Back home again!

Kind of an overcast day with a threat of rain from time to time.  And yet sunny at times too.  That sort of reflects the moods of coming home and ending the trip.  The adventure is over, but here we are back in our house, home again.

We arrived about 2:30, got the food and essentials out of the camper, but I wouldn’t say they are all put away yet!  Unpacking will take a while.

In the meantime I had 2 different meetings to choose from as I return my mind to being home again.

Skye was delighted to be back!  We let her off leash and she hit warp speed down to her Huntington River for some water fun!

Thanks for reading the blog this winter!  We expect to be back again next year.  

And a big thanks to Phoebe for house sitting!

Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown NY

One more bright sunny day.  Not quite as warm, no shorts, but a T-shirt was just right.

About 270 miles to get here and that sets us up for 200 miles home tomorrow.  

This is a nice brewery, big facility, very nice bar and eatery.  It has a good menu with a good selection of food along with a long list of beer. It also has a lot of open field space to roam around.  One part is a disc golf course, another is parking for events.  And that is great for dog walking.  Skye got out several times.

I was here last May with Mike & Becky on our way to the PA State Shoot.  It could become a regular for us on the return trip.

Brew Camp, Mechanicsburg, PA

Tonight we are at Appalachian Brewing Co in Mechanicsburg PA, just a bit west of Harrisburg.  Tomorrow night will be another brewery in Cooperstown NY.  The following night will be Jonesville VT!

This was a pleasant sunny warm day driving up I-81 along the Shenandoah mountains.  Now approaching 5 PM and still sitting outdoors in shorts & T-shirt.  Going inside for beer and supper pretty soon.

This may be a parking lot but we have a grass front lawn.  And a grocery store for a neighbor.  Although at this point we don’t need much.

Fuel prices have been interesting the last couple days.  Diesel as 3.99/gal in Buchanan so I got it at a T/A truck stop 30 miles up the road today.  With my fleet card it was 2.95/gal.  I refueled again just before arriving at camp for 3.40/gal.

After a very nice supper we went for a walk on a bike path. Very nice sunset.  

AT south of Glasgow VA

It felt like a slightly cooler start this morning but we had the windows open all night. It was actually just a bit overcast.  

We went north to Natural Bridge VA and on to Glasgow VA.  Then out to the place where the Appalachian Trail crosses the James River.  They built a very big long bridge over the river for the trail.  

This may have been Skye’s favorite day of the whole winter.  The trail runs right beside the river for a mile and then follows a brook for another mile.  She was in and out of the water more times than we could count. Some times she would just hike the water while we hiked the trail.  

We came to a shelter and hung out for a bit.  Then up a side hill away from the water for a while.  Then returned by the same route.  

We met several hikers along the way. A guy doing section hikes who was out for a week.  A woman out for 5 weeks and a couple doing the whole trail who came from Australia for this!  And one guy, an Iraq vet, doing a big section.  We ran into him 3 times on the trail and once in the grocery store afterwards.  He showed us photos of a rattlesnake he encountered a mile beyond our turnaround point.  And I found a phone remote battery case he had lost on the trail, so he was lucky that we caught up with him.  

Back to camp for some phone calls, emails and showers.  

Planning on 3 more days on the road (700 miles) to be home on Thursday.  Tomorrow night will be just west of Harrisburg PA.  Winter ‘25 is wrapping up.  

Some college kids gather on the bridge to swim.  Some jump off the bridge.  It’s pretty high!  The river is deep here, there is a dam 1/4 mile downstream.  

Middle Creek Campground, Buchanan, VA

This was a warm day, up to 85°.   We are in Buchanan, VA, less than 200 miles from Grassy Creek.  This is a private commercial campground inside a national forest.  Only 7 miles off I-81 and a bit north of Roanoke.  But that was a narrow and somewhat twisty 7 miles!   No problem.  Even though we met a car and a pickup w/ trailer in the sharpest blind curve on that whole road.  Of course.  Where else?   

Skye loves this campsite.  A nice bubbling stream 20’ from the door!  She’d like to spend the rest of the day in it.  But we went for a walk and it took us to the swimming pool.  Dogs are not allowed but it hasn’t been cleaned for the spring yet.  A pretty redhead was sunbathing and had the camp owners dog swimming in the pool.  She invited Skye to join so she did.  They had a lot of fun chasing tennis balls.  

This is a remote camp with poor cell service.  I only get internet from the porch of the camp store.  

I’m trying to post photos but not having much luck. 

I reduced the file size and poof

West Jefferson NC day trip

Our last full day in NC; we went to town.  The owner of the Old Store told us about West Jefferson, a town about a half hour south of us.  We thought we should check it out.  Indeed it was a very nice town.  A vibrant downtown with plenty of shops on both sides of the street.  We checked out several stores and looked into many others.  Carlene even found a day pack suiting the list of desires she has had for many months.  It was even priced within her expectations. So she got a great souvenir!  After that we took Skye out for a downtown walk on the busy street.  She was very good, ignored, for the most part, the several dogs we met.  The only place we took her into was the Chamber of Commerce when we were looking for a hike we had heard was nearby.  The young lady working there immediately brought out a big dog bowl of water for her.  Then she told us how to get to the park.

Then we found the town park, Paddy Mountain Park.

It had some nice picnic tables for our lunch then a nearly 2 mile hike with Skye.

Back at The Old Store they had filled our propane tank while we were out (left it there last night) so paid up our tab and had a good chat with folks on the front deck.  Tonight we are going back for a movie on the back deck.  “Hop”.  Something about the Easter Bunny’s reluctant son recruiting a human replacement.  Might be fun.  Popcorn too.

Many murals in town

Out on the trail

Movie night on the back deck

Very spacious

Grayson Highlands State Park day hike

We got an early start to go to the Grayson Highlands, the Appalachian Trail traverses this park and Carlene hiked through here in around 2014.  But when she was here it was a very foggy day.  So everyone says this is a most scenic place, but all she could see was clouds.  It was time to come back so she could see what she missed.  It is also known for its wild pony herd.  Today we got to see both.

This side of NC and VA got hit hard by the hurricane last year.  On the road up to Grayson we saw numerous places with new pavement and new bridges that had been washed out by the flooding.  The river beside the road.  Still has large amounts of building debris up in the trees at streamside.

Our hike up the AT and out on some side trails was very pleasant.We ran into two herds of wild ponies!  The first herd was 7 ponies and the second was 5.  Each herd has one stallion with his mares.  We only saw one foal, the others are on their way soon.  Some of them looked very close to foaling.  The signs all warn not to approach them, that they will bite and kick.  But we saw a group of the herd volunteers who come out to help the ponies, feed them in winter when the weather stops all pasture growth (they bring in round bales of hay).  We talked with some of them for a while.  They have predator issues mostly with coyotes.  they said the coyotes got 30 foals last year.  That’s in a herd of about 70.

The rolling hills and some rocky top hills all added to the scenic beauty of the day.   The other thing was the endless number of people hiking today.  Maybe it was the great weather, or the holiday weekend, but it was seldom more than 20 minutes between meeting hikers.  And once back near the parking lot the chief ranger was there with a display of Bear & coyote skins, skulls and foot prints.  He sees Skye and calls out ‘my favorite dog breed”!  She got several minutes of attention from him.

We stopped back at the Old Store on our way back to camp, met some new employees and the owner.  Got lots of ideas, probably too many, for what to see tomorrow.

Sunrise today

The helper crew

Back at the park this hiker was taking her cat for a hike

GPS view of the roads