Shenandoah Valley WOW!

We arrived at Shenandoah Valley Campground on Monday afternoon with plans to stay two nights and one day. We love this campground - it is in a beautiful little valley and right next to a little river that even has a waterfall. Ellyn says it's her all-time favorite campground. Geoff said that Ellyn says that about every campground we go to.

Here's all we've done in our one day, here...

1. Our plan for a pre-breakfast bike ride around the campground scuttled by the flat tire on my bike. That made getting my bike tire and inner tube replaced as the first thing on our agenda. It was easy to find a bike shop in Staunton - about 15 min. away. The bike guy fixed the bike quickly but not so quick that we didn't have time to pick up a few sundries in the bike store.
   
2. After the bike was done, we took advantage of being in Historic Staunton to walk around the charming small city. There are many 19th century buildings and we had fun using the Walking Tour Map to learn about each of them. We had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.
   
3. Our next stop was Grand Caverns. We've always enjoyed visiting Caverns through the years - though it was even more fun when Logan and Brian were still traveling with us. We were totally impressed by this cavern - really nice big rooms with plenty of undamaged stalactites and was unique in three ways: A) The limestone plates in this cavern ran vertically 2) There are about 30 or more "shield"features - a typical cave only has a few and 3) The cave has been open to the public since 1806 - more than 200 years ago. Both union and confederate civil war soldiers visited the cavern. And it was the custom back then for visitors to sign the walls - more than 200 signatures have been authenticated to be civil war soldiers - we saw a few of them.
   
4. We then returned back to the Campground and did laundry. However, the special aspect of this laundry room was that it was right next to the hot tub room - with six hot tubs. We relaxed in the hot tub while the laundry was being completed.
   
5. Next, a very quick dinner so we could get to the DJ entertainment for the second night. There's a deck with lots of red, white and blue colored lights and a DJ each night. Other than the campground owner family, there were only a few other people but we still had lots of fun doing the two step and Geoff even did Kareoke.
   

That's a pretty busy day. We really like it here and want to come back - hopefully when the weather is a bit warmer and we can go in the river or the pool and we still need to drive on the blue ridge parkway.

Photos to follow on Geoff's flickr page - please see link on the left.


Tomorrow, we plan to drive most of the way back to New York. We'll see many of you in the next few week as we visit the NE. See you soon.

The Coca Cola 340 and a half

Six and one half hours of bumper-to-bumper, all out racing (with intervals of extreme boredom while they dried the track, or tried to) added up to one wet day in NC. The Coca Cola 600 rolled off a day late and was able to get in only 227 laps. They had one period of about one hour of track drying around lap 70, and another of about 2 hours at lap 170. Finally they reached 201 laps, an official race distance, and it was not raining. 26 laps later was a different story. They tried to get the track dry 3 times during the next 3 hours but to no avail. The rain kept coming; not an all out deluge like we had had on Sunday that had delayed it in the first place, or like on Saturday, when they called the Nationwide Series Carquest 300 after 170 of 200 laps, but just a steady drizzle.

During this time, fans slowly but surely started filtering out of the stands, and only the diehard fans with no pressing appointments or with their homes near enough by to be able to be home before midnight, stayed on. Finally NASCAR called it. Of course, that was the signal for the rain to stop and the sun to come out.

I returned my scanner that I had rented for the weekend and started the long walk back to the RV. By this time many of the RVs in the campgrounds have left. Some left this morning and I saw more leaving at each red flag period. We will still be here tonight and will head out in the morning, up into Virginia. The next place we have to be is in Danbury on June 1st for some Dr. appointments.

Clam Strips Questions Answered

I've always been curious about clam strips because it didn't make sense that they were a little park cut out of a regular clam. Finally, I thought to look it up and here's a great explanation http://www.weloveclams.com/strips.html It doesn't have anything to do with our current travels but I thought others might find this interesting.

