Day 1 (Delayed)

We've stopped near Roanoke, VA for a quick break and our first internet access since entering Shenandoah National Park yesterday afternoon. Here's the day 1 recap!

Day 1

First, because I know how much “Jimmy Jones” appeciates this, here are the car pictures. Note that the back seats are NOT folded down for this trip!

We got off to a slightly later start than planned … unfortunately, as I had kind of expected, I wasn't able to get everything into my “regular” cooler and so we had to take the “big one”. It took a lot of extra time packing the cooler, unpacking it, repacking it, and then trying to get it all to fit into the car.

After that, everything was good. On the way, as I had kind of planned, we stopped at Cabela's in Pennsylvania. I was VERY good, and was able to resist buying the camp kitchen I've had my eyes on.

A little while later we stopped for lunch. We didn't pack a lunch in the morning, due in part to the cooler issues. After the lunch break, we continue on our way until we arrive at the North entrance to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and asked a Ranger if there were any decent hikes we could do on the way to our campground. Everything on Skyline Drive is referenced by its milepost number. Our campground was around milepost 53. The Ranger told us that between 41 & 42, we could do a short hike to the summit of Stony Man Mountain, the second highest mountain in the park, which would provide us a great view at the end of the trail. That sounded good to us, so that where we headed.

Skyline Drive is exactly what I was expecting … a windy round that works its way up and down through the mountains. The interesting thing about it, was that at any given point, there were views to the East, and then just a mile or so later, the views were now to the West, and so it continued.

When we got to the trailhead, we put on our hiking boots and headed out. It was a fairly short hike … just under a mile each way. When we got to the summit view point, this is the view we had …

A minute or two later … this was the view!!!

We turned around and hiked back to our car and then headed to the campground. We got there, checked in, and then set up camp. It went VERY well. In less than 30 minutes, we were completely set up, and that included at least 5 – 10 minutes of me explaining how to set the trailer up to Josh. We had no cell phone service in the campground so we went out to try to find a place where we could go to call home. We went to the Big Meadows Lodge, and were able to get a signal to call home.

After that, we went back to our campsite, cooked dinner (chicken parmigiana and penne pasta), and now we're just hanging out.

Tomorrow, we'll drive the rest of Skyline Drive and then continue onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. Before we head out, we may do a couple of short hikes in the area near our campground. The Ranger gave us some info on a couple of short, but nice hikes.

That's it for Day 1!