4-week Trip, Part 3

After visiting Monticello, we headed on to Shenandoah National Park, and camped there at Big Meadows Campground. As I awoke on the first morning, I thought that Great Husband was deliberately saving on propane by keeping the temperature too low in the camper. This is a known trick of his. But not this time! We had most unexpectedly run completely out of propane, and were facing two very cold days and two more very cold nights with wind and rain and fog and no heat. I guess this was good for us and meant to keep us from being too spoiled.

At Shenandoah National Park, we hiked to a waterfall, walked a short distance on the Appalachian Trail, wrapped up in a sleeping bag to hear a ranger talk about killer storms in the park, and had a "French supper." Actually, the French supper was a multi-course meal meant to use up the food in our refrigerator, since there was neither propane nor electricity to cool it. It didn't include any French foods, but since it extended over a period of four hours, we decided it was French.

At times we also hung out in a big cozy public room in the Great Meadows Lodge, where there was a fire and Wifi to keep us happy.

A ranger talks about raptors, this one a red-tailed hawk.

Shenandoah National Park was built in imitation of the national parks in the western U.S., although it
doesn't have the great natural features of those other parks. In a very good display at the visitors' center,
we learned that there were many shenanigans in the park creation, and politicians
 and other movers-and-shakers displaced some 2000 property owners, some of them forced out
quite unwillingly.  The CCC came in to build park features, such as Skyline Drive,
and planted thousands of trees. So the park is essentially a planted tree garden.

Great Husband at Big Meadows Lodge

Enjoying fall colors at an overlook