Horrific driving conditions on I-64 over Afton Mountain. Low visibility and blowing snow.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Horrific driving conditions on I-64 over Afton Mountain. Low visibility and blowing snow. Plows are mostly keeping accumulation off the interstate. 8:45 am #vawx #Blizzard
@NWS_BaltWash

@VaDOT

Link to tweet

[Ocelot II]

1. How's the Convoy of Patriots doing today?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. I don't know. Probably headed back home or staying put, one or the other.

If they're going to keep doing this, I do hope they go back home:

The People's Convoy continues to take the law into their own hands and over the past week has attempted to box in frustrated commuters, so I asked Maryland State Police about the matter. "We're not aware of it," an official tells The Daily Beast.

Link to tweet

[secondwind]

2. Wow, that's just god-awful. Hope everyone gets to their

destination safely!

[Yonnie3]

4. Much improved now (tweet)

Link to tweet

Images snipped from https://www.511virginia.org/

[underpants]

5. Drove over Afton once only able to see one dash on the road ahead of me

Looked like that.

My folks live in the valley.

[Yonnie3]

6. I came over Rt 33 one day and had to keep the door open to see the center line.

It it is very curvy. It was fine coming east from Harrisonburg until a few hundred feet on the other side when visibility went away. White knuckle driving for more than an hour. No where to turn around and no shoulder to pull off.

I-64 is frightening in heavy fog because there are lights on the lanes and some folks don't slow down since they can see their lane. When it was foggy I used to get in front of a slow truck for protection going up the mountain.

[viva la]

7. Afton Mountain is Walton's Mountain, right?

From the old TV show?

[Yonnie3]

8. Walton's mountain is a fictional place

The author lived in Schuyler, Va. which is south of Afton Mountain and seems to be the area the TV series was styled upon.

[viva la]

9. I know it's a fictional mountain, but the author brought it to life--

Definitely it seemed like it was based on something he knew well.

[Yonnie3]

10. I watched the show for years and years.

It seemed to me that it is set in the foothills west of Schuyler. Towns like Rockfish, Nellysford, and Shipman come to mind. The set's buildings are similar to the older buildings that I saw in that area back sixty years ago. The California film set's hills and trees are different than those Virginia areas.

The authors inspiration is likely a melding of those Virginia places.

[viva la]

11. It's always odd seeing eastern settings in Hollywood films

They're so often filmed on much dryer landscapes, of course!
I remember a scene that was supposed to be taking place on the banks of the Ohio River, only it was more like a shallow creek!