Down East and the Maritimes: Day Four

We puttered around downtown Bar Harbor for a couple of hours on an overcast and drizzly day on Sunday.

Sailing vessels at Bar Harbor

Lobster boats at Bar Harbor

Monday was a different story! We got there bright and early so we could hog glob find one of the few free, all-day-if-you-want parking spots on West Street. (That's the street that runs right along the harbor front.) Although we got there around 7:45 AM we were still over a quarter mile from the trolley depot. We were early enough to go get a cuppa and sit on one of the benches overlooking the harbor before making our way to the depot.

Four-master at Bar Harbor--in the sun!

Our tour departed at 10 AM sharp and we had a marvelously entertaining and informative tour of Mt. Desert Island that included stops at the top of Cadillac Mountain, the Wild Gardens of Acadia and Thunder Hole. We only stopped for 15 minutes at each, but it was enough to give you a taste.

Dorr and Cadillac Mountains from the Loop Road

The Atlantic from atop Cadillac Mountain

Bar Island and the Porcupine islands from the Loop Road

Thunder Hole

While Terry and I have been to two of those places many, many years ago, this was our first stop at the Gardens where we were enthralled. EVERY. SINGLE. THING. is labeled and identified for you.(We went back in the afternoon to take a more leisurely look around.)


Tomorrow we will be going up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the first rays of the sun strike the US. That sunrise takes place at 4:59 AM but to find parking at the top we were told we should plan on being there no later than 4:15 with 4:00 being even better.

Down East and the Maritimes: Day Three

Sunday: Day 3

We took the long, slow path from Biddeford, ME to Trenton, ME today. It was raining so we decided to delay our arrival at the Timberland Acres Campground as long as possible. Besides, we wanted to see some small villages/towns along US Route 1 that we would have missed if we had hopped the interstate. It was worth it as we passed through several very picturesque little towns founded in the late 1700s and early 1800s with their very Victorian homes and downtowns. Some very impressive painted ladies!

We still got to the campground around 1:30 PM which afforded us time to look at the handouts provided by the campground staff over a quick sandwich and then head down to Bar Harbor. Once there, we purchased some warm outerwear, booked a trolley tour of Acadia National Park with Oli's Trolley for Monday morning and a nature cruise with the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. for Tuesday afternoon. It's a two hour cruise so I'm pretty sure we'll be okay.

We stopped and had a drink and an appetizer at Paddy's near the town dock. It's a beauty of an Irish pub and we sat in the bar where everyone else was glued to the TVs watching Portugal vs France in soccer.

On the way back to the campground we picked up a boiled lobster at one of the many lobster pounds along route 3. The lobster was to supplement the left over french fries, fried shrimp and fried clams from last night's dinner.

We also stopped at the campground office and got one of our propane tanks refilled as it had run empty during the cold of Saturday night. It did it's job of taking the chill out of the trailer and, with the windows closed and an extra blanket, that was all we needed. Thankfully, the trailer comes with two 20 pound tanks--the same size as those used on your gas grill. I was able to switch over to the second tank this morning so we could have coffee and tea. That's the first tank I've had to refill--and that's after the long cross country trip to the west coast last year. I really need to get out on the road more often.

(BTW, the stupid low tire pressure light was on for the first ten miles of today's trip and then--poof!--it disappeared.)

Down East and the Maritimes: Days One and Two

Friday: Day One

We left the Aerie on Friday morning and enjoyed an uneventful drive up to Woodford, VT where we stayed at the Greenwood Lodge & Campground on state highway 9. Nice folks, pleasant setting (next to a ski run) and, if we had been so inclined several activities (nature hikes with plenty of birds, canoeing in a fairly large mill pond, etc.). The owners felt it necessary to appologize saying they usually didn't have many children in the campground, but Bennington was hosting a national motocross(?) race this weekend and they had reservations from several families who were planning on attending. From what we saw, some of them must have decided NOT to show up because of the iffy weather. (drizzle and some solid rain fell during the night.)

There was a nice country store across the street (half mile walk) that sold pretty near everything we needed and more including homemade salads, chocolates and pastries. We spent some money and enjoyed the edible portions of our purchases immensely.

