Go Bethesda Barons!!

Fri. Oct. 29: The wind continued to blow fiercely and the temperature fell to 35°. BRRRR…! We didn’t get out our sleeping bag so I hovered just on the edge of being too cold all night, but not awake enough to really get up and do anything about it. In the morning we turned up the furnace and warmed up enough to get dressed. Then we had hot coffee and oatmeal and warmed up enough to break camp and be on our way. We stopped at the Visitors Center at the main road but found it wasn’t open and just walked through the Gift Shop. Lou and Jan led the way today and were lucky enough to have a black bear cross the road right in front of their van!! Jan tried to point it out to us out the window but we just thought she was showing us the huge boulder beside the road. We had many stops today for overlooks but with temperatures that didn’t get out of the low 40s until we left the Drive, strong winds that continued most of the day, and over 80 miles to cover at 35 miles an hour, we didn’t linger anyplace for long. But we did spend a while at the Big Meadow Visitors Center where they had a very nice display on the history of the Shenandoah National Park and the building of Skyline Drive, including two short videos that we watched. When we finished we drove on up to the historical lodge and had lunch there. Back on the drive we found that at the higher elevations the leaves were pretty much off the trees but as we descended and finally left the park at Front Royal the temperature was in the mid 50s and autumn hadn’t made as much impact. When I could get a signal on my phone we found messages from Kathy Wicks and Hank. Kathy encouraged us to camp at Lake Fairfax County Park near Reston, where they live. This would allow us to avoid driving on the Beltway. So after we did a bit more research on our own, we decided to do just that. Hank told us that Connor (#55) had an important football game at Churchill High School in Potomac and wondered if we wanted to meet then there to watch it. We got registered and set-up at the campground by 6:30. So with an address from Jan and Lou’s Streets and Maps program we entered it in the GPS and drove straight to the game, surprising Hank and Janis very much. Sadly, the Bethesda Barons lost the game. L But we felt great for having made the effort and found them. We had pizza and hot chocolate there and stayed to the end before heading back to the park. We unwound with Jan and Lou for a while and then retired to the camper to write and shower before going to bed around 11:30. We have a big day in front of us tomorrow!!