Bear hunters in Blue Ridge, Virginia - always talk to strangers!

[peacetraveler22]

Sometimes the simplest things bond strangers together. It can be a shared love for music, a song, immense passion for travel or, in my case, a fuzzy bear hat. I wear this hat during all of my winter travels and it never fails to attract attention from strangers. Immediately they are put at ease by the silly ears on top of my head, and on numerous occasions it has served as the starting point for conversations with random people on the street. However, I never imagined I would actually encounter bear hunters while wearing it. This exact thing happened on the final leg of a long road trip through the Mid-West, when I was routing back home to Virginia through the Blue Ridge Mountains. There I crossed paths with a group of rugged mountain men engaged in a high tech bear hunt. Luckily, they didn't shoot when they saw me. :)

1. In the future, I'll have a lot of stories about the Mid-West, but we'll start at the end of the journey. After driving over 5,000 km in a week, it was nice to slow the pace down and take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in my home State of Virginia. The Parkway runs through both North Carolina and Virginia, stretching over 800 km in length. You can enter at various points on the route, almost all of them designated as National Park entrances. Early morning sunrise in the mountains! Is there a better way to start the day?



2. All entrances are clearly marked off the highway to avoid confusion.



3. The U.S. National Park Service employs over 22,000 paid workers and 200,000 volunteers each year to ensure visitors to our National Parks are well cared for. I'm sure many of you have visited at least one National Park in the U.S., almost all of which require some type of paid entrance. I read online that the Blue Ridge Parkway contributes over 902 million dollars per year to North Carolina and Virginia! And this is only one park! So, I will never understand Russia's hesitancy to build a solid tourist infrastructure, which could bring billions of dollars to the country each year.



4. On the Parkway, endless forest roads and smooth pavement. Winter is not the optimal season for viewing due to the bare trees and poor weather, but I never tire of nature. Even staring at bare trees brings some type of immense peace and calm. Good for the soul. A reminder of one of my favorite poems by poet Mary Oliver - "In the season of snow, of immeasurable cold, we grow cruel but honest. Stripped to bare bones, we keep ourselves alive, taking one after another, the necessary bodies of others...."



5.  So many lookout points on this route, all marked with room for drivers to pull over and admire the scenery. Common for all National Parks. If you don't like mountains or rugged nature, there's no reason to take the long way home on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Speed limit the entire route is 35 - 45 mph.



6. Beautiful serpentine roads, necessary to exercise caution while driving, but a barrier exists to hopefully protect drivers from flying over the edge of the mountain.



7. All the sports enthusiasts can find a lot of hiking trails off the beaten path. I climbed these stairs and they led directly into the forest with a walking path carved in the dirt. Along the way, more overlooks to stop at and admire mountain views.

8. After a short time on the Parkway, flashing signs warned the road was closed ahead due to bad weather. It was freezing cold and windy, with only small traces of snow on the ground. I decided to go a bit further, and that's when I saw the bear hunters on the side of the road! I stopped to chat, and they explained everything about bear hunting.

They send their trained hunting dogs into the woods with GPS tracking devices affixed to their collars. The hunters use handheld devices with high tech display screens. You can see the exact location of each dog, all with individual names. A "wave" signal appears on the radio device when the dog barks and then the chase begins. I watched a dog named "Rowdy" on the screen as he sniffed his way through the woods in search of black bears. It was quite cool to see the hunt in action, but no bears were spotted while we were there. Last year, almost 2,500 bears were harvested in Virginia. Hunters need a special license for bears, and all kills must be reported and weighed at official Bear Stations run by the Virginia Department of Game.



9. It's good to speak with strangers! Don't be scared to do it, especially if you visit the U.S., where people are almost always willing to chat. Sometimes random people can teach us new things, and bring a lot of laughter and joy. The bear hunters and I share a love for the same animal, but for very different reasons. For them, the big, fuzzy bear is a tasty meal, and for me one of the cutest animals on the planet. To kill or eat one is unthinkable!

We all loved bears so much, we even have personalized license plates dedicated to the animal. :) On one of the hunter's pick-up trucks, the plate reads "BL BEAR" (short for "Black Bear"), and my license plate is emblazoned with "RUBEAR." This, of course, a double entendre. The primary meaning is "aRe yoU bear?", but the plate is also a dedication to one of my favorite countries to visit, and its national symbol - RU BEAR! :)) So, for all those people who constantly insult me and call me a Russophobe, I hope my license plate proves my honest and genuine interest in your fascinating country. Very common in America for people to personalize their plates. It costs $25 extra/per year and there are hundreds of designs from which to choose. I've never seen license plates like this in Russia. Do they exist?