******

Saturday: Day Two

 

The short trip from Greenwood Lodge & Campground in Woodford, VT to Old Orchard Beach Campground in, well, Old Orchard Beach, ME was somewhat eventful. 

 

1- Immediately after leaving the gas station across the street from the campground, the low tire pressure indicator light came on. Try finding a place to pull over a pickup hauling a 31' travel trailer in rural Vermont on a two lane state road. I finally found such a spot and hauled out the little Slime air compressor and a tire guage. Pressure seemed fine in all four truck tires but I put in a pound or two iin each just for good measure. The warning light was still on. I shrugged my shoujlders, uttered a few well chosed four-letter words of encouragement and drove on. Some 10 miles later, the damn light went off and stayed off for the rest of the trip.

2- It drizzled off and on the entire day. We roads are slick roads especially when hauling a 31' travel trailer up and down 8% grades with many, many s-curves--and stop lights in every little hamlet and at every corner of the larger towns. Cautious is not the word for how carefully I was driving.

3- MapQuest directions proved very vague and sometimes down right inaccurate. The restaurant at one corner, DiAngelo's had moved a 1/4 mile from the intersection. And wasn't on any corner anymore. Luckily it was in the direction from which we were coming so we had a warning that something was afoot. There was no "ramp" for the turn I was supposed to make when US 202 turned left, so I missed that. That led to a gas and lunch stop further down the (wrong) road where we got our bearings and made corrections.

We did eventually get to the campground and only added a few minutes and a couple of miles to our travel.

It's still drizzling, however, and just about 60 degrees. So we will not be visiting the beach or the pool today. Now the Lobster Trap restaurant up the road is another story.

Tomorrow it's off to Ellsworth/Trenton, ME and the Timberland Acres RV Park just up the road from Acadia National Park. We'll be there for a couple of nights as we get to explore the park and nearby Bar Harbor.

Of Mice and Meandering

As I mentioned in the last post, I detest mice in the trailer, shed or cabin. To that end, I scattered mothballs in the shed and have seen the amount of mouse activity decline.

And Monday, I set five traps in the trailer. Tuesday I found two trapped mice and one sprung but empty trap. Wednesday I found two more trapped mice and two sprung but empty traps. My quest for a mouse free trailer continues!

******

In preparation of our meander into New England and the Maritime Provinces, I made the final calls to several campgrounds today to make reservations for our trip that starts Friday. Had to change my planned destination for the Bay of Fundy are when I found out the campground is now a drive-in movie theater. All the other stops have been successfully booked so we're good to go.

I've printed out directions to each campground and Terry got a bunch of Nova Scotia booklets, maps and brochures from a friend of hers who just returned from there. All we need to do is pack the trailer, check and correct the trailer tire pressure, and hitch her up to the Tundra on Thursday evening.

Oh, and our cat/house sitter has confirmed her acceptance of responsibilities for the duration.

We're really looking forward to this little trip. We've not been to Nova Scotia since the big blackout hit NYC in 1977. (We had also honeymooned in the vicinity of Acadia National Park back in 1972.)

******

I cut the grass this afternoon using the mower that AJ's cleaned the mouse nest out of. It ran perfectly. And ran out of gas just as I finished the last little bit of "lawn."

I Hates Meeses to Pieces! (Mostly)

Oh, mice are okay--in their place. Which, for me, is outdoors in the woods and fields. They do NOT belong indoors! Whether it's in the house (never here at the Aerie, but a regular occurance when we owned the Bolt Hole), in the shed, or in the trailer.

If it wasn't for the White-footed Deer Mouse I wouldn't have earned my Master's Degree. (Trying to find out if the little guys traveled across the interstate highways of NJ I spent two years trapping, marking and retrapping mice on I-287 and I-78. There were plenty of mice on the median and in the adjacent "mainland" woods, but I only caught one brave enough to cross three lanes--includes the shoulder--of wide open spaces. Doesn't mean they don't cross the road, I would have to do a lot more live trapping to make a definitive finding.)

Up north, I would set four traps in likely places throughout the Bolt Hole and capture--read"kill"--three to six mice a night for the first week I was there after a long absence. Then things might quiet down and I'd only get 1 or 2 every other night.

