Wednesday July 9th
This morning we headed up to the Luray caverns. It was an interesting trip over the line of mountains to the east of Broadway. The caverns were beautiful and I took over 90 pictures. It is amazing what a little water and a whole lot of time can do. One of the neat features of the caverns is that someone was able to find 36 stalactites that can produce musical notes. The tour of the caverns took about an hour and a quarter. After the caverns we went to an antique car museum.
On the way over the mountain, we saw a BBQ place and decided to stop there on the way back for lunch. I was hoping to eat in one of these restaurants on this trip. Bob's BBQ was the first and we hope to hit a couple more on this trip. The food was great. We had barbecue pork sandwiches. What we call barbecue at home is actually grilling. True BBQ has the meat, mostly pork, cooked slowly for a day or more. Bob does his for two days.
Thursday July 10th
The plan for today was to go down to Harrisonburg to visit some antique shops. We figured the best place to find the shops would be to go to the city's Visitors Center. We took a tour of Historic Harrisonburg. It was interesting, but not Williamsburg. We hit the antique "mall" before we left town and headed back to the campsite for lunch.
We decided to visit a nearby New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in New Market, VA. The park consisted of the battlefield, which is on both sides of I-81, the farmhouse and its out-buildings, and a very informative visitor's center. Cadets from Virginia Military Institute took park in this battle and a number of others during the war. The school promised the parents that the cadets would not be used in combat, but as support personnel. A mural in the visitor's center has the names of the cadets that were killed listed on it. So much for non-combat roles.
Friday July 11th
Today was moving day. We headed to Sevierville, TN, our next stop. The trip went without a hitch. We arrived at River Plantation RV Park. I parked the rig too close to the electrical connection post and when we opened the living room slide, it hit the box and slightly dented the compartment door. There was a guy sitting there watching it happen and did not say a word. It should be easy to fix.
Saturday July 12th
We took a ride around the area, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, & Gatlinburg to see what the area looked like. The main drag, The Parkway, was one tourist attraction after another. There is a 5 mile stretch between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It was like strpping into a different world. The tourist attractions were there, but so was a European flavor to the town.
By the way, did I mention the traffic? At times, it seemed to be worse than the NY metro area. The drivers appear to wait 10 seconds after the light changes before it occurs to them to move. It must be an unwritten law that the slow drivers must remain in the left lane and that all passing be done in the middle or right lanes. Right turns from the left lane were not uncommon.
Joyce wanted to see Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, but we couldn't get tickets for Saturday night. We did get them for Sunday night.
Sunday July 13th
This morning we headed back to Gatlinburg and Ober Gatlinburg for some sightseeing. Ober Gatlinburg is a ski area/attraction up in the mountains that we got to by tramway. At the top, was the base of the ski area and an indoor ice rink. There were, of course, all sorts of gift shops and restaurants.
The satellite dish was acting flaky when we were at the first campground, but I wrote it off to all the trees around us. It also acted the same way at the next stop where trees were not an issue. I was able to lock onto the satellite from our first site. We had to move after three days to a site behind and one site over from the first one. The night before we moved, the dish went haywire and locked itself halfway open, halfway closed.
Monday July14th
I rode into Knoxville to Camping World to see if they could fix my satellite dish. They do not repair "old technology" equipment. We decided to replace it rather than to try to find someone to fix it. We now have a dish that automatically locks onto three satellites at one time. With the old setup, we could only get one program at a time on both TV's. Now, each TV can be set to different channels. The installation took all afternoon.
Tuesday July 15th
We woke up to a very sick dog. I will not describe what we found, I have never seen anything like it. This was at 5:30 AM. At 8, I called one of the local vets and we took Pogo to the Dr.'s office at 9:30. All kinds of things went through our minds during the meantime. The doctor fells Pogo is dehydrated and might be stressed by the travel. He was put on an antibiotic and Pepcid AC. Pogo has not had any more episodes since then. Thank heavens.
This afternoon, we took a helicopter flight from Sevierville, over the area including Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Ober Gatlinburg, and part of the Smoky Mountain National Park. It was interesting as neither of us had ever been up in a helicopter before.
We went to Dollywood today. Neither of us are interested in going on rides, but there was enough for us to do that didn't involved in being inverted or subject to high G forces.