Deluge - Bad Timing

A short time ago, I walked Geoff to the track, when he went to the Nationwide Cup 300mile race, so that I could use the rest room. While I was in the rest room, the cloudy sky just opened up and it started totally pouring rain. By time it let up enough for me to walk back, our RV's open vents had dropped water onto our TV which is now not working. We use a flat screen on a wheeled cart in the RV. I can't believe that I was gone for only a few minutes and that happened. Oh well. Maybe when it dries out, it will start working.

Meanwhile, I'm it's more or less stopped raining but I'm sure there will be quite a delay in the running of the race. I'm sure Geoff will have a good time and lots of stories to tell me when he gets back to the RV later tonight.

Geoff: Wow, that was close. I almost had to go back to the RV for a change of clothes. The skies opened up, as Ellyn described, just as I reached the entrance to the area under the grandstands. It was packed with people and there were gofl carts trying to move around under there too.

The track was soaked but the rain stopped and the race started about 1 1/2 hours late. About 11:00 and 170 laps down out of 200, it started raining again. At first it looked like it would just be a little and they could restart but then it came down harder and they called it about 11:30.

It was fun being there though. There is nothing you can see on TV which is like sitting in the stands and feeling the thunder from those 43 engines racing by at nearly 200 mph. I felt a little bad though for an older woman sitting near me who came with one of her children and who obviously could not tell what was going on. She did not stand for the restarts, which she probably could not have seen anyway because she was shorter than those around her, and did not appear to be able to tell which car was which even if she could see them. Whenever I looked over at her, she looked bored and deafened, since she was not wearing any ear protection. Heck, I was following it and had my scanner on, and I could barely tell which car was which.

Geoff's Big B-Day - Generator Village

Today's the day of Geoff's big birthday and we're camped in the Family Campground at Lowe's Motor Speedway. When we made the reservations, the campground was sponsered by and named after "Country Crock" but now the signs indicate that it's the "Klondike" Campground. Ah - the big business world of NASCAR.

As most of you know, Geoff is a huge NASCAR fan so this 2nd biggest race weekend of the year (2nd only to Daytona) is perfect timing for his birthday weekend. 10 years ago, for his 50th b-day, I gave him a NASCAR Driver experience right here at this same racetrack so he's driven it himself.

The weekend is chock full of races and race events. Last night, I joined Geoff for the timed qualifying. One car at a time doing one (with an optional 2nd) timed to determine which order they would start Sunday's race and also the slowest four cars/drivers wouldn't make the race. I liked the qualifying a lot - but even with ear plugs and sound deadening earmuffs, I could still hear the cars and (surprisingly) the announcer. I was surprised that many of the fans cheered for more than one driver and I didn't hear any boo (as they sometimes do) for the driver I kind of root for, Jeff Gordon. Also, I learned from the announcer that the new rookie Home Depot driver, Joey Lagano, is from CONNECTICUT!!

Tonight Geoff went to the dirt track racing, tomorrow night is the 300 mile 2nd tier (Nationwide Cup) NASCAR race and Sunday night is the main Sprint Cup event - the Coca-Cola 600. I'm not going to any of those races - too scary because of the likelihood of accidents and too noisey for me. However, today, Geoff and I took a bus tour to two of the NASCAR shops/museums/stores. Each of those facilities housed four Sprint Cup Drivers - including Jeff Gordon at the Hendrick's shop.

Now for the bad news - we are totally sardined into this campground which is adjacent to the track. And everybody is running generators - and the ones that are stand-alone generators (like those folks use when their power goes out) are NOISY. And the RV that just pulled next to us, put their generator right under our window. The good news is that all the generators need to be turned off between midnight and 7am. The trick is to time sleeping for exactly those hours. The generators are definitely a downside of this experience. This afternoon, Geoff took a snooze in our outdoor recliner with the hearing protection on.

Be sure to use the link to Geoff's photos on the left.

