Photo by Sheila Burns
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
RV Trip - Part 5
Sunday, August 2nd
Me and the kids slept in while Kelly got up early and hiked to the top of Sharp Top. It was raining by the time he returned so we decided to continue driving south on the parkway. I was a bit bummed out by the rain, it being our last day and all. So I focused myself on taking pretty pictures from the passenger seat. There is just something about country roads that I think are beautiful. Here is a sample:
We stopped at Mabry Mill and had a late lunch. By the time we were finished eating the rain stopped and the sun came out. This brightened my spirits a bit as well and we walked around to enjoy all the interpretive displays. The also had a folk music band playing and little makeshift stage for the locals to dance a jig. It was a really beautiful place as you can see from the pictures.
We left there made a concerted effort to get home, which only took a couple hours not including the dinner stop. Once we got back though, we had to unload the RV and get it ready for drop off the next morning. Just writing all the activity in the trip down from beginning to end makes me tired. We had a good time but didn't get much rest. Our next vacation will consist of going to one place and staying for a few days. We'll wait until both kids can really enjoy it before doing the RV thing again.
We took several hundred pictures on this trip so if you think you can stand more here's the slideshow.
Me and the kids slept in while Kelly got up early and hiked to the top of Sharp Top. It was raining by the time he returned so we decided to continue driving south on the parkway. I was a bit bummed out by the rain, it being our last day and all. So I focused myself on taking pretty pictures from the passenger seat. There is just something about country roads that I think are beautiful. Here is a sample:
We stopped at Mabry Mill and had a late lunch. By the time we were finished eating the rain stopped and the sun came out. This brightened my spirits a bit as well and we walked around to enjoy all the interpretive displays. The also had a folk music band playing and little makeshift stage for the locals to dance a jig. It was a really beautiful place as you can see from the pictures.
We left there made a concerted effort to get home, which only took a couple hours not including the dinner stop. Once we got back though, we had to unload the RV and get it ready for drop off the next morning. Just writing all the activity in the trip down from beginning to end makes me tired. We had a good time but didn't get much rest. Our next vacation will consist of going to one place and staying for a few days. We'll wait until both kids can really enjoy it before doing the RV thing again.
We took several hundred pictures on this trip so if you think you can stand more here's the slideshow.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
RV Trip - Part 4
Friday, July 31st
We left pretty early deciding to just snack for breakfast and continued our way down the Skyline Drive. We wanted to finish the whole road. We ended up stopping at a mexican place in Waynesboro for lunch. After that, we headed toward Douthat State Park. The GPS said it was an hour and half away. It took us two and half with the dogs and kids and such. It was during this stretch of driving that we were on the interstate and all the sudden I get a visual in my mind that if Elisabeth has a diaper blow out she will probably start eating it (she had been having some diarrhea the past couple of days.) Well, lo and behold, I turn around and see her doing in the flesh what I had just imagined in my mind. I tell Kelly we need to pull over, but he doesn't want to just pull over on the shoulder, and, of course, the next exit ended up being 6 miles down the road. In the meantime, I'm grabbing wipes and cleaning up what I can without getting Elisabeth out of the carseat, all the while trying keep my balance in the moving RV. We finally get stopped, and I get her cleaned up while Kelly cleans up her carseat. Then we get her strapped in and continue our drive to Douthat. We got there around 4:30 and were disheartened to find the campground was completely booked. After checking our maps and information, I called another Virginia state park to confirm if they had space available. So we ended up driving another 1.5 hours or so back across the Blue Ridge Parkway to Smith Mountain Lake State Park. While it wasn't the ideal situation, I really loved the area we drove through getting to the park. The campground wasn't our favorite - it was very functional but not very picturesque - designed more for the boaters and fisherman who come for use of the lake more than for family vacationers. Here's a picture of the view on the drive and another at our campsite.
