15.08.2012 – 15.08.2012  17 °C

Shenandoah Day today! We actually surprised ourselves this morning because we woke up to find the world was covered in fog (it also meant we got a sleep in!). The first part of our drive up to the mountains was a little slow. Nice windy road covered in fog!!

Once we hit the Skyline Drive (the Shenandoah part of the Blue Ridge Parkway) we were starting to get higher than the level of the fog so it started to clear. Well, the road cleared but the view of the famous Shenandoah Valley was still obscured! We stopped at this one road side scenic lookout to see fog rolling up the mountain towards us!! So cool to see the fog streaming up from the valley and then up and over the mountain behind us.

The temp up here in the mountains is quite a bit cooler than down in the valley.. we even had to don our jackets today to stay nice and toasty! Our lunch stop today was at a picnic stop on the Skyline Drive, its also where a part of the Appalachian trail crosses the drive, so today I can officially say that we hiked a part of the Appalachian trail! Sadly, it is also the place where we left behind our trusty thermos.. Damn it!

We stopped early this evening at the Big Meadow Lodge inside the NP. We managed to get two adjoining double rooms for just 111 dollars so we were in! I have to say that the accom in the NPs is always first rate, not luxurious, but is always simple, clean, warm and always has a great homey atmosphere (the wood panelling helps out).

D and I left M and decided to go for a short hike up to the top of the nearby mountain to see the look out… not much to see due to the fog so we thought we’d go for wander down to the visitor centre to stretch our legs (a 3mile round trip). The walk was good (from the fact we stretched our legs) but a bit boring as it was just thru some scrubby stuff. It was boring until we discovered an in use spy tracking station (in my opinion UFO tracking)—so for the rest of the trip we were making up stories about hidden nuclear bunkers and ICBM silos in the NP… (For the record we have no idea what the tracking station was but we figure what better place to hide spy stuff than in the middle of a NP????)

It did start to rain just as we got to the visitor centre so we headed in for a homemade blackberry ice cream (too good and way too much) before we braved the weather and started our trek back to the lodge. Our way back was more of the same but with a couple of bambies and of course more conspiracy theories about the innocent looking “weather station”.

M joined us when we got back for a hearty beverage and some dinner in the lodge’s bar. D and I tested out the local moonshine (you know you’ve made it to the real Virginia when you can test out the local brew) mixed with juice. Moonshine is distilled from corn mash and is actually pretty good… well most alcohol tastes good when mixed with plenty of fruit juice… I may need to test it out straight one of these days to see how close to rocket fuel it really is!!

What a great way to top off our first day in the “real” Virginia! Tomorrow we are continuing our drive down the Skyline Parkway with a plan to drive down into the valley to see the Shenandoah River.

Song of the Day– Babylon Zoo, Spaceman