A Four State Day


And on the 4th day the sun shone!  The temperatures rose to 22 degrees.  It was a gorgeous day made even better by the spectacular scenery…but I get ahead of myself.

We had a leisurely pack up this morning in the sunshine and it appeared we were destined to have an early departure.  It was not to be.  A Park Ranger came along and realized that we were from Ontario and started up a conversation.  We learned lots about the local area and about Pennsylvania.  It is always nice to talk to the locals.

Sue had another two lane highway day planned so the pace was ‘slow’ once again.  We traveled south through a series of valleys dominated by prosperous Mennonite farms.  Every square inch of the valleys is farmed.  I think this is the only way that the state has any agriculture because this State is hilly.  The small towns that we went through had mostly seen their better days.  The Park Ranger had told us that Pennsylvania has never recovered from the closure of the coal mines and the steel mills.

Now for the title.  Today we had a four State day.  We left Pennsylvania behind, entered Maryland (for about 10 minutes), entered West Virginia (for about 30 minutes) and ended up in Virginia.

We are camping in Shenandoah National Park Big Meadows Campground.  We are about 50 miles onto the Skyline Drive.  This road was whacked through the mountains and spends most of the time at the top of them.  There must have been 25 ‘overlooks’ (Canadians would call them lookouts) where we could see for miles down through the valleys.  Rarely did we go for more than 2 or 3 hundred metres in a straight line all the while going up and down.  It was a truly great drive.  And all the time the sun shone!!!

Distance Traveled = 420 km and a whack load of fuel was burned.  Wildlife Sightings = Grey Cheeked Thrush, Blackburnian Warbler, Red Tailed Hawk, Kestrel, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Towhee, American Redstart, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Deer (on the road and lucky to be alive), Black Bear (wandering through the campground about 4 sites down from ours).

View from overlook Shenandoah National Park


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