July 14,2006

We woke to a cool morning with the area to ourselves. A meaadow crowded with milkweed awaited the butterflies. We sipped our coffee overlooking the Shenandoah valley hidden below a layer of clouds. We sat knowing a whole world was down there and we, feeling like beings from a different world, were observing them.

We enjoyed a morning constitutional around the quiet picnic area. And ended with walking up and down steps for about ten minutes. The birds and squirrils scampered about and called to their friends. One squirril jumping from one tree to another scrambled as the dead branch he landed on fell to the ground. He managed to stay in the safe haven of the canopy. Deer grazed on dew moisten grasses and spotted fawns kept close by their mothers.

We had our breakfast, got our map stamped at the visitor center, watched the intro movie and prepared to depart. We had lodged at the overlook where in the early 1900s visitors could stay, but today we felt privledged as now the historic lodge is a visitor center. The morning cloud gave way to the coming of mist and fog. The moisture captured in the vegetation goes back thru the water cycle. Vistas are less dramatic, but we can still see the massive vallies, carpets of green and the small towns, farms and villages far below.

We made our way stopping at Gooney, Range and Hogback Overlooks, Mathews Arm campground, and Elkwallow Picnic Ground where we had our oatmeal under the tall trees.

The rains came and covered us with a downpour, but as we went south it stopped and only the fog remained hiding from us the views and vistas promised by the signs at more overlooks. We got off of Skyline Drive on route 211, a scenic road.

Orange is a quaint artsy town; we made a post office stop there. We traveled small roads weaving our way south east. A picnic pavillion at a rural Methodist church provided us with a great afternoon spot for dinner and a few scrabble games. We ended our day in a wild area just twenty miles north of Jill's. The road had very little traffic and the pull off ws wide enough for us to be far off the roadway. We got out our chairs and sat enjoying the birds calling, the insects buzzing, the distant crock of frogs. When the sky filled with stars we went inside for a movie, Sneakers, and then to bed.

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