I had some problems starting my lawn mower the day before I was to go to Quebec. I cleaned the airfilter of some debris but the darn thing would run for a second or two and then die. Being in a hurry toget the grass cut, I took it down to AJ's Outdoor Power to get it repaired and then went to Lowe's to purchase another push mower so I could get the job done.

I got a call from AJ's upon my return to learn that they had removed a mouse nest and the mower was running fine. Cost me the price of a new mower (about $200) and repairs (about $45) but I've now got two mowers that work. And a shed sprinkled with moth balls. Hey! They're supposed to keep mice away, too.

Terry and I spent some time last Saturday cleaning up mouse droppings, pee and nesting material from various spots in the travel trailer. I used duct tape, aluminum screen and foam insulation to close all the gaps I could find. Today we found more droppings and, opening a cabinet we had overlooked, a missed nest along with two desicated mouse bodies--one in a plastic trash can that must have been too tall for the mouse to climb out of once it fell in.

I set some traps inside and one in each of the storage bays. Hopefully we'll have no hitchhikers when we hit the road on Friday.

Prepping the Vibe for Road Trip

We opened up the travel trailer this afternoon to begin preping for our three week trip to the Maine coast and on up to Nova Scotia.

We've had problems with mice before and tried to use lavender to deter them as per some suggestions I had read on line. It doesn't work. The mice chewed the lavender packets and shredded some paper towels to build a nest in one of the kitchen drawers. We swept/vacuumed up the pieces of paper and mouse droppings--something we did earlier this year--then hauled all the utensils into the house to run them through the dishwasher. We'll pull everything off the pantry shelves and give everything a good washing with a little Lysol and soap.

Meanwhile, we're perplexed as to the point of entry. The might find a way around some of the plumbing and I'll do a little patching with some wire screen and foam insulation. Then we'll try some peppermint oil as well. (At least that will smell pretty.) I've some essential oils (includes peppermint) and some granules for when we put the Vibe to bed for the winter. I'll also put some wire screening in the AC/heating vents in case that's where they are entering. Same for the vent to the hot water heater.

At least they haven't gotten into the wardrobe in the bathroom or the two closets next to the bed and we haven't seen signs that they've been in the pantry (no food stuffs there!) so there are some safe storage areas.

I'll also have to run a hose out to the trailer the next day or two to flush the winterizing fluids from the pipes.

Our departure is set for July 8th--one week from tomorrow.

Went Fishing

I spent last week up in Quebec on a smallish lake next to Goin Reservoir fishing with my buddy Joe M. for walleye and northern pike. The pike didn't get the message but we did catch over 200 walleye including one that tipped the scales at 6.5 pounds.

This was our 22nd or 23rd trip to the area with Oliver Broussard of Caesar's North Camps. We left the Aerie Friday afternoon at 3 and crossed the 1000 Islands bridge at the northern end of I-81. Moved east to Ottowa and then north through Mount Laurier before jumping on a dirt road (127 miles of dust) to head to Parent and finally Clova. The toatal distance was 620 miles by car. We then flew north for 20 minutes--at 100 mph--and were at our lake and our cabin by 9 AM.

We unpacked, rigged up our gear and were fishing in half an hour.

Needless to say, we had a fun week with only one afternoon of horrible weather. (Thunderstorms and hail swept in twice with just a brief two hours in between--and we even managed to get out and fish during that spell. We managed to get off the water and under shelter of the cabin both times.)

Our home for the week.

Joe in his position on the bow.

First night at the cabin we had a full moon.

Calm evening.
 

One of the many walleye that measured 20-25 inches.

Rainbow marks the location of one of the walleye spots we fished the first half of the week.

This walleye weighed in at 6.5 pounds.

The land north of the Laurentions is relatively flat and the sky is endless.

Clouds are numerous.

Montana has nothing on this "Big Sky" country.

A couple of days after the stroms, we spotted this huge plume of smoke rising from somewhere to the east of us--right where we had seen some lightening strikes. We watched two big, yellow tanker planes flying around ensuring that the fire didn't spread too far and wide. The smoke stopped before sun finally set around 9 PM.

