Bristol Raceway

We didn't do much today.  Some cleaning, wash and cooking.  we hung around the campground most of the day.  The guys had some repair work to do on Jim's step.  His part hasn't come in and they tried fixing the part, or what ever they did all day.

After doing all our chores around the bus, Libbie and I rode over to Bristol Raceway.

We drove around and found an open gate and went in to check things out.

This is a half mile track.  It looked small to me.

There doesn't look like there is enough room to get all those cars on pit road.

There was a tour bus taking some people around the track.  We never saw an office to find out about tours, so we just took our own.

It wasn't so bad walking down all those steps.  But going back up, was terrible.  My life flashed before my eyes, 3 or 4 times.

 Can you see Libbie up there?  Look where the red and white meet.  See her now?

There was a huge poster acknowledging  Jeff Gordon and his last season.  You could write on it.  Neat idea, some of the comments weren't nice though.

Jim cooked supper tonight and it was very good.  We had grilled pork chops and great northern beans and cornbread.  We also grilled a salmon steak to see if we could do it.  It was good too.  For our first time cooking salmon, I think we did very well.  It's a learning process.  It was good, but I think we can do better.

It was a simple day, but a good day.
Later

Shenandoah Valley Campground and traveling to Bristol

 Doug checked the tire pressure and we loaded up to leave the Valley and head to Bristol, TN.

 I never took any pictures of the campground.  So I hurried up and snapped a few.  I really liked the fire pit surrounded by swings.

       

                                                      This is the restrooms and laundry building.

 They have a large covered picnic area for large get togethers.  Notice it even has a disco ball! LOL

                                     This pictures is horribly overexposed but I was in a hurry.

                                  The back of the office and pool area.  I told you I was in a hurry.

                                     We got on the road around 10 and headed to Bristol, TN.

                                                         This is the James River.

                  This beautiful bush was at a rest stop.  I don't know what it is, but I liked it.

                                         A close up of some of the pretty red leaves and berries.
We traveled one of our longest days, 291 miles.  I don't know why we did, just turned out that we weren't ready to stop.  We are staying at Shadrach Campground in Bristol, TN.  We are about 1/2 mile from the Bristol Raceway for those that follow Nascar.  Lucky for us there isn't any races at the track.  If it were, we wouldn't have been able to get a site.  I think they raced here a couple of weeks ago.  There isn't anything else around here but we are staying until a part comes in for Jim's motorhome steps.  It was suppose to have been overnighted here, but two days later, it still isn't here.  This may extend our stay here another day or two.
We ate BBQ at Rockwood BBQ in Elizabethton, TN.  If you are in the Bristol area and like BBQ, this is the place for you.  Not only is the bbq great but the baked beans are fantastic.  Go hungry, the portion sizes are big.

 This is Beaver Creek, right behind our site here at Shadrach.  It's a beautiful stream.

                                          Just a weird looking tree.  Looks like a bush was trying to grow out the side of it and someone trimmed it.

                                                     Small waterfall on the creek.

                                               Wild Lambs ear plant growing by the creek.

                                      I have never seen a blue crawfish (crawdad for us Arkansans)  This one was crawling on the campground road.  Unfortunately, a motor home ran over it right after I took this picture.  Hope this wasn't the only one in the world!
Later

Shenandoah National Park and bears!

On Wednesday, we took a drive around Shenandoah Valley and the National Park.

The Valley is beautiful and reminds me of the movie back in the 60's, I think.  The song keeps running through my head.       "Oh Shenandoah,  I love your daughter,  Away, your rolling rivers. "

We headed to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive.  Right before we got to the Park we saw a mother bear with her two cubs!

They were so shiny!  They looked like they had just had a bath and been brushed.  Mom kept a pretty good eye on us.

                          It didn't take her long before she moved her cubs back into the woods.

After she left we went on into the National Park.  First we went through this tunnel.

We went into the Skyland Drive at Thornton Gap.  This long and winding road has few entrance/exits.  Once you get on this drive, you are on it.  LOL  The complete drive is 105 miles long and follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains and joins the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Great Smoky Mountains.  We drove a small portion from Thornton Gap to Skyland Resort.

As you get higher and higher, the beauty that surrounds you is awe inspiring.  I loved it.

                                            I loved the shadows on the mountains below us.

I know I posted too many pictures, but it was so pretty and I couldn't make up my mind.  I took a hundred pictures so I think I did pretty good at culling them. I think.

We saw a lot of these pod looking things. I don't know what they are.  Libbie touched one and said they were soft and squishy.

                                 We are starting to see some pretty color in the trees up here.

I walked some of the Appalachian Trail.  I can't imagine walking 2000 miles from Maine to Georgia. About a quarter mile was enough for me.  It was rough and rocky.

After seeing the bear, I kept thinking there were bears around each bend.  Since I was walking this by myself, I decided to turn around.  I'm not very brave.

This was my view on my walk.    I don't know what kind of tree/bush that is in the second picture but it sure stuck out.  IT WAS BLUE!  A blue tree right in the middle of a forest.  It wasn't a blue spruce either.  It wasn't an evergreen.  It was unusual, that I do know.

                         Another view of the valley below.  We decided to turn around at the Skyland Resort because the next exit would be another 50 miles up the road.  That would give us another 80 miles to get back to the campground.  There is only so much twisting and turning a person can do. LOL

So we went back out the way we went in.

 We came across another covered bridge on our way back to the campground.  The plaque above says it's the only covered bridge left in Virginia.
Another great day!
Later