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October 1 to 15, 2010 October 16 to 31, 2010

Saturday October 16, 2010

A nice sunny day.
Time to wash the motorhome.
We are also starting to pack for our trip south.
Monday we are leaving for the US.

A hay ride is going around the resort and it was attacked by some walking dead. Scaryyyy!

Sunday October 17, 2010

Last day in Ontario. Tomorrow the next part of our adventure begins on the other side of the border.

Today I went to the little cemetery located in the park.
Some headstones are so old, you cannot even read the information.

Talk about old!

Do you recognize this tree?
It was on our page a few days ago.
This is just to show you how fast the leaves are turning and falling.

Monday October 18, 2010

We are on the road at 7:30. The sun is just peaking above the horizon. It is cloudy and cool, perfect weather to travel.
We crossed the US border with less than 20 minutes of wait time.

After the customs we take the interstate.
35 Km later we move from the interstate to the secondary highway 219 South. A really nice road. WE cross the State of New York and enter Pennsylvania. We are still on the 219, but heading more east towards Winchester, Virginie.

Do you want pumpkins?

What can I say!

Many houses have a star on the wall. I wonder what it is all about?

Only aggressive drive have accidents?

A small town we drove through.

I should be looking forward!

Secondary highways are very nice with less traffic.

We still have to take the interstate every now and then.
We are in Maryland for only 5 km. We are now in West-Virginia
We are spending the night at the Walmart in Winchester, VA.

We drove quite a ways today, 500 km. We want to get to the Skyline Drive as soon as possible.
The Skyline Drive is in the Shenandoah National Park.

Tuesday October 19, 2010

We are going to the town of Front Royal because it is just at the entrance on the National Park Shenandoah.

The Skyline Drive is a scenic drive. It is a road that is near the top of the Blue Ridge mountains. It is 105 miles long, or 169 kilometers. The Skyline has 75 scenic stop and the maximum speed is only 35 mph. Let me tell you, sometimes with the motorhome it is too fast.

The white light indicates the Skyline Drive in the park.

The drive starts with some low clouds and fog. Yet, on the east side of the mountain it is almost clear!
Here are some photos in no particular order.

We are spending the next two nights at the Big Meadows campground. We are at an altitude of 3535 feet. We just need to do nothing for a few days, just some light visiting. It drops down to + 4C at night. We are paying only $20 per night without services.

It is such a beautiful drive with all the leaves changing colors.
In 6 and half hours we only traveled 51 miles of the Skyline.

Wednesday October 20, 2010

When we woke up, the fog was so thick. The trees were dripping. No chances to see some nice scenery today.
So, we head to Luray and the caverns

The Luray Caverns are the biggest of the East coast. The tour lasts over 1 and half hours. We have our own tour guide, it is a small recording machine with headphones, in the language you want. Neat!
It is beautiful and the way the lights fall on the formations is very interesting.
A small pound reflects the stalactites, very nice!

The stalagmites you see are only the reflection of the stalactites.

A small car museum is also included in the price. It was OK, but no more than that.

After the caverns, we stopped in Harrisonburg for some grocery shopping, then headed back to the campground.

As we drove up, we still have some fog in certain area.
Tomorrow we continue our drive on the Skyline.

Thursday October 21, 2010

Before I tell you about our day, I have to tell you about our night!
It was very windy. We are surrounded by trees. The trees are oak and they have small nut at this time of the year.
And the nuts were falling on the roof of the motorhome. It was noisy all night long.

Back to today.

Up by 8 am and we hit the road by 9 am. We are fast!
Then bad luck strikes us. Right after we hook up the car to the motorhome and move forward a little, the tow bar lock in the wrong position. Darn! Out comes the hammer and screwdriver and a few minutes later it is fixed. Good! Let's get back on the road. I plug in the GPS and see some sparks coming out of the 12 volts plug. Darn X2! I cannot use the GPS. I look for the fuse-box and I cannot find it! I will look for it when we are off the road for the night.

We are finally on the road by 10 am.

We are only 54 miles from the end of the Skyline Drive.

We are going on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP)

The BRP is 496 miles long. The BRP is not as pretty as the Skyline Drive, but we can travel a little faster.
With 2 incidents so far, why not another one!
As we get to the end of the Skyline Drive and go into the information center for the Blue Ridge Parkway, I go around the info center and I make contact with the roof corner of a small shed. We are now the proud owner of a scratch, 6 feet long on the side of the motorhome. Not too bad.
The beer will taste some good tonight!

With the stop at the info center we visit a small museum/village from the 19 century.
Small, but very nice.

We stop for the night at the Montebello campground.

I have to tell you, the up and down on the Skyline and the BRP are very steep, but the road is nice.

More photos of the day.

All I can say is, it is so pretty.
I can only imagine how it would be to travel this road on a motorcycle.

Friday October 22, 2010

On the BRP going south.

Again the scenery is so beautiful.

Our first stop on the BRP is at Natural Bridge, between Buena Vista and Roanoke. So beautiful and big!

We arrived just as this lady was giving a presentation about Natural Bridge. Very interesting!

Here is the natural bridge. Highway 11 is using the bridge

Nothing to add!

This marker is indicating where George Washington (the future president) did the first survey. The white square on the rock is where he carved his name.

A small Indian village with some actors telling us all about life back then.

On the way back.

A different view of the bridge.

The price includes a wax museum and a toy museum. He looks so real!

The toy museum is nothing to write about. The wax museum is OK, but no more. It was all about the US history and the presidents.

We are spending the night at the Walmart in Roanoke. The Walmart is located at the end of the local airport.
The security patrol tells us we can stay not problems. He is patrolling just to prevent some kids from doing graffities and breaking windows. It is now a safe place to spend the night.