We learned later that this fire wasn't likely to spread much. It was on an island on the Goin Reservoir.

Smoke!

Still, knowing how quickly a fire can spread when there's a bit of wind behind it, we spent Friday afternoon wondering if we might get evacuated a little early. (We were due to--and did--fly out Saturday morning at 8 AM.)

Finished Raised Bed

Before we left The Aerie for Long Grove, IL, I finished up the raised bed putting in a pair of gates and then installing rabbit fencing all around. Then I put in the tomatoes and peppers and herbs Terry had bought/saved from the old bed.

I think it turned out pretty good. Virtually everything was recycled except the cedar used for the gates. The hinges came from cabinets from our home in Dover (many, many years ago), the rabbit fence was left over from a separate project, and the wood was redwood decking from Morristown. At least things are getting used that I've saved--and moved--from house to house.

Since we left last Sunday, there's been plenty of rain so my only concern is that things may be too damp.

Visiting

Been visiting the last couple of days. At Cindy and John's house in Long Grove, Illinois where these folks are in for a week:

Rick, Chelsea and Sandy

Chelsea Rose

Why are they here? Sandy was down in Grinell, Iowa for her 10th reunion. They are taking the opportunity to visit friends as well as family before heading back to Portland.

Oh, and it was Rick's birthday today:

Could it be 33?

Birds galore.

Went out on a group bird walk this morning on the Railroad Grade Trail starting at Ive's Run. Beautiful morning with the temps starting at 57 degrees, partly cloudy skies and no wind. There were five of us and we were entertained by a couple of deer watching us, a snapping turtle laying her eggs, a painted turtle crossing the road--although it was imitating a rock when we spotted it in the middle of the road--and a plethora of birds. American Redstarts and Baltimore Orioles were everywhere along the trail as were the Veery, Vireos, and a number of other warblers. I recorded some 44 species:

 

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo 

Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
American Robin
Gray Catbird

Cedar Waxwing
Blue-winged Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch

 

Working on the garden.

Spent today recycling more of the redwood from the Morristown deck. Turned it into a 42" high wall around the rebuilt raised bed garden. Well, the redwood formed the frame. Tomorrow I'll install the gate and tack up some chicken wire for a stop gap.

Then I can plant the tomatoes and peppers Terry picked up today along with the peppermint and chives we saved from the old garden.

Should be all done tomorrow afternoon. 

******

Today's weather was fantastic...except for that one hour when the heavens opened up. Temperatures were in the 60s most of the day and barely got above 70. Of course the humidity was in the same range! 

******

Spotted a fat ground hog out on the lawn today. It ran into the weeds as soon as it saw me. 

Rebuilding a raised bed garden (Part 3)

I was able to get out at 8 AM sharp and go to Lowes for the extra soil and pebbles that I needed. When I got home, I immediately went to work dumping the soil in the bed and then pouring the stone atop the weed guard along the edges of the bed. The latter will keep the weeds at bay (I hope!) and provide an open area to walk around the bed to work on the soil.

Finished bed being inspected by a chipmunk.

Nice and smooth. I like the concrete edging so much I may use it in several other projects.

River pebble and flat stone path along the back.

River pebbles line the front to keep the grass back. Yeah, the "lawn" needs some repair from the use of the backhoe.

River pebbles along the east side and weed guard at teh base of the lilac. I'm going to have to get some more river pebbles.

I also put some landscaper's cloth (the weed guard) around the two lilac bushes to control weeds under them. Those were held down with some of the flat stones I got out of the garden bed. I'll add some river pebbles one of these days to help smother the heck out of the weeds.

Finally, I took the rototiller to the soil in the bed, broke it up really fine and mixed it with the peat moss and preexisting soil to a depth of about eight inches. Then I raked it all nice and smooth and as level as I could.

Now it's all set for some plants! Terry will be picking up some tomato and pepper plants tomorrow while I contemplate how to put some fencing up to keep the critters at bay. They've never eaten the tomatoes but the peppers have had their struggle with ground hogs before.

