Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia

On a tip from a fellow camper in Shenandoah, we drove to Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia, on our way to the Smoky Mountains.  We really enjoyed it.  We took a nice hike to Mt. Rogers.  A portion of the hike was on the Appalachian Trail.  I was most interested in seeing the wild ponies that live in the park and in the national recreation area of Mt. Rogers.  The ponies are not really "wild"--they can be pretty friendly and can be approached without running away.  They are called wild only because they roam the area finding their own food and no one owns them.  I included this picture so you can see that they are small horses.  I would have loved to have seen a very young one.

The black pony with the white mane and tail has been named "Fabio."  They were very busy grazing so I didn't get many pictures of them with their heads up.   Fabio finally raised his head and stared at me for about a minute so I got some good ones of him.  Looks like he has a wig on!

Beautiful Monarch

Catching up on the news at the campground

I love theses fences!

There were SO many Christmas tree farms in North Carolina!

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway--a beautiful drive!

Smithsonian and Yorktown, VA

Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian

 We have been looking forward to getting back to D.C. and visiting some of the Smithsonian Museums.  First we went to Dulles to the fairly new Air and Space Museum.  It is amazing!  It is hard to believe that so much aircraft is inside one building--and some of them are huge!  As always, it's hard to choose just a few pictures from the man I took, but here are some.  Check out the top speed of the Blackbird 2,250 mph!

The Space Shuttle

The Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

National History Museum - Amazing formations from the earth!

since this is a life-size elephant, you can get an idea of the size of just a small part of this museum

American History Museum- this is the Civil War Draft Wheel

George Washington's clothes worn 1783-1789

Wow...doesn't this look real?  It is a sculpture in the Hirschhorn Art Museum.  It is much bigger than life and totally naked! 

On to Yorktown--Revolutionary Way Battleground, an original cannon, and notice the "earthworks"  They were made by the soldiers in the battle.  They cut down the trees, made big "baskets" out of the small limbs, made bundles of bigger branches and piled them all up, covered them with dirt creating ditches for protection and higher areas for firing the cannons.  All very interesting.

I just thought this was interesting.  When we hear about separation of church and state and removing God's name from government buildings, statues, etc., it's just crazy.  Our country is based on a belief in the one true God!

okay...those of you who are familiar with my photography know how I love macro photograph.  This dragonfly was just sitting waiting for me to get a shot of him!

Shenandoah and Manassas

We spent 4 days and 3 nights at Shenandoah National Park--we really enjoyed this park!  It is long (over 100 miles) and narrow and the Appalachian Trail runs down almost the entire park.  We camped at Matthews Arm Campground at mile 21.  It had very few campers which was nice.  The first full day we were there we did 3 hikes.  It was fun for us to actually do a little hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  We got back to our campground about 7 p.m. and a man came over to tell us that a bear had been in our campsite earlier--just reminding us to put all food away.  That got our attention! We were so hungry after the hikes and fixed chicken quesadillas. We didn't sleep very soundly that night.  In fact, about sunrise we did hear the bear very near our tent.  He just wandered back into the woods.  Next morning we did find some prints in the mud.   After a delicious breakfast of omelettes, we headed out for a hike to Mary's Rock.  We had an early dinner (spaghetti and salad) and headed to a lookout to watch the sunset.  As we were leaving the campground I looked over and there was a bear!  Sorry I didn't get a better picture of him--but he was really big and fat.  I was really excited to see a bear on our visit to the park.  Shenandoah has the largest concentration of Black Bears, so it would have been disappointing not to see one.  After watching the sunset, we headed back to camp to enjoy a fire.  Oh...the stars are just amazing in the park!

We met some couples who were very inspiring to us.  One couple was in their 80's.  They live in Seattle and have been traveling for a year!  They were on the hike up to Hawksbill.  Another couple was in our campground and they are in their 70's...camping in a tent, too.  They have made their home on a boat for 22 years and have done a lot of hiking.  They did an 18 mile hike in Shenandoah--in one day!  They have also hiked the Colorado Trail (over 500 miles).  So I hope and pray Don and I are still enjoying these trips for at least the next 20 years or so!!!!

