Hi everyone! Updating you from a tiny town on the Virginia east coast called Urbanna. Boy do they love their oysters here.....more on that later.
So we left Ontario right after Thanksgiving (got a late start that day) and crossed the border at Buffalo. Found a cheap ($10/night) place to camp at in Falconer, NY called Top-a-rise. Nothing fancy but trying to take advantage of the 50% discount we get with our Passport America membership. Weather was cold and there was a frost hard enough overnight to freeze some campers water at the hook up...BRRRR!
There was a winter storm warning for New York and the Allegheny mountain region in Pennsylvania so we drove about 5 hours south to Rockwood PA. First place we headed for was a bust! It’s called Scotland. Although it was a highly rated place in our “Frommer’s Best RV & Tent campgrounds in the USA” book, it sure didn’t look like it. The office was burnt down and only voice mail on the phone. In general it looked pretty run down, especially at dusk in the pouring, cold rain. Don’t go there, even some locals we met later in the week agreed. Luckily, I noticed another campground, Hickory Hollow, on the way there so we went back to it. Major stroke of luck, it was new, clean and in our Passport America book so it only cost us $13/night. Too bad the weather was so cold and nasty because the area looked like a good one to hike and bike around but that wasn’t happening. Thank god for the bigger trailer because we were stuck in it for 3 solid days! Very grateful for the bigger kitchen for cooking in and the full bathroom for peeing in. :-)
Since the weather in PA was only supposed to get worse (and snowy) we decided to run away and move further south. We really don’t want to see any of that white stuff! Made it to Front Royal, Virginia. Camped at the North Fork Resort, right on the Shenandoah river. Sardine like camp sites but that was OK because we were stuck in the trailer again for first 2 days because of shitty weather and by the 19th, the sun came out and it was glorious so we were never at the site.
So what do we do that first sunny day in a week? We go 260 ft underground on a tour of the Skyline Caverns. It’s one of the few places in the world to see calcite crystals called anthodites and the biggest one in the world is found here. Lots of other cool rock formations as well, you’ll see them in the pictures. The guide we had also let us experience total darkness at 200 ft underground for about a minute....that was creepy and about all I could take!
For the next 2 days we explored the Shenandoah National park via the 105 mile Skyline Drive. The north entrance begins at Front Royal, 10 minutes from where we were camped. Fall colours hadn’t quite peaked yet but they were still pretty nice. There are overlooks all over the drive and the views were amazing.
Did a couple of nice hikes on days that were sunny and warm, in the low 20s C. Perfect weather to walk about in. First hike was to the White Oaks Canyon falls at mile 42.6 of the Skyline Drive. It’s 4.6 miles roundtrip to the 2nd highest falls in the park at 86 ft. Steady elevation gain but nothing too strenuous. Pretty scenery but the falls weren’t that impressive at this time of year...no water flow. Next day did the Overall Run Falls at mile 21.1 of the Drive. It was 6.4 miles roundtrip to the highest falls in the park at 93ft. This hike was definitely more strenuous with an elevation change of 1800 ft...all downhill to begin with into the the canyon. Coming back up was a challenge but nothing like hiking in the rockies. The moderately hard hikes there were harder than this one but it was still the work out we were looking for. Unfortunately the falls were a big disappointment, almost no water flow at this time of year, I’m sure in the spring they’re awesome though. Thankfully the view at the end was spectacular, great place to soak up the sun and grab lunch.
Decided to move on south and east and try to get closer to the ocean which is how we ended up where we are now, Bethpage Resort. It’s huge but so are their campsites. Nicest one we’ve stayed at in a private RV park yet. Unfortunately we’re 2 weeks early for the 52nd annual Oyster festival on Nov 6-8...too bad because we bought some oysters from a local seafood market last night and they were excellent. A popular food here as evidenced by the mountains of oyster shells. I kid you not, check out the picture in the album.
Today we had 6, right of the boat, fresh steamed crabs for lunch from the same place. Tasty but hard work....now I know why crab meat is so expensive!!!!
Check out the ALBUM!