Speaking of ground hogs, the family that was living under the shed (at least six little ones with a big momma) have apparently vacated the premises. I haven't seen them since I was talking about the merits of a .22 or 9 mm hollow point. Of course my constantly going up to the garage to sit in the shade every hour or so and going into the shed to get tools and such may have discouraged them. It was an easy live while we were away for two plus weeks, but I guess they don't like the company.

******

Then Terry and I made a run over to the dump. We had five bags of trash--a lot of it plastic bags from the garden soil and river pebbles, some recycling stuff, an old suitcase, an old toilet seat, and some other stuff that was just laying around we wanted to get rid of. At $3.00 a bag, it would have cost us a bundle to get rid of it all. As it was, because the clerk at the dump said our "load" was under 50 pound it would only cost us, well, $3.00. A bargain!

******

I mixed together a sprayer full of Round-Up and sprayed the plants that were growing in the other vegetable garden bed. Some of those "weeds" were gorgeous and I hated to do it to the daisies but the growth was too luxuriant to let stand. I hope to reclaim at least two of the beds before long. I may just cover them with weed barrier rather than plant anything there.

The other large bed needs to be completely replaced as it too was constructed of landscape timbers and they have rotted away. Currently it is one large 8' x 16' bed with a very steep drop--approximately 24"--on the downhill side. I'm thinking of making it into two beds 3' x 14' with a path between them. Sort of a terraced garden, if you will. This one may have to wait for August, however. There are trips to Chicago (1 week), Quebec (1 week), and Nova Scotia (3 weeks) between now and then. Besides, I need the time to get over my aches and muscle cramps.

Rebuilding a raised bed garden (Part 2)

Couldn't get out there early today as I had a dental appointment over in Wellsboro at 8:30 AM. That was a shame as the temps were int he 60s at that hour and I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed working then rather than the 75-85 degrees between 10 AM and 5 PM. Oh well, such is life.

Stopped at Lowes on the way back from the dentist and picked up 12 bags of Miracle Gro Garden Soil and two small bales of peat moss. Then went to work:
redistributing/leveling the existing soil
laying the keystone edging along the front...oops! You mean there are two types of block so that they dovetail together better? I didn't notice that until I was part way through the process.
Ended up having to go back to Lowes to get the missing complimentary blocks. And another 12 bags of garden soil and three bags of river pebbles.
laid landscape cloth/weed barrier--that Terry cut while I was doing the back and forth thing with Lowes--along the front back and sides of garden bed and began covering it with stone
Finally got all the keystone edging in place and began to distribute the peat moss and then the garden soil in the bed. I'll let that "dry" over night before raking it out--right after I go get eight more bags of garden soil and four more bags of river pebbles.

Any way, I'm nearly finished. See!

Nearly Finished

I even put in a redwood barrier to keep the oregano and eumonymous in place. And, yes, the keystone edging is lower on the left than on the right. That's the way things are around here. Nothing outside the house is level or flat for any definition of the words "level" or "flat." Everything slopes one way or another. Here, the difference is just 3-1/2 inches on a run of 14 feet. It looks a little strange because that back wall IS level. Otherwise, I think it's just conforming to the curvature of the Earth.

Rebuilding a raised bed garden

Since we came back from Florida (and other points south) I've been busy rebuilding the raised bed directly in front of the cabin. The nine year-old landscape timbers were rotted through and grumbling so it needed to be done. Plus, the redbud tree we had planted and which occupied a 2.5 foot square in the middle of the garden had given up the ghost after a couple of harsh winters and some storm damage back in 2010.

I tore the old timbers apart using a crowbar, brute force and shear stupidity. It took two days to get it apart as I had used spikes to hold it together. But, get it apart I did; salvaged most of the (slightly bent) spikes, too. As a bonus, when I used the tractor to haul the timbers to the back of beyond, I came across some morels! There's some right fine eating in them things!

The tractor and it's backhoe attachment came in handy to uproot the stump of the redbud but that took some doing. That little nine year-old tree had one heck of a root system. And for being completely dead, it was also surprisingly flexible. But, out it did come. Along with some pretty big stones--what else is new?

