What a strange, unsettled little world we're living in at the moment, no?
I'm not a fan.
Demonic foreign invaders who don't belong here to begin with are attacking peaceful Americans minding their own business on one side of the country and doing unimaginably violent, intentionally homicidal things, while shrieking support for a murderous terrorist organization whose twisted cause had recently claimed innocent lives in our nation's capital.
You'd think a drive in the mountains of Appalachia would be as remote from the insanity as one could get. A bracing breath of fresh mountain air and stunning views.
And now we hear an incendiary device was found in a roadside turnoff from one of America's most iconic drives.
A bomb squad was called out to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina on Sunday after a suspicious device was found near the roadway.
The device was found on a roadside pull-off shortly before noon on June 1, near the Folk Art Center in Asheville.
Officials said the Asheville Police Department’s bomb squad responded, along with the FBI, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, two local fire departments and National Park Service personnel.
The suspicious object, which was categorized as an improvised incendiary device -- was safely removed from the area. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, such devices are geared toward rapidly creating and spreading fire rather than an explosive blast.
WHUT
National Park Service rangers were there to help on Sunday, and would appreciate any tips someone might have about the device.
NPS Rangers along with Local, State, and Federal Agencies Respond to an Improvised Incendiary Device Found on the Blue Ridge Parkway
...The National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch is leading the ongoing investigation.
If you have any information about this incident that could help, please contact the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch one of three ways: by phone at 888-653-0009, online at go.nps.gov/SubmitATip, or email e-mail us.
What a ghastly thought. The Blue Ridge Parkway is the reigning visitor's queen of the NPS because it's stunning, affordable, and accessible.
325.5 million visits to national parks in 2023, 16.7 million visits to the Blue Ridge Parkway
This week, the National Park Service announced that 400 national parks reported a total of 325.5 million visits in 2023, an increase of 13 million or 4% over 2022. On the Blue Ridge Parkway, visitation numbers saw an increase of 1 million or 6% over 2022, with slight increases across most months of the year.
“The Parkway’s location, design, and proximity to so many gateway communities provide a wide array of rich natural, cultural, recreational, and historical experiences for park visitors,” said Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent Tracy Swartout. “Appealing to so many visitors of so many different interests and abilities is a hallmark of the Parkway experience across the decades.”
One of 429 sites managed by the National Park Service, the Blue Ridge Parkway was created as a national rural roadway with limited access, designed in the 1930s for pleasant motoring free from commercial traffic. The Blue Ridge Parkway travels the crests, ridges, and valleys of five major mountain ranges, encompassing several geographic and vegetative zones ranging from 600 to over 6,000 feet above sea level. It provides visitors with many varied vistas of scenic Appalachian landscapes ranging from forested ridge tops and mountain slopes to rural farm lands to urban areas. The parkway offers a “ride-a- while, stop-a-while” experience that includes scenic pullouts, recreation areas, historic sites, and visitor contact stations. It is known nationally and internationally for its designed landscape as a scenic motorway.
You're supposed to be bowled over by the spectacular scenery, and the pullouts and roadside carveouts have been specifically designed to encourage motorists to stop and drink it all in.
What kind of fiend...Lord. I can't even imagine any mind that hideous.
In a perverse way, it reminds me of Katie Hopkins and her incredulous reaction to a Swede's begging her not to talk about the hand grenade they'd just found in a city waste basket outside a police station.
'What do you mean?' Hopkins demanded in astonishment, 'That it's 'JUST a bomb in a bin'?!'
There are long stretches of the roadway where, God forbid, something happened, it would be nearly impossible to get first responders to the site and motorists out with any degree of efficiency.
Because it is, first and foremost, a mountain road.
Besides the mayhem at the site, had this thing gone off, was that part of the calculus?
Just a bomb in a bin at a crowded roadside stop?
I would like to point out that in the specific scenario from yesterday in the Blue ridge parkway you have even fewer options.
— Greer Poplin (@GreerPoplin) June 3, 2025
There are intersections only every 50 miles in some spots, once you're up on the mountain the only way back down is through, and you're not walking.
So many stretches of it are isolated...
There are none in many spots for miles. pic.twitter.com/eJCEb7L1X7
— Greer Poplin (@GreerPoplin) June 3, 2025
...and chunks of it are still closed thanks to damage from Hurricane Helene that repairs have yet to be completed.
This is the Blue Ridge Parkway.
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) October 28, 2024
Death on one side. Explosion of color and life on the other.
Feel like this perfectly encapsulates what Asheville is experiencing right now. pic.twitter.com/uk4kKxVpRA
That would restrict even more travelers to smaller sections.
Whoever did this would know that.
No, sir.
I'm not a fan of this new normal.
I'd like my sane, civilized country back now, please.
