May 15, 2008 - Travel to Shenandoah National Park

We headed on our way after filling with propane and gas (Yikes!!) and took a nice leisurely ride to Shenandoah National Park.

When we went to register, Ranger Hazel looked at me and said “You were here last year at this time”. It was really nice to be remembered. So we had a little chat and then went to our site:
We are in the first-come, first-served area since we will be here until after Memorial Day.

So after the normal setup, I left Andy to set up his antennas and radios and walked to the visitor’s center (1 mile away) to get information on the trails and the programs available over the next week. Last year, the visitor center was in the middle of construction. It is finished now and quite beautiful. They dedicated it to the 10,000 men who worked in the CCC in the 1930’s:

On the way back from the center, I took the shortcut through the campground and came upon this little lady:

I sat on the curb and just kept taking pictures as she came towards me. When she was about 10’ away, I made a noise so she would know I was there. (I did not want to get attacked by a startled deer. J ) But I got some great pictures. (Notice that she is pregnant. From now until mid June, there will be lots of fawn here.)

And a little further down the path, there were two young bucks:

Who then came thru the campground:


When I got back, Andy had mounted his radios more permanently. (Bill, you will be jealous!!!)

We just love this park and hopefully someday we will do volunteer work and spend the summer. For those of you that follow the blog, when we came here last year we were interviewed by a reporter doing a story on the park for “Route 66 Magazine” – an RV dealer magazine. Here is a link to the article (we even had our picture in it!):
http://dealers.route66rv.com/Portals/152/Current%20Article/Archive%20Articles/Vol3N3_Shenandoah.pdf If the link doesn’t work, just Google “Diane Hitzel Route 66”.

One of the things I also did today was walk around the campground and up to the lodge to find cell phone service – none, so we will be out of touch again. We do get bars but we seem to be on the fringe of the service. So I will be looking for an amplifier and antennae next. Anyone have any suggestions, please email me.

We were able to cook supper with the campfire and just as we were getting ready to spend the rest of the evening at the fire, it began to rain (and stayed raining all night)!


Miles Traveled: 75 miles
Routes Traveled:
VA: US 55, US 340, US 33