Then it was time to start rebuilding. I had decided to go with pressure treated 4"x4" timbers instead of straight stone or landscape timbers. I'm hoping they will outlast me at this point. After a false start or two, I decided that the down hill side would be mostly 4" thick solid concrete block with standard cinder block atop that and then the three layers of 4"x4" on top of them. The timbers would be held together with hex head lag screws and would simply rest on the cinder blocks. The weight of the timbers would hold then blocks in place and themselves as well.

Like most places around these parts it's difficult to find flat, level surfaces. The bed I was rebuilding slopes from a high point in the south east corner to a deep hole some 20" lower on the northwest corner. This is the area where the landscape timbers had sagged over the years so there may have been some slumping going on.

A butterfly bush on the left and the lilac on the right were crowding the old 16' by 8' bed. I reduced the size to about 14' 4" so they both get a little more room.

Raised bed under reconstruction.

 With the solid concrete block and cinder block in place , the timbers were laid out three high on top.

Terry wanted to save some of her oregano and the eumonymous on the right.

Euonymus

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 I originally toyed with the idea of using some of the many flat stones we have laying around to prop the walls of the bed up. But, after I had constructed a couple of piers using stone, they seemed too flimsy to withstand the pressure of soil from the inside. So I went with concrete blocs and cinder blocks.

Deepest corner with solid block, cinder block, and three timbers from bottom to top.

Timbers joined with lag screws and held in place with rebar at the corners.

 Once all the walls were in place, I tacked up some landscape cloth along the rear and west wall where it was deepest. Then I began to refill the hole left by the tree removal. This is going to take some additional garden soil. Lots of additional garden soil.

Dirt (mostly) redistributed. Front support board in place for the concrete edger.

 I built a backer-board for the front edger to be placed against out of redwood decking from our previous home in Morristown. I had replaced that deck in the summer of 1994 right after I retired. The wood was stored up in the Bolt Hole's barn and then relocated here. So it's not only aged, it's well traveled, too!

Al that's left over from the materials I purchased. One bag of river pebbles--which will get used--one solid concrete block, four cinder blocks. And the cinder blocks are left over only because I used four that had been sitting beside the shed for ten years.

Left overs.

 The concrete blocks to be used for edging along the front are shaped like keystones and are interlocking.

Edging blocks

Well, that's where it stands today, Monday. I'll probably get that edging stone in place tomorrow and then get some additional river pebbles so as to build a weed-free walkway on both sides and along the downhill wall. I've enough flat rocks to put on a bed of pebbles to make it almost like pavement.

Just a thought: This would be so much easier on a flat surface!

So. We went on a road trip and... (Part 6)

...visited Luray Caverns. The final installment on our recent trip down to Florida and back.

I know that many of you who have stopped at Luray Caverns probably think that is something of a tourist destination (think: trap). Well, Terry and I can be tourists when we want to be and the caverns are an interesting place. We had both been here before--a long, long time ago--like fifty-five years ago--on separate vacations with our respective families--when we were little tykes not yet tweeners

This time we were the first people in the parking lot when the gateway to the caverns opened. In fact, we didn't even realize the place had opened and just thought we would wander up to the door. We paid our money and then had to wait around for some more folks to show up before our guide took us down below. The tour covers about a mile and a quarter and takes one and a half hours.

Our guide led just eight of us below ground--steps, no elevators in this place. The caverns are a smaller version of Carlsbad. Stalactites and stalagmites abound. Sheets of material hang down from the ceiling where cracks have allowed solutions of water and iron oxide, or calcium carbonate, or the occasional sulfate to ooze and.or drip in to the open cave, evaporate and deposit their solid component. Water still flows through the formation so there's still deposits being made and growth occurring.

I tried a couple of ways of taking pictures: first was to use the flash--as to be expected underground; then I tried taking them without the flash as per the guides suggestions that it would produce more realistic color. (I now think she was wrong and that I should have left the flash on the whole time.) The first four pictures were with, the rest are without.

White formations are limestone (calcium carbonate) and the orange ones are iron oxide.

Stalactites hang from the ceiling. Some are sheets, some are conical

Sometimes stalactites (down) meet stalagmites (up) meet to form columns and the watery solutions flow over the surface.

Column formation.

 Speaking of water, there's a small, perfectly still pool that reflects the ceiling perfectly.