Dinner was at a local BBQ restaurant. It wasn't as good as the place we had lunch on the way back from Luray Caverns.
After dinner, we headed out to Cades Cove, a must see in the Smoky Mountain Park. The attraction here is fauna watching trip on an 11 mile loop around a grassy meadow. Sightings of deer, turkey, and the occasional black bear are normal. The ride should be taken around sunrise or sunset to see the most animals. We chose to do it at sunset. We weren't the only ones. We did not see any bear, but we think there was one sighted ahead of us because traffic stopped for about 20 minutes. We saw some turkey at the beginning of the loop.
Moving day, again. The plan was to leave Sevierville, go through the Smoky Mountain Park, and head up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The 5000+ foot climb through the park and the similar climb up the Parkway turned us off to the plan. The 'beast" sucked up fuel like it was going out of style. I had to use either 3rd or 2nd gear for a good part of this segment of the trip. We ended up going back to I-81 and going to Natural Bridge Station for three days. We were delayed by a bad truck accident. It took almost 11 hours to go from one campsite to the other.
This morning, we visited Natural Bridge National Park. The hole cut through the rock formation is incredible. I will add pictures of the formation when we get back home. There is a trail that follows the stream up from the "bridge" to a waterfall at the end of the trail. The trail is 1300 yards from the bottom to the top. Thirteen hundred yards up, thirteen hundred yards back. There was an indian village halfway up the trail. Two people give demonstrations of how the indians made tools and pottery.
We took a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the car. We then took a walking tour of Lexington, VA. Lexington is the home of Washington & Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. It was another long walk in the heat. We had a great lunch in a local bistro.
Sunday July 20th
It is moving day, again. Our destination is Gettysburg, PA. We will be sticking to I-81 for the majority of the trip. This was a four state day. It seemed like it only took a half hour to go from Va to PA, traveling through WV and MD in the process. It was a very relaxing drive compared to last Thursday's adventure.
We had reservations for two nights, but changed it to three when we saw there would be a lot to see in the area. The campsite, Gettysburg Campground, is on the smallish side, but well equipped and very clean. It is far better than the campground at Natural Bridge, VA. The folks at GCG were are very friendly and helpful.
Monday July 21st
Today, we took a bus tour of the many Civil War sites in and around Gettysburg. I have been here before, but Joyce had not. We chose a guided tour over one where the narration was recorded. It must have been a horrible scene. According to the guide you could walk across the battlefield without stepping on the ground. The guide told us that one artillery barrage was so loud that it was heard in Washington, some 80 miles away.
Monday night, we took one of the many ghost tours available. The guide lead us up the old Baltimore Pike. The tour was to have started in a house used by Confederate snipers to pick off Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill from the attic of the house. Return fire left about 300 holes on the side of the building. If a sniper were hit by return fire, he would be pulled out of this tight area by his feet and put at the other end of the building and left there until dark when the snipers could fire no more due to darkness. People have seen or heard strange things in the attic. The door opens and closes by itself (this happened while we were there). Three of our group felt a cool breeze while we were sitting there in the hot attic.
Tuesday July 22nd
There was a bad thunderstorm just before midnight. Again, it didn't stop us from doing anything and I did get another free car wash.
Wednesday July 23rd
It's our final moving day of this trip. This afternoon we will be heading home. Before we leave Gettysburg, we have to go to former President Eisenhower's farm. In order to get to the farm, you must take a shuttle bus from the new Gettysburg Visitor's Center. The shuttle driver gave us a little talk about the area and of Eisenhower's purchase of the property. He and Mamie had 36 posting while in the Army, but never owned their own home.
The tour of farm was interesting in the fact that Ike & Mamie entertained so many of the world's leaders in this house. We walked where people like Winston Churchill did. The "technology" of the time was interesting...radios that were the size of small suitcases, rotary dial telephones, and a dictation machine three time the size of my laptop.
We returned to the RV and had lunch then hit the road. We had a great trip even when you factor in the few problems we had. Pogo getting sick gave us a big scare, but he appears to be much better. The satelitte dish meltdown was unexpected, but gave us a chance to upgrade. The part for the toilet has been ordered I may have to replace the engine battery down the line.
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