Virginia sites

August 22

We left Big Meadow headed for a visit with Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. We thought we would be able to walk the grounds, and take in the sites.  However, to do so, we would have had to pay $24 a piece and since we both had seen Monticello years ago and it was too hot to leave Molly in the trailer, we decided to for go walking the grounds.

Photo op with Thomas Jefferson

We then headed to a camp ground just outside of Lynchburg, VA. We stayed at Paradise Lake Camp Ground.  not a bad for $16.50 a night, the Passport America rate.  We went into Lynchburg to see what there was to see.  Not much.

August 20-21

We stayed in Big Meadow campground in Shenandoah National Park on Monday and Tuesday.  We had planed our trip to end at Big Meadow around 1:00pm.  When we plotted out the trip, we told the GPS to go to Shenandoah NP and failed to take into consideration how far we had to go to get to Big Meadow after entering the park.  We didn’t get settled in until almost 4:00pm.   

Along the way we passed through West Virginia.  When I found out that Harper’s Ferry was less than 20 miles away I headed that way. You know me I'm all about seeing historical places. I tried calling T, but had no cell coverage, so he didn't get to see Harpers Ferry with me. 

T “forgot” to fill-up with diesel fuel before entering the park and when he realized how low he was on fuel he was in a panic.  The nearest diesel station was over 30 miles away.  He was beside himself, thinking he would not make it to the station.  I did get him to relax enough to get some sleep.  The next morning he drove to the fuel station in Elkton, VA and I followed in the Miata, just in case he ran out of gas. The drive to the fuel station was mostly downhill and T had 10 gallons of fuel left when he got to the station.   It rained most of the day, so I spent it reading and relaxing.

Driving the Skyline drive alone isn't much fun.  So we decided not to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway.

View along Skyline Drive

August 19

We left Bennington and headed south.  Our plan was to pass through Pennsylvania and drive the Blue Ridge Parkway south to North Carolina.  We spent a night in Wilkes-Barre, PA in the Mohegan Casino parking lot.  We found out that there was a race track behind the casino, Pocono Downs.  Having never been to a horse race we decided to go watch awhile.  It was a harness race.  The horse cantered around the track with a guy in a  thing with a sit and a place for him to put his feet.  I picked a long shot to win on the first race and of course we lost.  Then on the second race I picked a horse to place.  Our horse won!  We were excited and thought we’d won a lot.  The laugh was on us.  We’d bet $2 and our winnings were $2.20.  After that we called it a night and turned in early.