The weather forecasters here are as accurate as back home. Yesterday was predicted to be 68F and sunny with a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. We awoke to grey skies and were being pelted with a downpour not long after that.

Still, the day slowly improved to the point where the rain stopped and it was quite humid, which was lucky, since we’d gone into the Shenandoah National Park anyway. Turned out, incidentally, that we did not need to pay the US$10.00 to go on Skyline Drive since it was covered by the National Parks card we bought to cover us for all National Parks through the USA.

Since Shenandoah has the highest density of black bears in the US, we were kind of hopeful of seeing one (this time from the comfort of the van), but we lucked out and didn’t see any. Saw some scratchings on a tree where a bear had been when we hiked to the Dark Hollow Falls, and were very on edge then, since the scratchings were fresh, but still no bear.

We did see plenty of deer though, and on the way out of the park in the evening, it was very daunting to be driving in a thick fog that we could not see more than 12 feet in, and to know there were a lot of deer just grazing on the side of the road, ready to leap in front of us. The speed limit on the road is 35mph, and we rarely got above 15mph due to the poor visibility.

Stayed the night in Harrisonburg, enjoying the luxury of the Walmart carpark once more, and are now in Staunton checking email, taking care of things and trying to work out various options for the upcoming travels.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001