Today [Monday, 8th October] we left the hotel, that had not quite grown into its fire escape ...
but provided nice sunrises....
at about nine. Note the temperatue--once we turned south in Maine we thought the days would get warmer.
Off we set traveling up the Shenandoah valley, across the Appalachians, and on to Athens, Ohio. A drive through fantastic scenery, on excellent roads with (for the US) little traffic. Although the day was overcast the scenery more than made up for. We started moving through the Shenandoah valley, crossing the Potomac river as we once again entered Maryland (just for short while). We climbed out of the valley into the Appalachians, which here are a series parallel ripples. At the top of the first ripple is a deep cutting with a viewing station looking down the valley that General Lee marched through to the battle at Gettysburg. The scenery was terrific although I am sure that was not Lees first concern.
The cutting and viewing area ...
Looking down the Shenandoah Valley ...
A close up of the church in the centre of the previous photo....
Finally, for the history buffs, a photo explaining the paths taken in the lead up to Gettysburg.
From here we continued through 'the ripples' enjoying the scenery.
As we drove we passed many interesting sites. Large groups of school buses....
Small towns - notice the pumpkin smiling at us ...
Small farms ...
Strange trailers or is it a mobile spa bath ...
Bigger towns ...
Then we stopped for lunch, discovered chips and gravy and photographed more pumpkins...
The area was very hilly with emergency truck run off roads. At one summit trucks had to go into a special area and test their brakes before proceeding down hill. One of the many truck runoffs ...
Then finally into Athens. At the supermarket still more pumpkins. All through our trip we have seen houses dressed with corn storks and pumpkins, a fall ritual which with some house appears will continue on to Halloween.
- Posted Don
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