We planned to meet Jim & Linda about noon for lunch and then we were to head into the mountains to Natural Bridge a cavern that collasped eons ago and today you can visit for a mear $16!  We arrive, buy our tickets and proceed down the 300 steps to the trail that leads to the bridge and waterfalls. On our way we heard there would be scattered thunder storms and lightening in the area but it was dry until we got down about 100 steps and the thunder comes and the clouds don’t look good!  Linda does not like lightening storms so she requests we return to the lobby and wait until the storm passes.  We turn and walk up the 100 steps to a small landing with a roof and here comes the rain! 

Waiting undercover

We were stranded for about 20 minutes with lots of thunder, lightening and rain until there was a small break that allowed us to get to the building with the gift shop and snack bar.  After about an hour we were able to make our way to the bridge.

Natural Bridge

The bridge is only a very short distance from the bottom of the steps but there is this 50′ waterfall a short 3/4 mile hike into the canyon.  I have not done any exercise since hurting my shoulder but I really want to get some so I choose to hike to this falls!

liars Falls

I guess in Virginia this is 50′.  I love waterfalls and the hike was good but this was not really all that impressive although we did not get rained on as many others did.  Even though this was not the best attraction we have been to it was still a great place to take a walk and enjoy nature – all of nature, even the rain!

Our day and visit ended with an awesome dinner and of course more WINE!  Tomorrow we leave for Maryland and more friends.

Friday was a day of exploring on our own as our friends have jobs so we chose to go to Appomattox Court House  which is the village that after four years of war and over 630,000 casualties Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met in the parlor of the McLean House and agreed to terms which eventually ended the civil war. Paul loves this stuff and joined the tour which he spent 40 minutes on this porch listening to a guy tell about the battle, etc. in the first person while Duke and I rested in the shade.

There's Paul on the porch

The National Park Service has done an excellent job of putting these structures on the property to recreate the original village.  It is located in some beautiful country right of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A look at a piece of the village

On the steps of the McLean House

Our drive back to Roanoke we took the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a scenic byway thru the mountains of North Carolina & Virginia.  Beautiful views of the valley for as far as we drove, about 25 miles.  Our evening ended with dinner and wine with our Jim & Linda.

After 4 weeks, lots of healing, fun times with family and learning southern survival skills we are heading north with our final stop for the summer to be in Old Forge, NY.  It was so good to be able to spend the month with Paul’s Dad, Sister, Brother, niece and nephews which is something we never would have had time to do in our prior life so we feel blessed to have this opportunity.

We left Thursday morning and our destination was Roanoke, Virginia where our friends, Jim & Linda Murphy from California now reside.  We found an RV park about 20 miles from their home and pulled in about 4 pm a day early from our reservations.  They seemed a little concerned that we were early but found us a spot – the place is empty!  This campground is at a small local cave and not much of an RV park; the sites are really long but really narrow not allowing for much outside use as the slides are hanging into the next guys spot!  Oh well, we won’t be there much as we plan to spend most of out time with our friends.  This will be a nice spot to return to in the evenings.