Aug 10 2013

Day 9 – Goodbye Nature, Hello City

Hi there…On a side note, sorry we haven’t been blogging, the days have been long here in DC. We decided to call it an early day in today to rest and catch up on our blogs..so here goes

On Day 9, we enjoyed a full biscuit, eggs, and sausage breakfast, props to Aimee for that, I love her big breakfasts. We packed up our camper and site and made it ready to go for the road. Our site was very nice with plenty of shade. Big Meadows Campground had no hookups, it was our first primitive site of the trip. We ran our portable Honday Generator for a couple hours each day to fully charge the battery and during high power use times. We were able to enjoy a fire both of the nights. Here’s a picture of our site..

With a little time to kill before hitting the road we decided to head to Big Meadows Lodge. The lodge is definitely old and rustic. It had huge wood beams inside and gave off a very warmth atmosphere.

Outside the lodge, there’s was a worker demonstrating how to build wooden chairs. It was pretty cool, I watched him work the wood for some time. The chairs looked pretty sturdy and comfy. In the picture below, he is making the strips for the seat of the chair..

We settled in the library. It was the first time we had cell service in a couple of days, we appreciate the comments and likes! With cell service we were able to connect to the grid and blog..

After finishing up with the blogs, we decided to hit the road. On the way out, we saw more deer of course. Again, it was amazing that the deer didn’t run away with the roar of the loud Cummings Engine, they were pretty tame..

We got on the road, going north on Skyline Drive for another 30 miles. The road was winding and beautiful…Roux sure enjoyed the ride..

One section of the road even had us going through a tunnel with a maximum ceiling hight of 12’7″. I was kind of uneasy because I hadn’t measured our hight, I knew we were closer to 11′ but not exactly sure. We made it through with no damage, but measured exactly now, we are just under 11′. The tunnel was a cool part of the drive though..

After about 2 hours we finally were back in the city. We knew this because the last 25 miles of the trip took almost 2 hours as we were caught in DC 5 o’clock traffic, welcome back to city life. After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived in Cherry Hill Park. This campground is the only one in the DC area and they have every amenity a camper could want. The metro bus and tour buses actually make a pass through the park so you could leave your car parked and not worry about driving to the sights of DC, this was very convenient and we used this both days we toured DC, more to come in the next blog..

Aug 8 2013

Day 8 – Fly fishing on the Shenandoah River

Hi there, today was an awesome day. It was one of the events I was most looking forward too, a guided fly fishing trip on the Shenandoah River. We woke up around 630 and prepared to meet our guide, Kevin of South River Fly Shop, at the Elkton McDonalds. After a quick breakfast, we were on the road to the launch. After launching and setting up the boat, Kevin gave us some lessons on fly fishing. I was initially a bit intimidated of fly fishing, the sport is unfairly stereotyped. Casting, catching, and retrieving a fish can be difficult, or I first thought. Kevin’s instructions help put me at ease and I was actually casting a fly in no time. Our rig for the day was a 14 ft modular raft boat. It was pretty cool and held up to both the deep and shallow water of the river.

Below is a picture of some of the flys we used. It seemed today (overcast) the fish wanted top water poppers..

Right off of the first bend, we were on to fish. We caught a half dozen or so blue gill. Bream on the fly rod fight pretty hard! Here’s a picture of Aimee with her first fish of the day…

The float took place over about 3.5 river miles. We actually passed through some Class 2 rapids, this made for a fun ride down river..

There were points in the river where shallow rock allowed for wading. The water was cool but nothing like the waterfall in Stone Mountain, I’m still shaking from that plunge!

It was overcast in the morning, but the sun came out as the day progressed and allowed for great sight fishing for small mouth bass and bluegill. Sight fishing was a blast, I could have stayed out there all day! The fishing patterns here are different than anything I’ve fished before, the fish hang out in the slower parts of the river in the rock crevices. From there, the current forms a “bait” conveyer belt and the fish just have to sit and wait..

The views on the river were awesome. There were a bunch of rock cliffs and wooded areas, we even saw a deer crossing the river…

All in all, the day was better than I expected. We ended up with about a dozen blue gill and dozen small mouth bass. Aimee took the crown for the largest fish (13″ small mouth) for the day and she earned it. For some reason she usually finishes with the biggest fish, this isn’t the first trip where she beats me. That’s why I enjoy fishing with her, she’s good luck! At the end of the day, you couldn’t have payed me a million dollars to remove the smile off of my face. Until tomorrow…

Aug 8 2013

Day 7 – On the road to Shenandoah National Park, VA

We left Stone Mountain State Park around 10am and hit the road. First stop, Virginia Welcome Center. The lady that helped us there was very nice and knowledgable. She recommended we travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles, Fancy Gap Exit to Roanoke, for a very scenic drive and to look at the Mabry Mill which is the most photographed area in Virginia. Then, she suggested, we switch over to the interstate, Roanoke to Harrisonburg, to make up some time lost on the slow pace, zig-zaggy roads. We completed our drive traveling on Skyline Drive, which is basically just like the Parkway with breathtaking views and lookout to stop and take pictures.