Shenandoah Day 2

It was cold last night. We went to bed early because we were all tired from such an early start. I changed into thermal underwear and a sweatshirt before slipping into my sleeping bag. Luckily, I was warm all night and slept really well. It was one of my better nights of sleep while camping. Kati woke up with her knee screaming in agony.

For breakfast, we made bacon and egg sandwiches. I cooked while we all drank coffee and/or hot chocolate to keep warm. It’s one of the things we enjoy most about our weekend family camping trips—a lazy leisurely breakfast.

Since we all love rock scrambles, we drove north on the Skyline Drive to the Bear Fence parking area to do the short scramble there. It was just over a mile round trip but the scenery and views were pretty. Despite her pain, Kati pushed through to hike with us. G3 seemed to have a great deal of fun. He detoured repeatedly to climb other rocks or trees. Some of his antics had me holding my breath, hoping he wouldn’t fall off the mountain or hurt himself, but he was confident and sure-footed. I haven’t seen him this happy in a while. Pulling him out of school for a day was completely worth it. It may have been cold overnight, but the temperature—in the sixties—was perfect for hiking.

After our hike, we headed into town to get supplies—ice for the cooler, more firewood,etc. In 7/11, G3 was excited when I asked him if he wanted a slurpee. Since Virginia has a wine trail, of course our trip into town included wine tasting. The first winery we hit was White Oak Lavender Farm. There were horses on the farm which reminded me of Dad. He always enjoyed places with farm animals that he could feed or pet. And when G3 was little, he loved being able to take him to see the animals. The wine was not good. Most of it was too sweet and perfumey.

While there, my allergies were really bad. Between the hay and the pollen I was miserable. My eyes were itchy and red and looked like I was crying. Also, I could not stop sneezing. It was so bad that at one point I sneezed and spilled red wine on my new pants. To exasperate things, my sneezes are explosive and loud. I get that from Dad, but it upsets both by son and spouse.

Not wanting to deal with the long line of cars heading into Shenandoah—it was worse than the toll both on the George Washington Bridge during rush hour—we went to another winery. The wine at Marceline Vineyards was a bit better, but we didn’t enjoy anything enough to buy a bottle. We did, however, enjoy the live music at both places since musicians covered songs that we liked.

In the car, G3 has taken to playing music using the speaker his uncle bought him for Christmas. Over the years, he’s gotten tired of listening to ‘lesbian music,” therefore, he’s taken charge of deciding our playlists. At least he has good taste in music—preferring music from the 70s and 80s—so we can all sing along and be happy.

We retuned to Shenandoah in time for a short sunset hike. Just past our campground is the Black Rock Summit Trail. It’s only a half a mile out to the viewpoint and it’s mostly flat. It’s perfect for an evening stroll. Once at the viewpoint, you can scramble up a field of rocks. Of course we scrambled. It was our favorite part. G3 especially enjoyed the scramble. He had a lot of fun exploring and climbing up every possible rock. The sunset was not exciting, but the view was worth the hike. The sun set behind a mountain, but it did turn the sky a faint orangish hue which was pretty. G3 was all smiles and in a good mood which was the best part of the night.

It was 9:30 by the time we reached our campsite—too late to start a fire. G3 was disappointed, but we promised him one tomorrow.