As many of my regular readers have guessed, I have been out on the road again and up to the cabin. As usual, we have been working on the cabin. It never seems to get to an end. The project of replacing the flooring in the upstairs is going very slowly. We have been running into one delay after another. I was hoping that it would be completed by September, but I think it will stretch on into November or maybe into the spring of next year. I guess the good news is that the delays are things that are not related to the project itself, but to other things going on in our life. If we can just find time to do the work, we might actually get it finished.
It was a very quiet Fourth of July holiday up there. Usually the camping areas near the cabin are filled with campers. However, the weather forecast for that week was for strong thunder storms. Many people decided that it was not a great weekend for camping. It did pour down rain on Friday night. The rain just hammered down for hours. But Saturday morning dawned clear and we had good weather for the rest of the week other than for one brief shower. The temperatures were moderate. Mornings were in the low to mid 60s Fahrenheit (15 to 20 C). Most of the day the temperatures remained in the 70s, only briefly touching 80 before falling again (21-26 C).
I wanted to put up some photos of the road trip on the blog. This time we took a different route than we usually take. We usually take the back roads because it makes for a less stressful trip. However, this time we needed to be somewhere before heading up the mountain so we took a different route. We drove up I81. It is quicker but the traffic is heavy much of the time, although it was not too bad most of the trip. It is the main route through the Shenandoah Valley. Most of the commercial truck traffic uses this route. It is not unusual to be boxed in on all sides by large trucks. Even so, it was interesting to have a change of the scenery.
The Shenandoah Valley is a large valley between the Appalachian and the Allegheny mountain ranges. The highway runs closer to the Blue Ridge mountains, part of the Appalachian mountain chain. They are called the Blue Ridge because of their distinctive bluish color when seen from a distance. When driving in the valley, you can see both mountain ranges in some areas. Much of the time the hills block the view of the further mountain range. In other areas, the trees have grown so tall that they block many of the spectacular views. This is especially true during summer when everything is in full leaf.
The first photo, taken from the Blue Ridge side, shows the Shenandoah valley below. If you look very closely at the horizon line, you can see the faint shadow of the second mountain range on the far side. The second photo is a view of the Blue Ridge.
The third photo is of hay bundled in the field. This field had the hay stacked close together. Other fields had hay bales left where the bundles were rolled. Most of these fields don't grow anything other than hay. Once the hay is baled, the fields are left to grow wild until the next year. This hay was harvested recently and the field is relatively short and green. In fields that were harvested earlier, the fields are filled with wild flowers of every color. The predominant colors of the flowers are white and yellow, but there are also pink, blue, pink, and purple flowers. We have had a lot or rain this year and the flowers are everywhere.
A tourist attraction called the Dinosaur Store has changed
its decoration. It used to have a dinosaur fighting a soldier holding a
sword. This year it has a huge dragon on it. The area was a theme
park that had many scenarios of humans battling dinosaurs. Perhaps the
owner received too much flack about the alternative history. Its hard
to say. Maybe the guy just needed a place to put the dragon he made. His art is generally made of fiberglass and foam and the pieces are very large.
The Maury River is at the moment a lazy meandering river. And it is right up until it isn't. Rain coming off the mountain can change this river into a swift moving river. I have see photos of an historic flood on this river. You would not think that such a small river could flood so much land. I snapped this photo as we crossed the river and caught the rail in the bottom of the photo. I guess I should have edited the photo before I put it on the blog. Next time I will pay more attention.
The last photo is of an old bridge. The highway was built right next to it. I don't know whether or not it is still in use for one of the back roads. I think this was built during the time of the Great Depression (1929-1941). A lot of the work throughout the National Parks/Forests systems was done during that time in order to give people (okay lets speak plainly here: give mostly men) some work. All throughout the Blue Ridge Parkway you can see this type of stonework in buildings, bridges, and walls at the overlooks.
Anyway, those are some of the highlights of the photos. I will be blogging next week on another of my projects.
There are a few different types of Birch trees in the yard. The type of Birch in the first picture has a peeling bark. Many of the Birch trees don't live very long here. This one is one of the larger trees. Many succumb to the harsh weather and terrain. Trees that gain height more quickly tend to leave them in shadow. They don't get enough sunlight. They don't seem to have a good root structure for the terrain. Many of them give way to the pull of gravity on the steep slopes.
A church along the road has a graceful presence. It has an old world feel to it. I have seen a number of churches in this style, but I have not seen any with as much decorative work on them. Usually they are fairly plain. 
