Shenandoah National Park & Skyline Dr

Sunday July 10 - Friday July 15
Rick and I visited Shenandoah National Park on our first camping trip together, and have been in love with it ever since. We kind of look at it as "our" place. We had booked a site for 3 nights, but ended up extending our stay for two extra nights.

Our campsite at Big Meadows

Skyline Drive is a lovely road that winds it's way between Front Royal and Waynesville Virginia.  It is 105 miles long, but with a maximum speed of 35 mph, and amazing vistas and wildlife along the way, it's a long trip.  We saw two bears cross the road on our way to Big Meadows Campground.  Rick got this shot of a buck in the campsite right next to ours.

Big Meadows is a lovely campground.  It has no hookups, so we were as close to "real" camping as we've been on this trip. The RV has holding tanks for fresh and waste water, and we have batteries and a generator to provide power, so, really, we had all the comforts of home. But it's really a challenge to conserve fresh water and to conserve space in the waste water holding tanks. I've become quite good at taking a "navy shower": wet yourself down, turn off the water, shampoo and wash, rinse. Will they still call me "her majesty"?

We took several hikes from the campground.  The appalachian trail parallels Skyline Drive, and we enjoyed hiking parts of it. Rick hiked a considerably longer portion of it than I did. Here are some nice photos from these hikes.

MONTPELIER

We came down off the mountain for a day in order to visit James Madison's home and museum, called Montpelier.  The temperature difference between the mountain top where we were camping and Montpelier was almost 15 degrees.  We couldn't wait to get back up the mountain!

Madison was our fourth president and the primary architect of the contstitution as well as the bill of rights. His home was beautiful and the tour was very well done. There was also lots of information about his wife, Dolley Madison, who was very popular. She is credited with saving the painting of George Washington when the British burned the white house during the war of 1812.

Like his fellow Virginians Jefferson and Washington, Madison was a slave holder. And like them, he was tortured by the fact that he knew slavery was wrong.  Yet they all continued to hold slaves throughout their lives. Though they knew it was wrong, their entire lifestyles were built on the institution, and it was as if they didn't know how to get out of it.

Montpelier

After baking in the heat at Montpelier, we managed to find a local vineyard and cooled off with some good wine.