Best Day So Far

June 6 – What a GREAT day!  Although Bill can’t do a lot of walking we sure enjoyed our day!  We didn’t rush to leave this morning but got away about 10:30.  We started by stopping in Waynesboro at the Visitor Center to get some brochures for our Visitor Center. I also got some about the local wineries as I want to go back to the cider place.

We headed up Rt. 340 to the little town of Elkton.  Along the way there was

Great little diner

very little traffic with nice country scenery along the way.  Elkton is where we ended up the last time we were here as we were getting off the Skyline Drive looking for a place to eat.  I mentioned I wondered if it was still open and Bill knew right where it was, C & S Diner.  It was open and the food was just as good as we remembered.  Just a little country place with home cooking.  I had chicken fried steak so tender you could cut it with a fork, smothered in white gravy.  I had a double order of Cole slaw since it was homemade and now I’m going to try to make it that way.  She uses chopped sweet pickles and it’s so tasty!  Bill got a huge sandwich that he enjoyed and we were full when we left.  There were 2 other tables of Ohio folks there and we all had to discuss where we all came from in Ohio.

You're only 62 once!

From Elkton we drove to the Swift Run Gap entrance station of the Shenandoah National Park. It was an exciting moment when I bought my All Access Pass as a Senior for $10. Now I can use my own card to go with my peeps to places since some of them are not yet “of age”!

We drove the Skyline Drive to Big Meadows and visited the Byrd Visitor Center where we watched a movie of the government moving the people out of the valley to make it a National Park. It's sad that so many were bought out with no choice in the matter. We bought a few souvenirs and walked through the history of the park display. It's one the places the CCC was utilized to put returning soldiers back to work.

What a view!

That was as far north as we were going since it's such a slow drive back. We stopped at a number of overlooks and the scenery was beautiful. The mountains are babies compared to the Rockies but they are so verdant and the valleys as well.

We stopped at Lewis Mountain thinking I could get a passport stamp but the gentleman said the park service seems to want to drive visitors to the Visitor Centers so they no longer had a stamp.

She's checking me out!

On our southward journey to Loft Mountain Visitor Center a young bear crossed the road in front of us. Of course I was very excited and pulled over while ordering Bill to get the camera. I got out and visually followed him/her and managed to get a couple of full body shots, one with him looking right at me. My first bear in the wild photo! Yee haw!

At Loft Mountain we didn't buy anything except in the little dining room. They had soft serve and we each had one. It tasted like real custard and the portion was pretty large. Yum! My favorite. The dipped ice cream was blackberry and I thought Bill might go

Blurry, but I got her!

for that but he joined me with a soft serve.

Refueled, we got back on the Skyline Drive stopping periodically for photos and when we saw 2 other cars stopped along the road. I asked what they were seeing as I couldn't see a thing and the lady said it was a mama bear and 2 cubs but the cubs had gone up over the ridge. I kept looking and finally got back far enough to see the mama. She was pretty big and didn't have any interest in the crazy tourists at all. She eventually lumbered up the ridge looking for her children. Geez, 2, count 'em, 2 bear sightings in one day! Maybe I'm turning my spotting ability around!

Isn't it pretty?

We exited the park and Skyline Drive at the southern end, Rockfish Gap, which exits into Waynesboro. I made a quick stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Wal-mart, then we decided on dinner at Silk Road, an Asian place that we were told was very good. Boy, was it! They have many nationalities of Asian food to pick from, including a huge selection of Sushi. I started with White Sangria chocked full of fresh fruits and chose seaweed salad and an order of Volcano Roll Sushi. Both were delicious and I was stuffed. The roll was not served like any I had had before. The presentation was spectacular. Bill had Chicken Lo Mein. It was prepared a little differently than in most places but he was very pleased with it. No room for dessert although they had some interesting choices.

We got home around 8:30 and unloaded the car. Later we watched 2 episodes of Rizzoli and Isles, did I say that is also going off the air? What is this, a conspiracy to keep me from watching TV?

Overall what a great day we had! This is what summer should be!