Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993 TAG: 9404130007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
Yup, that's it - the Bent Mountain Apple Shed. It's on U.S. 221 in Roanoke County, across from the fire and rescue station.
Don't confuse it, she warns, with the other roadside stand about half a mile down the road.
``Don't you say nothing. They don't like it one bit,'' she says, and puts her finger to her lips, explaining that the Apple Shed opened this season in hopes of tapping into some tourist dollars.
Rest assured, Ms. Boley. There should be plenty of business for everyone to make a buck or two. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dire predictions of a ``bad year'' for fall colors will staunch the flood of tourists expected to wash over Western Virginia this month, just as they do every October.
The Blue Ridge Parkway will log about 2.5 million visitor days this month - one of the busiest, said chief ranger James Howard Parr.
The Shenandoah National Park expects about 400,000 people to pass through, said spokesman Sandy Rives.
``What we do every year is we try to survive,'' Rives said of his 150-member staff. Their job is to keep traffic moving. Cars can sometimes back up for miles outside the entrance points during peak weekends.
``We're completely booked for all campgrounds,'' he said, and most of the hotels run by concessioners are also full.
Same with the popular Peaks of Otter Lodge on the parkway. By the time you read this, the 62-room hotel will probably be booked - for 1994.
``October is the only [month] like this,'' said Anita Brads, director of sales and marketing. ``Something about fall tends to make people want to get out.''
Many fall tourists begin up north and follow the colors south as nature sets the forests ablaze in gold and crimson. Many are from farther south - Florida and Georgia - where autumn just doesn't burst out in color like it does here.
The average fall visitor to Virginia spends about $46 per day, almost $10 more than during the rest of the year, according to Pam Jewell, a marketing manager with the Division of Tourism.
October gets the year's second largest share of total visitors to the state, with July ranking first, Jewell said. The biggest attractions by far are the parkway and Skyline Drive, and the majority of fall visitors tend to be older people.
``A lot of accidents are from people looking off around them and not where they're going,'' said park ranger Parr. ``People from Florida get scared at higher elevations.''
The accidents aren't serious, he said assuredly, just a fair number of fender benders. He advises elderly tourists to come up during the week to avoid the weekend rush.
Most sightseers like to drive to nearby communities and check out the local color found not in the trees, but in the small shops, little diners and country stores.
And roadside stands.
``We got a real special little place right here,'' said Sissy Stuart, proprietor of the Bus Shoppe, visible from the parkway at mile marker 149. ``We're just real down-to-earth people. We love everybody.''
Stuart has a little bit of everything at her shop, which started out in the shell of an old school bus. There's barbecue, handmade crafts and a flea market - and probably some good stories to be heard around the wood stove.
``The locals come by and sit by the wood stove and spit their tobacco juice ... and eat their little snacks,'' she said. October's always the busiest, she said, and this year should be no different.
The sweet gums and sourwoods had just started their seasonal descent into maroon the first weekend of October, and already the sightseers had Virginia Boley at the Apple Shed busy.
She had pumpkins for sale, dried Indian corn, gourds and squash, garden vegetables, homemade honey and bushels of all varieties of apples. And she had the potato that looked like a human, sitting by the cash register, but it was not for sale.
On up the road a ways, Ruth and Alan Fralin run Fralin's Produce, in Copper Hill. They're the first stand off the parkway on U.S. 221 south. They've been there for 12 years and have developed a client base that includes locals and out-of-state visitors, and many repeat customers.
``There's something about Bent Mountain cabbage,'' said Ruth Fralin. ``It's just sweeter.'' They're open just on weekends, since Alan Fralin works full time in Roanoke, and they also sell their pumpkins, cabbage, apples and other items to local grocers.
``They say this year the trees aren't going to be as pretty, something about the drought. But it won't stop them from coming,'' Ruth Fralin said.
``They'll come in the rain, no matter what.''
by CNB