Saturday, August 1st
We got free passes to the swim area with our campsite fee, so we decided to go swimming and then move on to "greener pastures." They had an immaculate swim area, and the water was cool and refreshing. Afterwards, we retraced our route from the day before to get back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took a meandering route and went back through Bedford. It was a very quaint little town. Of all the places I've been in Virginia I thought I would possibly like to live there. Here's a couple of quick pictures taken as we were driving through town.
We drove through another interesting town called Buena Vista before getting back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Once on the parkway, we stopped at a couple of overlooks. On the last stop, we decided to hike a short distance to a waterfall. It turned out to be a bit longer than we expected and the view of the falls wasn't very good. On top of that, I realized on the way back that we walked through several patches of poison ivy. Here is a picture of Kelly doing his SuperDad thing - carrying both his kids - approx. 55 lbs of extra weight up the trail.
After wiping down our legs and shoes and socks for fear of poison ivy, we piled in the RV and went up the road a little ways and set up camp at the Peaks of Otter. Elisabeth ended up going to bed early for once, and Jonah watched a movie in the RV after dinner. So Kelly got to build a big huge bonfire, and I got to chill out for few minutes and do nothing. We enjoyed some s'mores and jiffypop popcorn by the fireside.
We left pretty early deciding to just snack for breakfast and continued our way down the Skyline Drive. We wanted to finish the whole road. We ended up stopping at a mexican place in Waynesboro for lunch. After that, we headed toward Douthat State Park. The GPS said it was an hour and half away. It took us two and half with the dogs and kids and such. It was during this stretch of driving that we were on the interstate and all the sudden I get a visual in my mind that if Elisabeth has a diaper blow out she will probably start eating it (she had been having some diarrhea the past couple of days.) Well, lo and behold, I turn around and see her doing in the flesh what I had just imagined in my mind. I tell Kelly we need to pull over, but he doesn't want to just pull over on the shoulder, and, of course, the next exit ended up being 6 miles down the road. In the meantime, I'm grabbing wipes and cleaning up what I can without getting Elisabeth out of the carseat, all the while trying keep my balance in the moving RV. We finally get stopped, and I get her cleaned up while Kelly cleans up her carseat. Then we get her strapped in and continue our drive to Douthat. We got there around 4:30 and were disheartened to find the campground was completely booked. After checking our maps and information, I called another Virginia state park to confirm if they had space available. So we ended up driving another 1.5 hours or so back across the Blue Ridge Parkway to Smith Mountain Lake State Park. While it wasn't the ideal situation, I really loved the area we drove through getting to the park. The campground wasn't our favorite - it was very functional but not very picturesque - designed more for the boaters and fisherman who come for use of the lake more than for family vacationers. Here's a picture of the view on the drive and another at our campsite.
Saturday, August 1st
We got free passes to the swim area with our campsite fee, so we decided to go swimming and then move on to "greener pastures." They had an immaculate swim area, and the water was cool and refreshing. Afterwards, we retraced our route from the day before to get back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took a meandering route and went back through Bedford. It was a very quaint little town. Of all the places I've been in Virginia I thought I would possibly like to live there. Here's a couple of quick pictures taken as we were driving through town.
We drove through another interesting town called Buena Vista before getting back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Once on the parkway, we stopped at a couple of overlooks. On the last stop, we decided to hike a short distance to a waterfall. It turned out to be a bit longer than we expected and the view of the falls wasn't very good. On top of that, I realized on the way back that we walked through several patches of poison ivy. Here is a picture of Kelly doing his SuperDad thing - carrying both his kids - approx. 55 lbs of extra weight up the trail.
After wiping down our legs and shoes and socks for fear of poison ivy, we piled in the RV and went up the road a little ways and set up camp at the Peaks of Otter. Elisabeth ended up going to bed early for once, and Jonah watched a movie in the RV after dinner. So Kelly got to build a big huge bonfire, and I got to chill out for few minutes and do nothing. We enjoyed some s'mores and jiffypop popcorn by the fireside.
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