Jekyll Island - Our First Rain

We're now on Jekyll Island - a Georgia barrier island. The entire island once was owned by a group of "barons" of the end of the 19th century. Now, it seems like a cross between Walt Disney World, Newport Mansions and a large National Park. By law, the island must remain at least 65% undeveloped and it is criss-crossed by 20 miles of paved biking trails. That's the good news - but the bad news is that it has rained since we arrived here, yesterday afternoon. We really can't complain because it's the first rain-out in the month that we've been traveling. BUT it is unfortunate that the forecast is for it to rain, again, tomorrow and we leave on Wednesday. Guess we'll just have to return here, again.

Despite the rain, we did visit the beach, for a few minutes, to view and photograph the turbulent sea. We also stopped by the Nature center where there were several sizes of sea turtles. Ellyn can't help but think of the turtle, Crush, in "Finding Nemo" when she sees those real turtles. We had a great seafood lunch - love those Grouper sandwhiches - and dropped by the Jekyll Museum which had a lot of details about all aspects of Jekyll Island's past.

We are hoping that there is a break in the rain, tomorrow, for us to do some bike riding and, perhaps, to take a tram tour of the island.

Happy Birthday to Brian, yesterday. And we're on a countdown to Friday - Geoff's big birthday!

Don't forget to take a peak at our photos - the links are on the left side of our blog page.

On the Road Again - A Beautiful Coastal Road

Most of this is excerpted from a note I sent my brother, yesterday.....

We drove from Panama City Beach to Panacea - we only stopped in Apalachacola for lunch at the Apalachacola Seafood Grille (recommended strongly by my brother's wife, Liz). Geoff had the "Largest Seafood Sandwich" which was cod bites piled high and Ellyn had a fried grouper sandwhich. Both were great but Ellyn concluded that the Grouper was more tastey. We, then, walked around the block. It was a very quaint historic seeming town to visit - but it was fairly hot for walking around too much. We liked seeing the real fishing boats and also looked in the windows at the closed print shop plus took a few photos. We'll have to get back there to spend more time, I think. Next, we drove on to Holiday RV park on the water in Panacea, FL. We went for the dip in the pool and will generally just hang out here this evening (great view). Today, our plans are to drive to Wakula Springs and to the Costco in Talahasee then drive towards the Atlantic Coast. We have reservations on Jekyll Island for 3 nites starting Sunday. Then, onto the raceway in Charlotte with plans to arrive there on the 21st - in time for Geoff's big birthday on the 22nd. We have liked the Panhandle coast and do hope to get back here again.

A Kayak First - The Yummy Kind

We had a great kayak outing, mid-day today. First, we kayaked about a half mile up the Grand Lagoon from our Campground to a marina restaurant. This is the first time we've ever paddled to a meal. The water was a smidge choppy as we headed out but, after lunch, when we kayaked back from the restaurant, the conditions were BEAUTIFUL. We kayaked about 3/4 miles past the campground in the other direction and relaxed on the little beach. Ellyn learned that if she laid down, at water's edge, with her PFD still on, that it was a perfect pillow. Ahh!

Along our path, we saw many many jumjping fish, pelicans, storks, gulls, etc. etc. And Ellyn is so glad to, finally, be seeing well! So heavenly!! It was a 3 mile total kayak path - not too much exertion. And now we're having a bit of a rest then we're off to another sunset on the gulf beach. We'll probably pack dinner to have on the beach.

Only one more day here in Panama City Beach before we start heading east on Friday...and we've just about reached our goal of organizing all the last minute stuff we stashed into the car and RV when we left the house. We should be in great shape by Friday.

Dolphins and Pick-Ups

Here's some stuff that happened today - our 7th day at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, FL -

1) We went swimming in the Gulf beach today. Ellyn wasn't in the water too long because the "yellow flag" waves were a bit much for her but Geoff enjoyed them. We saw a pod of dolphins through the binoculars from the beach. Loved that!

