Shenandoah National Park

  7/18/11; 9:40:35 PM by AC
  I write this update by the glowing embers of the campfire in the Loft Mountain camprgound, a nice secluded spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains, just a bit south of the middle of Shenandoah National Park Virginia.
  The MacBook Air doesn't have a lit keyboard, not so handy as it turns out.
  We drove off from Baroness Maggie's home around 9:30am, headed due west on route 3, 20 and finaly route 33, yes indeed, a magical route :-) Along the way we passed Montpelier, James Madison's birth home and estate where he also died. Madison was the 4th President of the Untied States and is often heralded as (one of) the fathers of the Constitution. We didn't take the hour long tour of the house, but did take some nice pictures of it and his wife Dolley's beatiful garden. Of course I picked up the obligatory copy of the Constitution in the gift shop.
  The drive was spectacular, the road just wide enough for us to keep rolling even with oncoming traffic.
  Loft Mountain is the furthest campground in the southern part of Skyline drive so we decided to stay overnight in the park instead of an RV facility further south. Good choice.
  Only drawback is that there are no 'hookups' for RV's, so we are relying on our onboard water and power. Generators are only allowed to run from 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm, just enough time to recharge batteries if needed. So obvioulsy it's blissfully quiet.
  We hoped to see a black bear, as this is prime country for catching a glimpse, but no joy on that front. Plenty of deer, chipmunks and rabbits though.
  The fire is now almost out, so I'll have to go into the rig to do a scan of email. Show prep is almost impossible since the only connection we can get up here is T-Mobile 2.5G. Full five bars though, which is great since a slow uninterrupted connection is beter than the flakey AT&T and Verizon signals we have (I brought three networks). T-Mobile for the win this time!
  Ms Micky has just finished her photos for the day, I hope to be able to upload a few before we retire for the night and will post them here and on the HotPockets2008.com site.
  Things I learned:
  Rangers are friendly people and like to talk a lot. Unless you have the time, don't encourage them.
  When you tell other folks you are from Southern California, they will ask if you happen to have any SoCal 'pharmaceuticals' on board.
  You actually have to turn Google Latitude 'on' in the settings
  Gas at $3.50 a gallon ain't cheap
  The wood they sell you at the campstore will make nice smoke. Fire, not so much :-)