Back in Ol' Virginny

Today was short day of driving through the western neck of Maryland, down through eastern West Virginia into Virginia.  We would have posted a picture of two more states going on the map, except for the heavy rain storm that came through right after dinner tonight.

West Virginia Welcome on I-81

Welcome to Virginia

Once again we had dry roads and good weather for the 120 mile trip south.  Traffic was a bit busier as we got on the Interstate 81 with far more big trucks, but we did not have any issues.  We drove through WV and into VA, then turned east for the last time on this trip to camp near Charlottesville. We arrived at Misty Mountain Campground in the early afternoon.  When we were being led to our campsite, we wondered why we were being led up the mountain on some very steep hills.  It turns out that was just fine when the heavy rain descended about two hours later!

A Girder Cross Seen Along the Way

This campground was one of the few that our site is so uneven that our automatic levelers almost could not level the coach.  We moved it a little bit and we were finally able to level the coach, but we blocked several tires to be safe.  We could have used our yellow leveling blocks under the hydraulic levelers, but did not need to do so this time.

After set up, we decided to explore the area a little bit, so we drove the Toad into Crozet, which we hit at rush hour---that means both the grade school and middle school had just let out and buses and parents were choking the narrow roads. So, we left and drove south to a Brew Pub near Afton, that had an extensive GF (gluten-free) menu and a beer and cider menu.

Our Dinner Venue Tonight

Since we have not had pizza during our fifty days of this trip, we both decided to have pizza.  Boy--did we get pizza!  Neil's was huge and he could only get through half of it, and Pamela has leftovers as well. It was quite yummy.  We are going to stop at Home Depot and purchase a large ceramic tile to use as a pizza stone in the RV oven for these leftovers.  

Pamela's Veggie Pizza and Salad

Neil's Large Carnivore Pizza

Beer Map of the US:  Rogue Ale for OR and Alaskan for AK (of course)

After dinner, it was just starting to rain as we walked out to the Toad.  After getting on the highway and heading the six miles back to the RV park, the heavens parted and it became what Neil's Dad would call a "hen drownder"--very heavy rain, in the inches an hour range.  We had to slow way down and were glad that it was not far to the park.  It was still pouring as we entered the park with the reddish mud that VA is known for flowing everywhere.  

We stopped at the store to pick up a couple of things and found that someone had found a use for the "darn" American Sweetgum tree seed pods. We have too many of these in our home yard.  The enterprising brother and sister put them in egg cartons and filled it up with wax to make fire starters.  

Sweetgum Balls Fire Starter

Unfortunately, this would not get rid of the thousands of these annoying things that we have every year from our one tree.  And, Neil is not going to go into business making these things.

Tomorrow, we will go into Charlottesville east of us to visit Thomas Jefferson's home of Monticello, and perhaps another historic President's home nearby. We are interested to see how the tour has changed in 25 years, as more genealogical information has come to light about his family. We did book a tour that now takes us up into the second floor bedrooms and up into the third floor dome.

 Neil and Pamela