There was no official agenda when we awoke this morning and we were in a quandry about what fun stuff we should do. We looked at the map and noticed that we are not camped far from Delaware. Peggy and I have been to all the states except Delaware and North Dakota although we cheated and flew to Hawaii and took a boat to Alaska. All the rest, except the missing two mentioned above, we drove through while on some form of road trip.
We chose to knock Delaware from the list. We left our campground in Manheim and headed southeast on rural roads. Most of the way, we were passing through farm country and small timber thickets owned by either Amish or Mennonite farm families and the scenery was gorgeous. These rolling hills farm scenes look like they are paintings of wonderful bucolic places where big, happy families live and work. I don’t know if they are happy but everyone we saw coming at us in horse-drawn buggies seemed to be smiling and quite content. On the way, we passed through small towns with old masonry buildings, filigreed metal 2nd floor balconies and extremely narrow streets, at least for a Ford F-250. The buggies fit fine.
After about 65 miles, we broke into Delaware, an extremely puny state. We drove in right where Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware meet in the very northwest corner of the state and home to White Clay State Park. We didn’t go in because they charge locals one price and interlopers, like us, twice as much so we hung a U-turn in the driveway and consulted the road atlas. We noted that nearby was the Delaware River, a location depicted in a painting of George Washington standing up in a rowboat on his way across the river to kill many British who were all quite drunk due to Xmas celebrations. I can imagine a bunch of soldiers rowing and thinking, “I wish George would sit down because he is rocking the boat.”
In any event, we drove over to the Delaware River at New Castle, another town with old brick masonry buildings. We did note that the orientation of the roads and the horrible, always-red signals bar the way of anyone trying to go anywhere so we decided to try some rural highways. Instead of going upriver toward Philadelphia and New Jersey, we went south downriver a bit past heavy industrial areas and large swampy fetid lagoons. Having decided we had seen enough, we headed west past I-95 and found our way back to Pennsylvania.
We stopped in Gap, PA, to eat at a place called Dutch-way Family Restaurant where the food was not as economical nor as good as Dienner’s a couple days ago. I could tell because by the time I got back to our trailer about an hour later, I was barely able to get to the growler in time.
North Dakota – you’re next.
We took a few pix you can see if you click here

Today we took a cruise east into Lancaster County to dine at a place we have been before – Dienner’s, in Ronks. Ronks is east of Intercourse which I thinks means one thing to the Amish and something else to the rest of us. It serves food that you can order from a menu or one can just sit down to their lunch buffet. The place is run by the Amish and the food is superb. The buffet costs $12 a head at lunch and I got to have a great salad, clam chowder, beef somethings in gravy, a bit of potatoes and some baked limas before slipping up to the dessert counter for stuff I am not supposed to eat. It was terrific.
We finished up at the trough and took a spin through some of Lancaster County. On the way we passed through Manheim, Ronks, Intercourse, Lititz (LA-tits to us but LIT-itz to locals) and some other tiny intersections on our way to check out the gorgeous residential, farm and municipal architecture. The Amish and Mennonite farm families keep extremely tidy farms and their holdings in this county are extensive. They reproduce at prodigious rates and their houses are rambling and massive. They also don’t use powered stuff like cars or trucks so we spotted quite a few locals out riding in their little carriages behind very healthy-looking horses. This place is a strange anachronism.
We also passed some equipment sales and service joints so everyone in the county apparently are not compelled to use horses for horsepower. We saw to farm equipment today that looks like it would turn any unsuspecting idiots into red fodder should they be foolish enough to get tangled up with the working end. Based on some of the driving we saw today, it would seem that plenty of folks around here are strangers to thinking, slashing their way home with cell phone in hand.
There are some photos of this back country gorgeousness. Click here

Today was a travel day so we loaded up our stuff and skedaddled out of the Candy Lane RV Park near Winchester, VA, headed northwest. Candy Lane was a very nice park with good roads, good wifi, cable TV, good satellite reception and full hookups but I think we may have been there at the wrong time of year. It is hotter than hell and the oppressive humidity makes any kind of outdoor activity damp. A T-shirt is good for about 10 minutes outdoors before sagging towards the earth. I noted some funny smells and I think it was the operator.
Because of the strange orientation of states, we left the park in Virginia but in less than a quarter hour we were entering West Virginia. Perhaps 20 minutes later, we passed into Maryland for a short drive before entering Pennsylvania. Four states in 45 minutes. Not long after entering Pennsylvania, we crossed the Susquehanna River where we could glance to the east and see Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, home to a March 1979 radioactive cloud release that allegedly hurt either nobody or a whole generation of people that were living downwind. We didn’t see any purple gas coming out today so I guess we are okay.
About an hour or so after entering the state, we turned onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a toll road. We stopped at the proper tollbooth, got a chit indicating where we got onto the road and proceeded easterly. On the chit was a table that users reference to ascertain their toll before getting to the tollbooth where they are exiting. Based on how the tollbooth attendant saw our vehicle, we determined we would be obliged to pay either $3.05 or $6.85 when we got off the Pike in Manheim. The toll guy charged us $5.05.
Not a mile from our exit we turned into the PA Dutch Resort owned by Thousand Trails. In this campground we pay nothing because we are members. There are full hookups but no wifi and no antenna, cable or satellite TV reception. Fortunately, we have a big library of movies and TV shows. It seems a little cooler here than where we were this morning.

