October 2--The Shenandoah Valley

We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day! The tent was dried out, hardly any signs of the previous day’s rain. Our destination today is Natural Bridges, Virginia via the Shenandoah National Park Skyline Drive and then the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It was just an absolutely lovely drive, 25 to 45 mph along the ridge line with about 20 curves to the mile on absolutely pristine blacktop. We stopped at the first visitor center, and learned that the park has the highest population of black bear on the North American continent. So, I kept my eyes peeled all day for bear, but all I saw were a few deer on the side of the road.

We also met a couple from NC on a Beemer motorcycle (R1200RT for all you gear heads) headed home from visiting grandchildren in NY state. We ran into them at a couple of the stops, and ended up sitting by them Skyland Lodge when we stopped for a small bite and ended up with a great late breakfast! They had been to Big Bend National Park in Texas, one of our proposed waypoints for this trip, and raved about how wonderful it was. They also recommended staying at the Lodge in the park, so I think that is our new revised plan when we get that far. We had been toying with skipping it and coming back another year, but after talking to them, we decided we should go on this trip. Heck, it’s only a thousand or so miles off the direct route!

Well, all day long we thought of our riding buddies, Kevin and Julia Smith, Norm LeFevre, and my son Jon. We talked about how much they each would have enjoyed the ride today. We ran into a number of motorcyclists throughout the day. Three guys touring down from Montreal, a couple guys from NYC ‘burbs, and lots of folks that we just waved at.

We had gotten a nice little milepost magazine from the Virginia Tourist Information people yesterday, so we followed it today as we toured. We ended up stopping at quite a few pullovers listed in the milepost magazine, all of them scenic and beautiful.

Today we figured out what good RV campers are for. If you are following them in the fall when the leaves are turning and falling, they leave behind them a trail of leaves floating in the sunlight, dancing behind them. It is almost like a swarm of yellow butterflies following them. . . and greeting us.

After leaving the Skyline Trail and entering the Blue Ridge Parkway, we came on Humpback Rock Visitor Center which sits on 800 acres of national park. They have built a small farm on it (actually, relocated all the buildings from somewhere else) and tried to replicate what life was like in the late 1890’s in the Shenandoah Valley. It was complete with a garden, chickens, tobacco drying, and a cabin. We met Ranger Melissa there, who grew up in the Valley and loved learning about all the different skills a pioneer had to have to live on the land. So she began her Federal career dressed in period costume. What a nice lady!

We finally turned off the Blue Ridge Parkway 62 miles into it, and headed west to our night’s campsite. Tonight we are camped at a Jellistone Campground that has wi-fi so that we can watch the Palin-Biden debate. Go Joe!!!!

Tomorrow, we head for Asheville, NC to see the sights.