Having the time of our life - Mountain Lake Resort

Next day was over 100 miles drive along the Parkway, views were fantastic and there are lots of places to pull over to soak up the scenery. Overlooks as the Americans say!

You occasional get caught behind a “Harleyatric” (all the Harley riders seem to be born again bikers, over 60 and ride at a snails pace, Rebel without a cause? I don't think so), who might slow you down but mostly you can cruise along at the 45mph speed limit.

We had an impromptu stop at the Mabry Mill which was very pretty and had a chat with an interesting guy in period costume operating the forge, in a previous life he taught pilots. 

We decided to detour slightly off the Blue Ridge Parkway for another historic stop – the hotel from Dirty Dancing, we only found out a couple of days before that it was close to our route and Amanda had been a fan of the film as a teenager so we had to go! We did try to cancel our hotel so we could stay there but unfortunately when you book the cheapest rates you can’t cancel ;-(

Mountain Lake resort is high in the mountains near Blackburg, Virginia, it is still a hotel and you can visit for the day although you do need to pay parking for the privilege. The filming of Dirty Dancing took place in 1986 and much of the outside of the main building and the lodge in which the family stayed remains the same.  What is a real shame, is that there is currently no water in the Lake, all the water has disappeared. We thought climate change, but apparently some fishers have opened up in the deep end and drained the water, these have now been plugged with rock and they are waiting for it to refill naturally...

Outside the main house

Boat pontoon out to Lake - as you can see there is no water!
No longer a good place to practice those lifts

Pavilion used in Dirty Dancing for dance scene

Main resort

Virginia Cottage, where the family stayed in the film

Dining room - has changed a bit

Memorial stone for Patrick Swayze who died in 2009

It was a really nice place to visit and still looks like a lovely place for a family to visit with lots of activities for the kids and they even do a few Dirty Dancing weekends.