Today we ventured out into the terrible heat to go shopping. The temperature seemed like it was in the low thousands and the humidity was lingering around 85% when we headed up the road to a local ScabMart. We got out for less than $200.
Not long after we got back to the air conditioned Nirvana of our trailer, the weather went from bad to worse because a vigorous thunderstorm passed over us and it was open for business. The storms here are spectacular with abundant lightning, a couple inches an hour precipitation, some big hail chunks and ear-splitting thunder. It is easy to see how folks here get flooded out because our campsite went from a nice park with lots of grass into a shallow lake in about 25 minutes. The wind or lightning zapped a nearby tree and right after the storm the staff got to work with chainsaws. Very exciting.
In the evening the locals demonstrated that fireworks are legal in Virginia, celebrating the 4th in style at least when they are not being electrocuted by the weather.
See pix. Click here

We went on a cruise through history today. Our first destination was Harper’s Ferry. Harper’s Ferry has a ton of history but most of it was during the Civil War. A fervent abolitionist from New England named John Brown tried to attack and seize the U.S. Army armory in 1859 in an attempt to start a slave revolt. John only had 22 people with him and they were crushed by Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee. Not too much later, Brown did a rope tango in Sharpsburg. Harper’s Ferry is also located at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers and is a rail hub. These distinctions made Harper’s Ferry a strategic hotbed during the Civil War and that resulted in not less than 11 changes of possession between the Confederacy and the Union between 1861 and 1865.
The town itself lies in a gorge between massive basalt cliffs. There are a bunch of gorgeous Civil War era buildings here, most of them built on the steep hillsides above the rivers. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal also passed through town, further contributing to its transportation hub status. Unfortunately, it also attracted massive armies to fight over the town. Not five miles away is the Antietam battlefield and Antietam Military Park. Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Daniel Hill, Ambrose Hill and Stonewall Jackson led the Confederacy’s forces and George McClellan, Joseph Hooker, Joe Mansfield, Edwin Summer and Ambrose Burnside led the Union’s at Antietam. It was a very nasty fight on September 17, 1862, and 23,000 of the 100,000 folks who showed up for the party didn’t leave because they were either vaporized, were missing parts or were dead. The Union was left on the field at the end while the Confederacy withdrew to the nearby town of Sharpsburg. It must have been a terrible shitstorm. Photos in the park visitor center show the dead arranged like railroad ties where they were killed. The Bloody Lane here, for instance, was a small depression in the morning but a big mass grave by evening.
Nevertheless, Harper’s Ferry is a gorgeous little town and the Antietam battlefield is very pretty when it isn’t covered with blood.
We got a few photos along the way. Click here

The torrid temperatures today were even more crushing than yesterday but we went roaming around anyway. It is fortunate that our truck has very effective air conditioning and we rarely strayed from nor lowered the windows of the comfy cab. To start our drive today, we popped over to Front Royal about 20 minutes away and pulled in at the Knotty Pine Cafe. We ate here in 2015 when we passed through this part of the country and the food is still good. They also have an old milk shake machine that has three propellers so they can make 3 shakes at once. I think the machine is older than me but it still works well, at least it did on my shake.
About $22 later, we were on a quest to find a rural road we had driven before (in 2015) but we were challenged by using my memory for recollection so it took us a while to find it. We both remembered the beginning of the road once we were on it but Virginia roads can be circuitous and we ended up emerging from our exploration in a different place than we did last time. Once back on a main highway, we drove into Sperryville, checked out some of the local architecture and then continued over the north end of the Blue Ridge and back down into the Shenandoah Valley.
In general, the Shenandoah Valley is bordered by the Appalachians on the west and the Blue Ridge on the east but right in the middle of the north end of the valley is a big ridge called the Massanutten that divides the valley into east and west sides. We drove up and over the Massanutten and ultimately came out in Woodstock. We turned north on US-11 through Strasburg, Middletown, and Stevens City where there is an amazing collection of architecture of houses and churches. This part of the world is lousy with churches so all the folks who act like assholes for six days a week can repent without conviction on the seventh. They also had big plantations here and the owners had tip-top houses although it is doubtful the help had housing that was so spiffy. One of the places we stopped was a plantation where there were some sweltering archaeologists digging us relics.
The structures run the gamut from log and heavy timber construction to intricate brick and ashlar masonry and wood buildings with nifty Victorian filigree. A lot of the roof membranes appear to be hammered lead sheets that will rarely leak but folks are discouraged from drinking from the cisterns unless they want to go to church more. The building types in this region offer building buffs a rare look at 350 years of building type evolution. I am surprised at how many ancient buildings are still standing although we spotted some that have collapsed and the kudzu is going to get them or already has. Despite a few decrepit old buildings, this part of the world is very beautiful, at least from inside an air conditioned space.
There’s pix. Click here