Our first hike in Shenandoah!

At the top of  Upper Hawksbill

I'm so excited to be on the AT!!!  These white blazes mark the Trail.

Our home in the woods.

On our hike to Mary's Rock

A beautiful caterpillar--he was about 3 inches long! 

Here's the bear!

Sunset over the Appalachian Mountains

Skyline Drive--75 overlooks--this is one of the few straight areas in the road!

 This morning we broke camp pretty early and drove to Manassas, Virginia, the site of the first battle of the Civil War (Bull Run).  It was so interesting.  We went to the museum, watched a movie about the battle and then went on a Ranger-led talk around the field where the battle happened.  Once again, it was very moving. 

A map of the Battle at Manassas (Bull Run).  Lights show the movement of the troops.  Very interesting!

And to think that the population of the US was just a fraction then of what it is today...

The Battlefield

So...since our campground didn't have showers, we were really happy to check into a hotel tonight and get cleaned up :-) !

Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania!

We have covered some miles since leaving Acadia.  Rain kept us from doing more hikes and seeing more of that park!  I hope we can go back again sometime.  We drove down into Massachusetts and found a campsite on the beach.  It was nice listening to the ocean as we slept....then it turned to rain!  The next day we headed to the Catskill Mountains in New York.  We drove through Woodstock...a very interesting hippie town.  Our next campsite was at Woodland Valley State Park--way, way in the boonies.  Our campsite was right next to a running stream and very pretty.  We enjoyed a nice campfire and a good night's sleep listening to the water.  The next morning we are off to another state...Pennyslvania. It was a beautiful drive as we left the Catskills.  We spent the night in Caledonia State Park just west of Gettysburg.  A few miles of the Appalachian Trail runs through the park.  We saw a few hikers and they looked like they had been on the trail for a while!  I had hoped we could do a few miles of the trail....but weather interfered.  We planned to stay 2 nights in Caledonia, but a severe storm was headed in so we broke camp and drove in to Gettysburg.

Gettysburg is so interesting.  I was not prepared for how it would feel driving through and looking out over fields where thousands and thousands of Americans died.   It was emotional.  Don and I were surprised at how huge the area was that has been preserved as open space where the battles happened.  When we were driving the route through the battlefields and viewing all the monuments, we could see the storm coming in from the west (where we were camping).   All of the sudden the winds blew in and rain came in sheets!  We took shelter in the Visitor Center where they had a very good movie and informative museum.  It rained on and off all afternoon.  Sooooo glad we broke camp and everything stayed dry!

Below you will see a picture of a small portion of the Cyclorama titled the Battle of Gettysburg painted by Paul Philippoteaux and completed in 1883.  It is 377 x 42 feet!  It is in a circular building and is amazing!  It took 6 years and millions of dollars to restore and was then placed in Gettysburg.  In front of the painting are actual rocks, cannons, and other items which just blend into the painting itself. 


Tonight we are in York.  Tomorrow we head to Lancaster County.  When Lee graduated from Philadelphia Biblical College, we all came up here for that event.  We ate at an Amish restaurant called Good and Plenty, and it was SO good.  We are going back there tomorrow!

Here are a few more pics....

Campsite in Caledonia, PA

Beautiful flowing creek

Gettysburg

One of the many, many monuments to the men who died in Gettysburg

Cyclorama

Here comes the storm.  I love these fences.

Now we know exactly how the tent poles that are in Don's office were used!  They have been handed down from generation to generation and were given to Don.  Don's great-great grandfather P.R. Smith fought in the Civil War and survived.

This is the actual stretcher that was used to carry Stonewall Jackson from the battlefield.

Soldiers' Cemetary

So many guns on display.  The one we have is at Lee's home.

I loved all the people dressed in period clothing throughout Gettysburg.