The Picture to the Right was taken from the Saddle Overlook looking East into Franklin County Virginia.

 My wife and I used to meet here, at the saddle, every Tuesday evening before we were married. It was a beautiful romantic meeting point halfway between our colleges. Back then I was going to college west of here in Montgomery County and my wife was attending College in Henry County east of here. We had been dating since High School. Currently we are in the finishing stages of a house we are building on a ridge in Franklin County near the Parkway about 15 miles from this overlook. One evening back in December while I was working on our house I got out our new Franklin County Phone Book. I decided I wanted Pizza for dinner so I began looking for a certain little Pizza place in Floyd County in which I used to visit when I was in college. It was winter time and the roads were a little slick. I really wanted to see if they were open before I made the trip over the mountain. I then realized my phone book did not list businesses along the Parkway  in Floyd or Patrick counties. I decided to make a directory of businesses along the parkway. I knew that the Parkway ran mostly along the county lines and with many newcomers moving to the parkway area they would also have phone books that may not list a business just minutes away.

  The Picture to the left was taken from my bedroom balcony at the house I am building.
   I started the website on January 1, 2004 called blueridgemtns.net . I have always had a love for the Blue Ridge Mtns. and I enjoy Ham radio contesting on the Parkway. BlueRidgeMtns.net  provided a directory and a place for people to send pictures and stories that I would then post on the web site to share with others. In the beginning the directory only had 9 categories. After a few months the interest in the pictures and stories died down but the directory took off. I decided to move the directory onto its own page. I registered the BlueRidgeDirectory.com domain name for the directory page. My desire is for this to be a very useful tool of information for communities along the parkway as well as visitors. I want to maintain a clean and effective, easy to use, kid safe site. I don't do large animations or high resolution graphics on the directory pages. There are still a lot people along the Parkway that have dial-up internet access and I want them to be able to access information easily and quickly. In March 2005 I registered www.ParkwayMap.com website. Lots of travelers use a map and this site allows surfers an interactive trip planning experience. Parkway businesses have reported patrons finding them with our maps  in their hand.  I'm sure you will find the site a useful resource of Parkway information.