I heard there was a holiday village at Explore Park so I jumped in the car to check it out.

Explore Park is run by the Roanoke County Parks, Recreation & Tourism, and it sounds great! Described as “hundreds of acres of rolling hills, pristine woodlands, hiking trails, river frontage, historical buildings and a visitor information center,” it sounds like an outdoor paradise that I should have probably checked out before now. But add a Holiday Market, and wow, I’m there!

Unfortunately, one of the highlights to Explore Park is its proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and today the Blue Ridge Parkway looked like this:

The GPS took me an alternate route to the park, which wound through neighborhoods and up very narrow roads that were still partially snow covered.

This was no way to get to a holiday market.

When I got there, I only found a few tents and some light displays that were still works in progress. Along with advertisements for that holiday market.

Well, joke’s on me: when I revisited the Explore Park website in order to write this post, it seems that the festivities will start tomorrow. I sure hope that they get the Parkway thing worked out by then.

I did get a nice view of the city in my travels, though — that picture at the top of the post. And I know, the holidays aren’t that hard to find. They’re just a little tricky to get to sometimes.