Day 29 Summer 2011 Road Trip

Nothing much to tell you about today.  We didn’t do any sightseeing.  We had to get our laundry done and buy some groceries for our week stay here in Washington DC.  Our hotel is actually in Lanham Maryland. The hotel provides a short shuttle ride to the New Carrolton Metro Station.  Tomorrow we will get on the Metro and ride it into Washington DC.  It should be about a 15 minute subway ride.

Karen took a few photos today of the lobby of our hotel.

  

Day 28 Summer 2011 Road Trip

This morning we are on the road again.  Today our destination is Washington DC, but first we will drive through Shenandoah National Park in the State of Virginia. 

This park is long and narrow and the main road through the park is called Skyline Drive.

Skyline Drive is very similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We arrived at the park gate and showed our National Park Pass to the Ranger on duty.  We will have to buy a new annual pass in a couple of days as this one will expire on July 31st.  We sure did receive good value for our $80.00 investment in the park pass.  I would have to sit down and add up all the National Parks and Monuments we have visited since purchasing the pass last summer, but it is somewhere around 30 or so.

 

Skyline Drive is 105 miles long with lots of pull offs to view the scenery.

  

  

We stopped at the Big Meadows Wayside Store for a bite to eat and then walked next door to the Harry F. Byrd Visitors Center to get our National Parks Passport Book stamped.

  

This year Shenandoah NP is celebrating its 75 year.  I like the logo.



Back on Skyline Drive we drive over the highest point on the drive.. a whole 3680 ft of elevation.  Compared to the highest points of drives we have done in the Rockies, this is more of a large hill.  Again I will say that this would be a pretty drive in the fall.

  

There is one tunnel in Shenandoah National Park, the Marys Rock Tunnel.  This is a 610 ft long tunnel.

   

We stopped to take a look at the Hogback Overlook at mile marker 21.

  

Another overlook we stopped at, the Range View Overlook.

  

We drove out of the park at the North end and headed along I-66 towards Washington DC.



I was expecting the traffic congestion to be probably the worst we have ever had to drive in on any of our vacations, after all this is the Nations Capital.  Even on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic heavy, but it is moving.

  

We were supposed to follow the “Beltway” around the downtown core to our hotel, but with road construction comes ramp and lane changes and GPS confusion, and the GPS which I updated in June with the most current maps was not able to direct me in enough time to be in the correct lane and we missed our exit.  Now we are heading downtown.  Karen and I usually take a tour of the large cities and their downtowns with a tour company, but we are getting our own first peak at Washington with our own GPS guided tour through the downtown. 
We are on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, crossing the Potomac River and ahead of us is the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.  Beside us is the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

 

Here is another view of the Washington Monument.   At one point we were driving on Pennsylvania Avenue and I was wondering if we were going to drive past The White House, but the GPS told me to turn left and then we were back on track to our hotel.



We arrived at our hotel and got checked in for the week.  Tomorrow there won’t be any sightseeing, we need to sleep in, then get laundry done and get some groceries in for the week.

If you would like to see the photos we took today you can click on the link to our FLICKR site.

Day 27 Summer 2011 Road Trip

Up early this morning and back on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We are picking up where we left off yesterday. 

We hadn’t gone very far before we encountered a detour which took us off of the Parkway and it was about 10 miles further North that we were able to get back on.  That portion that we had to detour was having the classic stone wall restored and repaired.

  

Pretty soon we cross the State line into Virginia.



It has been many years since I have seen a “Gulf Gas Station” but we are seeing lots of them in North Carolina and now Virginia.  I like the brilliant colours, and the price is much cheaper than at home.

  

As there was yesterday, there are many pull offs and scenic vistas along our route.  Here is one, The Groundhog Mountain Overlook.  There is an observation deck and some examples of different styles of wooden fencing.

  

A bit further North, we stopped at Mabry Mill, bought a few souvenirs and walked around the site.  There is an old mill here with a water wheel.  They actually still grind grains here and sell bread in their store made from the  ground wheat.  A great photo opportunity, right here at the side of the road.

 

Some of the scenery we see as we drive along.

  

We then spotted a white tail deer ahead of us on the road, so we stopped and watched and then we saw the 2 fawns that were following her.  We gave them plenty of time and room to get across the road.

  

  

More scenery.

  

This is Abbot Lake.



This is a squirrel that was sitting in the middle of the road, he posed long enough for us to get his photo before scampering off into the forest.



Otter Lake, another picture good enough to be a postcard.

 

We saw another deer crossing the road ahead of us.



And then we came to the only tunnel in Virginia.  If you recall, North Carolina had 25 tunnels.  This is the Bluff Mountain Tunnel.

  

Shortly after passing through the tunnel we come to the end of our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  That was a very enjoyable scenic drive.  We would like to do this drive again and it would be a good drive to do in the fall with all the fall colours.

To see all the photos that we took today, you can click on this link to our FLICKR site.

Tonight we are staying in Staunton Virginia.