parkway -- within 15 minutes of home. On the way back down we stopped at the Buena Vista Welcome Center and picked up some maps of the parkway. There, we discovered that we happen to live very near the highest point on the parkway, and that down the road not too far is the lowest point on the parkway.

That could only mean one thing. Lots of good runs. We went back up the next day and skated a 3 mile run just for \"practice.\" The thing was so long we had to hitchhike back up the mountain.

The other day I was up there again with family and friends, we were just going to go see a waterfall. We saw it, it was nice. After we were done I decided that I would start skating down for a bit.

They agreed to follow me in the car. I soon discovered that I was on another good run. I had to carve pretty tight to keep my speed reasonable, there were a few cars since it was a nice Saturday afternoon, and on the first time down it\'s nice not to go tooo fast.

After a few minutes I began to wonder how long this hill could possibly keep going. I passed a couple mile markers, and still going. It ended up being 3.2 miles, all downhill, none of it way too steep, all of it fast enough to be challenging and fun.

Since we\'ve discovered some much longer runs that will keep us busy for a long time to come.

So, I agree with the guy from the magazine, explore what\'s around you, you never know what you\'ll find. And if you don\'t find anything where you are, you\'re welcome to come skate here...

UPDATE:

The long, squiggly line is the Blue Ridge Parkway just a little Northeast of Buena Vista, VA.

COMMENTS

\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ">Marianne: I just wanted to comment on that guys review of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He didn\'t mention that parts of the road are not open to cars (winter months) and that you can actually walk/ride the road car-free! You just have to do it at the time where it\'s hasn\'t snowed just yet. I\'ve yet to skate it. I\'m still a beginner. Anyways, I just wanted to throw in an added benefit.