2) Geoff flew an old kite of his and we started up a conversation with a couple on the beach. They are RVers staying in the park only two days and we had such a nice conversation that we all went out to dinner, tonight. It was a pleasure to exchange tips and experience with them. We exchanged our info-cards so we can keep in touch to perhaps meet-up for another dinner someday. (Oh yes, and the kite crashed - not sure how much repair is needed).

3) If you're following Ellyn's eye saga, you may recall that the new prescription still left her seeing double but it was improved. She found a place to order the stick-on prisms and bought a few different diopter strengths. They arrived today and the 3 diopter prism did the trick - so for the first time since February, Ellyn can now see well with her glasses!! YAY!!! She's going to make an appt. at John's Hopkins to follow-up on that on our way back to CT at the end of the month.

4) P.S. To Geoff's account of Ellyn's ear problem (yesterday), here's a link to a web description of how little of a problem it is: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vertigo/DS00534/DSECTION=causes. The ear-dr. who said I had this problem (when examining me for something, else), recommended the head-shaking solution and it seems to work.

It's hard to believe we only have 3 more days, here...so much kayaking, biking and beach-ing still to do.

Mother’s Day 2009

Staying in one place for a while has its perks. Today we got to be lazy in the morning. I got up and fixed Ellyn a nice breakfast of a mushroom and cheese omelet and some cantaloupe. Then we packed up all our dirty laundry and made a trip to a local coin laundry. All done in about 2 hours. Next, a quick lunch and off to the local Target to do a little shopping. Then to a movie theater to catch the new Star Trek movie. It was great!

At the Target, I got a little scare from Ellyn. As we approached the entrance, she suddenly grabbed me and said “I feel really dizzy. Hold onto me.”. I did that and she shook her head hard and said it was passing. I tried to get her over toward the store and out of the parking lot, but then she suddenly dropped to the ground. I was scared but she seemed to be laughing it off and shook her head again. Other people came up but she was able to get up and go on with the shopping. She said she had been diagnosed by her doctors to have some kind of sand in her inner ear. I had not heard of that but she said they told her to just shake her head and the sand would redistribute and the dizziness would go away. I guess it worked but I guess this was the first time it happened while she was standing. She had not told me about it before but I guess she has had it happen every couple weeks or so. Sheesh!

After the movie we walked around a little in the outdoor mall near the theater and then headed back to the RV. We had to move it over to the dump station at the park and empty the holding tanks. Now we should be ok until we leave here on Friday. Then we headed out to get some dinner but I had left my wallet in the RV by mistake. It was disappointing but we came back to the RV and just had some leftovers.

Now I need to put away the clean clothes and get our bed made back up so we can get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day in paradise.

From Sunny Florida

Hello from St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, FL. We have a water view campsite. There's white sand, clear water, snorkeling, kayaking, biking, etc etc and we're planning to stayhere for TEN days!!
View Larger Map

This morning we took a bikeride around the park. First, there is a little sandy waterfront right near our campsite where we saw hermit crabs scampering. Then we rode to the fishing pier and, finally, to the beaches. Two of the beaches are at right angles to each other....one is directly on the gulf and there was a red flag, warning of rough water, on that beach. However, there were surfers in the water and many of them were standing up using paddles which is the first time we saw that. It's pretty warm and sort of humid, here, so we are using the AC in the RV.

Logan's Memories

Hope this post from Logan's blog this week gives you a chuckle:

My parents made a censored version of Raiders of the Lost Ark for me when I was young. Indiana Jones escapes from the tomb, blows up the plane, steals the ark back from the Nazis in the desert, gets on the ship with Marion, THE END. I was probably in my teens before I saw the whole version on television. I had never even questioned it.

Someone's going to bring it up, so here's another anecdote: When I was very young, my parents called the ice cream truck the "music truck" to keep me from screaming every time I heard it. I don't know how long that one lasted, because I have no memory of it.

Anybody have any trouble believing we would do this?