Somehow we got ahead of ourselves as we moved towards Virginia.  In my usual manner, when we have many miles to cover I set up a basic route using DeLorme Street Atlas.  The trip planning section lets me set up basic parameters such as miles per day, expected fueling requirements, and I can insert “vias” and “stops” with expected times for the stop such as “overnight” or “2 hours.”  This gives us an idea of the number of days of driving it will take to cover the distance from say Phoenix to Covesville.  At the end of each travel day – or the next morning – I reset the start point to our current location, giving us the remaining drive time to our ultimate destination.  we had planned to spend time along the Blue Ridge Parkway after we left the Asheville area, but we forgot that at this time of year the campgrounds are closed because there is still a likelihood of a hard freeze.  We have joined the many flowering plants in being fooled into thinking it is late Spring rather than barely Spring, after all,  today is April Fool’s Day not May Day.  With the National Parks campgrounds closed and the National Forest Service Campgrounds closed we spent a night in the Salem, VA Super Walmart, not the worst place, but not the best either.  After reviewing all of the options along the way we remembered that the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Natural Bridge Park is not as bad as the name would have one think, at least off season.  It has the further blessing of being Passport America, half off on weekdays.  When we checked in on Saturday they gave us half off for the two night stay, not sure if it was a mistake, but we took it.  The place was far from full, but we were one of only a couple of units that did not have many children.  This morning, Sunday, there has been a parade of trailers headed out to get the little ones to school tomorrow, and Mom and Dad back to work – oh! there is that four letter word!  Sorry.

Carol is assiduously working at her computer writing posts and working on images.  I have been doing as little as I can and will return to reading the NYTimes on the Kindle over lunch.  Later today we will take a walk in the woods.  It is getting late to take a long hike.  Then tomorrow we will get back on the road late morning for a 90 minute drive to Dan and Malena’s where we will perch until it is time to roll on to Rochester.  I will really try to find more to write about along the way and in Covesville.  We will continue to shop for Gee 2’s successor as well.