10. Just a few miles past the hunters, the snow began to gather on the grass and trees.



11. Then, the big road barrier appeared. Road closed, and it was necessary to turn around and head back to the highway. Apparently, there was a lot of ice on the road in higher elevations, so the National Park Service closed the road to avoid danger and accidents. Can you imagine this happening in Russia? :) The country would be at a complete stand still all winter.



12. What to do now? Immediately it was necessary to eat! In small town areas, you can almost always find authentic diners and a quick Internet search disclosed the "Pink Cadillac Diner" was only a few miles away. Classic, American diner in the best of ways!



13. I've been to the Starlite Diner in Moscow, but there's absolutely no comparison with a real American diner. The decorations are the same, but the atmosphere completely different. A real American diner is filled with locals, usually blue collar workers, hungry and ready to eat good homemade food. There's no one sitting around on comfy couches, smoking hookah, or listening to music. This diner had a lot 50's memorabilia.



14. Great decorations, and very tasty breakfast. A huge omelette, potatoes, biscuit and coffee can be enjoyed for around $10 USD.



15. I especially liked the bathrooms! Lucy for women; Ricki for men. A tribute to one of the best American television comedies ever, which aired in the 1950's - "I Love Lucy." Have you watched it? Very progressive characters for the time period.



16. Oh, nostalgia! Pure joy when I saw the Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga video game. I'm a Galaga champion! My favorite video game as a young kid, I played it constantly and am still a pro. I even taught some young kids how to operate an actual joy stick and play the game. It's always best to learn from the master. :)



17. Three waitresses working in the entire diner. Good, friendly and efficient service.



18. With a fully belly, it was time to bid adieu to the Pink Cadillac Diner and search for another adventure on the drive home...and, I quickly found it!



19. It doesn't matter the size of the American town, you can almost always find antique stores and they're worth stopping at. I had no idea one of the largest Antique Malls is located only a two hour drive from Washington, DC! But here it is, and tons of treasures await me inside, including some scary items like these dolls. I hate clowns and baby dolls! Even as a young girl, I never played with dolls, finding them mind numbingly boring. Nightmare inducing toys! :))



20. Hundreds and hundreds of old board games stacked in one section. I don't even know if kids play them anymore, perhaps their attention spans are too short with the proliferation of iPads and other electronic devices at even a very young age. My favorite game as a kid was "Operation." So, I purchased a vintage edition of the game from 1961. Still works. I played the game with my nephew when I returned.



21. It's popular for antique enthusiasts to collect colored glass, from various time periods, but I don't know anything about their worth or origins. Some of the items are expensive - several hundred dollars, and others much more affordable ranging from $20 - $50 USD. And, again, scary dolls, this time on top of a teapot! Who would buy this atrocity? :)



22. The most interesting thing was all the old military items, vintage newspapers, magazines and posters. It was in this store I discovered the $400 Yeltsin poster we discussed in this post. They also had a lot of German and Hitler memorabilia, including birthday invitations to one of his parties.



23. Almost anything can be found at this place - old vinyl records, vintage toys from the 50's, house and yard decorations, and even slot machines!


24. In the small, rural towns near Blue Ridge, abandoned houses are mixed with modern, huge ones. I guess one of the residents was turning 50 years old, and the family decided to announce it to the world. :) A lot of farms and dirt roads along the way.

25. Innocent and frightened visitor in the woods. Or maybe we were the visitor, disturbing his natural habitat.



I'll end by using this deer as an example. Don't be frightened of strangers. We can only learn about a place, the world, and especially a new country, by speaking to others and listening to their stories about every day life. In America, this is absolutely no problem for me. With or without my bear hat, I'll approach almost anyone to ask a question, or seek out information about an area or specific attraction. No one in my family can understand it because I'm an introvert by nature, who somehow blossoms into a social butterfly when traveling.

In Russia, I can't say I'm so brave. For a foreign visitor, the unsmiling faces are a bit menacing and unwelcoming. I honestly find it intimidating, and not primarily because of the language barriers. However, I promise next month to take my own advice. To try to reach out to more Russian strangers and engage in conversation when I arrive at the end of February. How will it go? I'm not sure, but I'll be sure to tell you all about it during the journey...until then, more travel stories this week from Estonia and Alaska! Stay tuned...