We arose this morning to warm temperatures that gradually progressed to hellish, furnace-like temperatures accompanied by stifling humidity. Just going outside and walking once around the trailer would produce a wet shirt and a faint odor.
Therefore, we took it easy and huddled in the comfortable temperatures of our trailer until evening. The temperature by then had dropped back into the high 80’s so we (meaning mostly Peggy) did the laundry. Even the laundry room is air conditioned here.
Fortunately, the wifi is great here so we put some Amazon Prime programming on to keep our minds static until conditions are not so horrible outside. It was more than 80 degrees at 15 minutes till midnight.

Today was a travel day. We will certainly go back to Natural Chimneys County Park if we are back in this part of the world. The campground is located in a gorgeous pasture, there are big stone chimneys there, the campground hostess was a sweetheart, the roads are pretty good, there are fireflies every evening and the utilities worked very well. There are no sewer hookups or wifi but we can do without those amenities since the scenery is so stunning.
Right before we left, there was a parade of tractors, bicycles, kiddie cars and flags through the park. Although the parade probably had something to do with the upcoming 4th of July holiday, we like to think it was for us. We dumped the tanks and boogied right after the parade. We drove on some razor-thin rural roads for a while but eventually got back on I-81 northbound and stayed on it to the town of Winchester about 15 miles from West Virginia, 40 miles from Maryland and maybe 60 miles from Pennsylvania.
We pulled into Candy Hill Campground in Winchester. It ain’t cheap but it is very nice with full hookups, shady sites, full amenities including good wifi, a pool and an ample laundry. When we called to get our reservation at this park, the unfortunate on the phone was cranky and miserable but onsite staff were great, guiding us right to our RV spot. There must be something terrific around here because the park was full of campers and geezers like us. It was also hotter than hell with temperatures in the millions and humidity in the high double digits. Fortunately, our air conditioning works well.
Check out the parade. Click here

Today we were able to spend our entire day on fun stuff. Before leaving Natural Chimneys County Park we figured we should actually get a look at the Natural Chimneys. They are not actually chimneys but are hoodoos or tall eroded pillars of limestone jutting up out of the pasture where we are camped. They are nice but they ain’t Bryce Canyon.
We headed up I-81 to a place called Front Royal which is the location of the northern terminus of Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive runs along the ridge on the mountain range east of the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley. This road is basically an extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway which we have followed all the way across Virginia and it runs 108 miles from Waynesboro to Front Royal. Skyline Drive is also the main access road through Shenandoah National Park.
We picked a pretty good day because the weather was mostly clear. Last time we were here, in 2015, Skyline Drive was completely fogged in so we mostly saw the trunks of trees and ashlar masonry guard walls along the pavement. Today we were treated to some great views over the Shenandoah Valley a couple thousand feet below us. It is magnificent country consisting of forests and farmland and everything is bright green.
Along the way we were extremely fortunate in our timing because we spotted deer, ruffed grouse and a foraging bear that wandered into the road directly in front of our truck. The wildflowers along the road were blooming at full tilt and the forests and rock ledges we passed through were fantastic. We have now covered the entire 400+ miles of the Blue Ridge and the Skyline Drive extension and we can heartily recommend these great roads to everybody willing to go slowly through magnificent scenery.
There’s pix. Click here

Today we were able to do some exploring in earnest. We drove from our great RV spot at Natural Chimneys County Park near Mt. Solon, VA, and headed east. We passed through a bit of Staunton and continued through Waynesboro until we got to a point where the Blue Ridge Parkway turns south and Skyline Drive turns north. Skyline Drive is a magnificent road that runs along the mountains on the east side of the Shenandoah Valley. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along, surprisingly, the Blue Ridge which skirts the southern parts of the Shenandoah. The scenery here is magnificent.
Today’s drive took us south down the Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 0 to around the James River which is at about milepost 80 or so. Since the weather was relatively clear today, the views from the Parkway were terrific, both ways. We spotted tons of birds, some ground hogs, a couple deer, a series of waterfalls, a beautiful lake and the James River. The views of the Shenandoah Valley were stunning from the plentiful overlooks along the Parkway. Sumacs were sporting gorgeous flowers today.
We finally dropped off the Parkway and descended into the Shenandoah Valley where we soon found ourselves in the absolutely staggering architecture of the town of Lexington. It is an old town and also the home of the Virginia Military Institute where numerous American military officers have been trained. At one time, I believe Robert E. Lee was the head honcho here. The Lee Highway passes right through the campus. Only the rich and buddies of senators get to go to Annapolis or West Point. The remainder come from places like VMI. VMI is quite a facility, rivaling most major universities. It’s a monster.
To see the pictures, click here