Adventure Travel Photography Blog
Today the dogs and I started down the Blue Ridge Parkway which connects to the south end of Skyline Drive which I completed last week. The drives, similar in scenery, were quite different in other ways. Skyline Drive passes through a National Park where a toll booth marks a limited amount of entry and exit points. I believe there were three in total. As such, the Skyline Drive area is more pristine.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
I ended up at Red Lobster last night with a pound of snow crab legs…my favorite. I’m not much on chain restaurants, but I tell you, I’ve eaten at more chain and fast food places in the last 60 days than I have in the last several years! Red Lobster always reminds me of childhood days. My mom and Bart once came up with a plan for the children to try different restaurants on Monday night when my brothers Bart and Ed visited.
Each Monday, one of us got to pick a restaurant. Celebration and Chiquita’s were favorites until my brother Bart picked Red Lobster. I think Ed and I picked Red Lobster the next two weeks and after a month of eating at the Red Lobster, the restaurant plan went by the wayside!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Ok, so I couldn’t find Lucy’s last night, so I stopped by the local liquor store and asked where it was located. The gentleman behind the register suggested if I wanted food that I should skip Lucy’s and go to the sports bar called Spare Time at the bowling alley. Either he has a stake in the bowling alley, Lucy’s made him mad, or I ordered the wrong item.
I’m always leery of ordering a chicken sandwich at places I haven’t been, but the bartender said they were good, so I went with the ranch chicken fillet sandwich. I should have known fillet meant pressed chicken parts, not breast, GAG! In their defense, the onion rings were good, and the quesadilla and wings that other patrons ordered looked tasty as well.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
I planned on an early start this morning and awoke to a parking lot full of fog. While I waited for the fog to dissipate, I provisioned VANilla, bought the dogs a new bed, and found the best $2.12 breakfast in town. Ok, it was at Burger King. But still, it’s hard to find anything but a bacon or sausage egg sandwich or powdered donuts in the early mornings on these scenic drives, especially in the Potomac Highlands.
Believe it or not, Starbucks are few and far between, and I’m not inclined to spend $5 on coffee anyway! Two items on Burger King’s $1 menu are a small cup of coffee and four warm, mini-blue berry biscuits complete with liquid sugar dipping sauce also known as icing. It’s my new breakfast of champions when I don’t feel like cooking oatmeal!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Wow, last night was bitter cold. I thought it was only getting down to 39 degrees, a temperature I dealt with just fine in Maine. This morning, it took an hour of running the heat, adding a pair of socks, and finally hiking to get the numbness to wear off in my big toe! Now for all my friends that ask me about skiing, this is why I don’t like it! While the night was cold, the day was glorious, sixty and sunny. It was a perfect for exploring the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Today we started out on the Westernmost part of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in northwestern Maryland near where the last three locks that were built to divert water from the Potomac River. The canal was mainly used to transport coal from the Allegheny Mountains to D.C. where the route ended. While it is no longer used for commerce, residents of the area enjoy hiking, biking, and camping along the trail.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
With the intent to catch a few minutes of the Sunday night Cowboy football game, I tried the burger at Friday’s. I didn’t make it through the whole game, but presumed they lost based on a friend’s text “Cowboys stink” at 12:52 am. I retired next door in the Walmart parking lot which may as well have been a KOA campground. Twenty plus campers filled the outside parking spaces at this Maryland Walmart near Antietam National Park.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
How about waking up to this sunrise every day? At least I got to for a day. Not only did I see a beautiful sunrise, but also I enjoyed homemade cranberry scones for breakfast! Katherine is quite the cook. Just watching her, I learned a few tricks to try a year from now when I have an oven again. It was a lovely start to the day that has me riding a horse and the exploring the Maryland panhandle.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!I woke up to what I’d call Texas snow. Oh, there’s a snowflake…5 seconds later, oh, there’s another one! Lucky for me, it was light and nothing stuck. I would have liked to take a few pictures of snow dusted mountains later in the day, but at the same time I wanted to depart when planned. The ranger at Shenandoah National Park told me, depending on how much it snows, they have all campers wait until the roads are plowed and then the campers are directed to the safest exit which might not be in the chosen direction.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Thankfully the skies were friendly and no snow fell last night. The temperature couldn’t be much above 40, but the sun was out, so the dogs and I went for a walk. We connected Lewis Trail Falls with the Appalachian Trail to complete a 3.3 mile loop. The view of the falls was mediocre at best, but the view of the Shenandoah Valley below and the mountains afar was lovely. I didn’t see that many people on the trail, maybe ten or so hikers, but Kathy was nice enough to take a picture of me and the dogs.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!