Turtle Tales: On The Road Again, And Again, And Again...

We left Harrisburg Sunday and it was again a day full of mountains as we continued to drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Mountain range. There are so many things to view - dairy farms, vineyards, quaint villages in valleys, mining sites, caverns and again lush forests and beautiful wildflowers. We spent Sunday evening at a place called Dixie Caverns RV Park in Salem, Virginia, deep in the Shenandoah Valley.

There are actually caverns in the area, and daily tours are available. The caverns was found on the property in 1920 by some local farm boys and was opened to the public in 1923 with one of those farm boys as tour guide. Bill Mc Daniel, or "Mr. Bill" worked at the caverns from the time he was 15 years old until his early 70's. We were told that he is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for walking around the world seven times underground! We did not take the cavern tour, but we were told it maintains a temperature of 58 degrees year round. It is a smaller cavern compared to the ones we have visited (Sonora, Natural Bridge Caverns and Carlsbad), but does get a lot of visitors annually. There was also a rock shop and antique shop on the grounds which we did explore, and it was a nice change from constant motion on the road!

We hit the road running again on Monday, and made our way through Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN and spent the night in a rustic KOA campground in the mountains of Trenton, GA. It was a nice respite from the hectic traffic on the interstate. No Wi-Fi, so it was a good opportunity to reminisce about our trip. This has been a great time for us. We got to see so much, and do things we had only talked about in the past.

Tuesday we decided we would go back to Payne's RV in Theodore, Alabama so that we might finally have an opportunity to visit Bellingrath Gardens, which if you recall, we attempted to do at the beginning of our trip, but were unsuccessful due to heavy rains and flooding. When we got to Evergreen, Alabama it started to rain and it rained all the way to Theodore. It finally let up enough for us to set up and play a little Frisbee with Lacy, then the dam broke lose and it was torrential rains, thunder and lightening all night long! Lightening hit the tree two sites down from us, and bounced off the RV on that site, catching it on fire and burning out the electrical system in the RV. The fire was contained to a small area (where the lightening struck) so the RV is repairable. It also managed to knock out our TV in the process of striking the other RV. Being that close to a lightening strike was probably the scariest thing we have ever experienced. It was the loudest sound and the brightest white light ever! Wednesday we woke up to sunny skies and decided to do our household chores (laundry, cleaning the RV, grocery shopping) and planned on visiting the Gardens in the afternoon. Well guess what, due to the torrential rains, the roads were again blocked and there was no way to get to the Gardens due to the nearby river overflowing onto the roadways. So we just took it easy and did some reading and relaxing and prepared for our departure today.

We are now at Poche's RV Park in Breaux Bridge, LA, and will spend a few days here before our final leg home. We knew when we left Alabama this morning that it was going to be a hot-humid day and that we were definitely back in the South. The A/C is cranked full force in the RV, and we are finally feeling somewhat more comfortable! Seems like only yesterday we were complaining about the cold .......The wi-fi here is somewhat sporadic, so I can't guarantee we will get to blog again before we get home, but we will do our best!

Meanwhile, enjoy these few pictures taken on the fly........

Lacy is a great traveler!