A good day!

Saturday October 23, 2010

Back on the BRP this morning. We stop at a small village and a mill from the 1900 in the Appalachian mountains.
Very informative place.
The doors were not very tall.

They used pieces of corn for the piece of the checker game.

The Mabry Mill. It was a flour mill and lumber mill.

A beautiful place.

The people of Pennsylvania and North Carolina have a very distinct accent when they talk. AS soon as they started talking, it was like a song. We really had to work hard to understand what they say. Some times it is funny when we look at each other and neither of us understood what was said.

Some different sign!

Another Walmart for the night. This one is in Boone in North Carolina. The parking lot is full when we arrived. The first place we found is by a sports bar. Noisy, I do not like that.

Later on in the evening we moved to the other end of the parking lot where it is quiet.

A good day!

Sunday October 24, 2010

We leave Boone by 9 am.
The south side of the BRP is a lot nicer then the north side. We are higher too. Today being Sunday, more cars are on the road.

Mandatory stop at Rice Lake. We are lucky as we have no wind and the lake is super calm. Very pretty.

We drive over the Linn Cove bridge. It was constructed to allow wild animals to move freely. A few animals are on the endanger list. We can see the bridge in the distance.

Driving a 40 foot motorhome on these roads is very tiring because of all the curves and going up and down. I would recommend that if you do come a drive this road, do it in a car, not a motorhome or 5th wheel.

Another funny sign!

At 5,200 feet (1,585 M), we are not even at the highest.

Once in Asheville, we stay at the KOA for two night. This will allow us to recharge our batteries and maybe a little touring too.
We cannot use our satellite because of the trees, but we have cable.
We will visit Chimney Rock.

Monday October 25, 2010

We woke up to rain.
Humm, what do we do today?
Why not visit Chimney Rock State Park.
We use back roads to get there. I would not have like to drive the motorhome on these roads.
We are at the park in about 40 minutes.
They even have an elevator to go up to the top. At the top the sky is clear and we can see very far.
The entrance of the park, you can see the chimney by the big rock of a mountain.

From the parking lot we can see the chimney.

A tunnel through the rock to get to the elevator.

Looking at the chimney is just as nice as looking from the top of the chimney.

Hummm, am I the exclamation point?

A little further from the chimney you have the Devil's Head. What a neat rock.

Next, we walked to Hickory Nut Falls. Nice walk, but the falls are not much to look at.

Most of the places in this region have rocking chair on the front of the store. You are welcome to sit and relax.

We have to include the following photos.
These murals are in the bathrooms!
It is beautiful.

We have been seeing a lot of these vines along our travel. Doesn't it look like a ghost?

Enough visiting for today, time to relax now.

Tuesday October 26, 2010

Less than 100 miles to the end of the BRP.
We left Asheville without problems and once back on the BRP, it starts to go up and up!
We finally hit the highest point of the BRP at 6,053 feet (1,844 m).
This is not as high as the Canadian Rockies, but here the roads are much steeper going up and down.
Here we are at the highest point, but the fog took away the sights.

We could not believe the fog in the tunnel!

This photo is so cool.

Those are real wild turkey.

At the mile marker 450 miles we stop at the information center and ask about the tunnels to come. We read somewhere that they were on the low side at 11 feet, 3 inches and 10 feet, 6 inches. The motorhome is 12 feet, 1 inch tall! It does not work!
One of the staff told us he never heard anyone hitting the top of the tunnel. We decide not to continue the BRP and get down on the main roads. We will have to come back and do the last 15 miles later on.
Still early in the day, we decide to go to Robin's Air Force Base.
We hit some pretty heavy rain. Later on when I check the basement, the carpet is a little wet from driving in the rain.

We phoned the base, but they have no opening for us at this time. We drive a little more today and stop at the Walmart in Banks Crossing, Georgia. What a cloud!

Wednesday October 27, 2010

A driving day today. We are driving on the secondary highways and a little on the I-75. We covered about 320 km today.
We are taking a break for a week at the KOA in Cordele, Georgia.
Our site, number 31 with full services for $35 a night.

The campground is a little close to the I-75, but it is not too bad for the noise. This campground is mostly for the snowbirds traveling south and north.
The owners are very nice people. Nice campground.

Friday October 29, 2010

Thursday was a "read, TV and internet" kind of day.

Friday we are off for a drive to have a look at cotton fields. We even see a cotton bale on the side of the road.
Cotton grows in a very hard shell and when it is mature, the shell breaks and you now have a cotton ball.
Fields are harvested many times as the cotton does not mature all at the same time.

A big cotton bales!

We also noticed lots of trees planted in a row. Later on we learn that they are Pecan trees.

Friday and Saturday evening the campground is hosting a jam session of gospel and country music.
We really enjoyed it and it was not too "religious".

The floor of the clubhouse is made of planks with some spaces between them. This allows the dust and sand to fall under the clubhouse when you clean the place. Many building do not have basement in this area.

Saturday October 30, 2010

Another laid-back day. I decide to have a fire today. The office is selling 12 pieces of wood for $10, I find it a little expensive. I want a fire so I buy them. Let me tell you, this wood is so good, it is oak and on the first night I could only burn 5 pieces in 3 hours. It took me 3 days to burn then all! What a nice fire you get with oak.

We are back for the Saturday jam session. We love it.

I really like the look of these candles.

Sunday October 31, 2010

We just took a drive in the area.
Quite few people sale peanut, boiled peanuts by the road. I have to buy one bag and try them. They boiled the peanuts in the shell. Why? I can only think of one answer. In the old days when you lost you teeth at a young age, you could only eat peanuts if they were boiled! This is my story.
The campground owners picked up some pecan and gave them to us. They are so fresh and so good.

Life is good!