Reflection pool where up is down and down is up.

 Another of the reflection pool and the reflected stalactites. There are NO stalagmites in the photo.

So clear and pure, it seems fathoms deep. But it's mere inches of water.

 The combination of colors lead to some interesting patterns:

Bacon anyone?

And eggs, of course.

 This one was particularly interesting. It looks like a dish towel in the photo, but in real life you couls see the warm and weave of the cloth as light shines through it.

Dish towel.

 For a guy who had shed his cane just a few days earlier, this was something of a strenuous walk on undulating trails. Worse was the last, long flight of steps--which we had gone down--to exit the caves. The only thing making it bearable was the long line of young children coming streaming in as we exited. (They looked to be fourth or fifth graders to my practiced eye.)

Anyway, even though the caves are a pretty steady 55-60 degrees, by the end of the walk, I was ready for some:

"ice cream" stalagmite.

Luray was our final stop. Instead of going back to the Skyline Drive, we headed west to pick up I-81 and headed home.

One stop for some Chick-fil-a and gasoline and we were home just a little over two weeks and 3,250 miles after we left.

So. We went on a road trip and... (Part 5)

...drove home via most of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive (Shanandoah National Park).

When we left Roxboro, NC we drove southwest toward Ashville with the intention of going to the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway is a 469 mile drive from Cherokee, NC to Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro, VA. We learned there were two road closures with resulting detours in the southern end of the Parkway so we opted to join the road at mile post 331--the location of the Museum of North Carolina Minerals. (Guess we'll just have to go back to hit the southernmost portions along with the unforeseen detour we had to make for another closure north of where we got on.)

The museum was nice, but the real purpose of driving these highways is to take in the views.

View from The Knob

The things you learn.

Historic cabins abound.

 There was a Park ranger at this particular site who was trying to teach herself how to spin yarn. We talked with her for a while, toured around the little farmstead and it's spring house and other outbuildings.

Root cellar below shed used for storing foodstuffs. Why can't my stone walls look this neat?

Other side of the cabin. love the use of the crooked tree as a corner column for the porch.

 We hopped off the Parkway shortly after entering Virginia and drove back into North Carolina to find a motel in Mt. Airy. Had a great steak dinner at a place that knew how to cook beef right. They also believed that "small" is a foreign word not to be uttered at any cost.

The next morning we got back on the Parkway (in Virginia) and headed north. Soon we came across one of the most photographed sites on the Parkway: Mabry Mill at mile post 176. This mill was operated by E.B. Mabry from 1910 to 1935. Water was gathered from two small streams and directed by way of sluices to the wheel. Much of the year he ground coarse corn but in the spring, with snow melt increasing flow, he could saw wood. In addition to the mill building, there were several others that would house interpretive activities during the summer: cabin, blacksmiths, wood shop, etc.

Mabry Mill

Shortly after leaving the historic mill, we came to the modern day equivalent: a lodge/inn/restaurant. Being 11:30 Am we stopped for lunch and had a fine meal while overlooking the small lake.

All along the Parkway not only were the trees nearly in full leaf (although that changed as we got further north. And flowers were abundant, too. While too early for the majority of the azaleas and rhododendrons to be in flower, there were a few. Lots of wild flowers were also visible along the side of the road.

Flame Azalea

 We soon reached the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued on to the Skyline Drive in Shanandoah National Park. This is a much shorter highway park (105 miles versus 469 miles for the Blue Ridge) and it runs along a much narrower ridge, but the views are as spectacular and, because the ridge is narrower, the views often open up on both sides of the road at the same time.

The flowers continued including this tree with purple flowers. I can't get a name to it, having discarded suggestions of honey locust and wisteria. (The former has white flowers and the latter is a vine. Still think it might be some form of locust, however.)

 And the views included some burnt over areas form forest fires that spread along the ridge in April.

View toward the Shanandoah Valley with some burn areas visible.

Close-up of a burned out area.

View to the east with some burn area in the foreground.

As we neared the northern end of the Skyline Drive we decided to make one more stop: Luray Caverns. We got off the SD and pulled into Luray for the night planning on visiting the caverns first thing in the morning. That will have to wait for our next installment.