Road trip, part I

So I will attempt to write about my extended weekend roadtrip in two parts, since otherwsie, the whole thing become too daunting. I know I never really finished writing about last week’s Biodiversity Academy, but basically, it consisted of lots of lectures about things I don’t know much about, lots of fancy lunches and dinner, and lots of happy hours to survive the week. Anyway, on with the trip...

Friday after work I headed up to the Thrifty Car rental agency in Silver Spring, MD, and checked in for my reserved economy car. The lady ever so nicely told me that all she had were mini vans. So, after making sure I wasn’t going to have to pay anything extra for my new found spacious vehicle, I headed off in my new Silver Dodge Caravan, Betsy. So, Betsy and I make a quick stop at home to pick up my bag and snacks, and then spent the next two hours trying to get out of DC and past the Nissan Pavilion in VA where Kenny Chesney was playing. Eventually I made it out of the traffic and through most of Virginia, to Front Royal, which is the top of Skyline Drive, the road through Shenandoah Valley. I got onto the road around 7pm, and immediately hit some amazing views:





And here is Betsy, in all her glory:


The sunset was amazing, and totally set the tone for the entire weekend...



I also quickly became that tourist who takes pictures through my car windshield:
I did get to see some bears in the forest, in fact, two bear cubs and what I assume was their mother playing around...very cute, and amazing to see them see free and playful so close to the road.

I finally made it to my hotel around 9:30, checked in, and grabbed some Chili’s for dinner. I then had some amazing ice cream from the local ice cream place in Harrisonburg (Harrisonburg: not as cute as originally thought, but the hotel was nice and the town was safe, so it was fine).

The next morning I filled up on gas and headed back to the Shenandoah Valley (following a nice waffle at the hotel continental breakfast). I stopped once into the park and hiked down to a waterfall. The hike was really nice, despite the bugs flying around my head, and the bee sting that occurred once I made it the waterfall. The forest reminded me more of a rainforest than a mountain forest. I guess I am just used to brown plants and dust, which is what California generally consists of.





As can be seen in the pictures, this waterfall is not quite as impressive as some that I have seen, in say, Hawaii or Yosemite, but it was still a nice view.

The next hike was up to something called Black Rock Mountain, which was basically this huge pile of black speckled rocks with a pretty amazing view.





(That last one includes the really annoying Chinese family who insisted on hiking right on my heels most of the way up, while the little boy decided to yell at every little thing. I also saw them like 100 miles further south...thrilling, and still loud).

I then decided to take a break from the hiking (mostly due to the nastly looking cut on the side of my foot from some heels I wore to work last week that were too tight around the toes, and have thus left me not too comfortable in hiking shoes). Flip flops back on. I drove out to the main highway to find something to eat for lunch, and ended up at this really cute little hole in the wall restaurant named The Whistle Stop Cafe. They had homemade blackberry cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream. I figured it was ok after the morning hikes.
I then worked my way south to a rock formation called Natural Bridge. Oh! And on the way down I passed the most random thing:

Yup, that is right, Foamhenge, Kinda like Stonehenge, but made out of foam. What would motivate anyone to do this is beyond me, but it was worth a stop, just to see what it was really all about. I passed this girl on the way up to the foam, and we had this funny conversation about how random this was. And yes, random it was.



Anyway, so Natural Bridge is basically this 200 foot tall hole in a big rock. The website and pamphlets say it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, despite it not being on any list I could find on Google. Whatever, it was cool. It was also my first opportunity to see something really cool be turned into a tourist attration. Totally capitalizing on nature, and charging an admission to see nature...something doesn’t seem right. Anyway, the pictures don’t do it justice, it was beautiful, as was the creek coming down from the Lace Waterfall. In case you are wondering, I am getting pretty good at taking pictures of myself. =)




I met this random couple on the way down from the falls, they were from Ohio and they were telling me about their kids and their weddings, and how they had been to California to watch their daughter play basketball...they were funny, the mom was totally into talking, and the dad just wanted to bird watch...it could have been any of our parents...

So, Saturday night I stayed in Christiansburg, after searching for a place to stay for a while and finally giving up and going back to the main highway. I called the Holiday Inn home for the night, and enjoyed another random continental breakfast in the morning. I drove up to Blacksburg to see Virginia Tech, which is a beautiful school. Blacksburg is totally a cute town, I can see the draw to the area just from driving through. A good part of my morning was then spent driving south, toward my southern most destination: Blowing Rock, NC. Really, the southern most point was Grandfather Mountain, but Blowing Rock would be where I was going to spend the night before I got to the mountain....