Homeward Bound

Final update on my vacation.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Monday night in Boone, NC, the decision was to be home on Wednesday. Was not happy that we were getting home a day earlier than planned.
We headed towards home instead of getting back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We didn't drive directly home, but did make some stops on the way. We stopped at the Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia. It was very cool. My parents had stopped there several times, but this is the first time for the rest of us. The boys loved it. In order to get to the tunnel, you have two options - walk down the mountain or take the chair lift (AKA ski lift). The boys were skeptical but they did it. Even though I am scared of heights, this does not bother me. I can't ride on a ferris wheel without freaking out, but have no problem on a chair/ski lift.
The one problem is that it was HOT on the chair lift with the sun blaring down on us. My legs were burning.

When we got down to the bottom, there is a short walk along a boardwalk to the tunnel. The tunnel is natural and was made by the Clinch River. There are trains that run through carrying coal but one didn't come through while we were there.

We rode back up on the chair lift. There is a short walk to an overlook to view the tunnel from above. Avrey, Lloyd and I did the walk. It was hot and humid, but a great view of the tunnel.


We got back on the road and headed towards Kentucky. We stopped at Cumberland Gap National Park. We didn't do much there except have a bite to eat for lunch. They have a very nice picnic area. While at the park, we had a few 'visitors', this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and a squirrel.


Next stop was the Days Inn in London, KY. We used to stop there almost every year, but the last time we did, we were not happy with the cleanliness. It's not any better.

We had a terrible storm come through as we were getting ready to go to dinner. We left just as the wind started. There is an old billboard sign nearby that was swaying a lot. When we got back, part of the billboard was missing. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel and sat by the windows. The sun came out while it was still storming and we finally saw a rainbow, actually, there was a double rainbow, but I wasn't able to get a picture of it. Sorry this photo is not great quality, I didn't have my camera but did capture on my cell phone. In this photo, it's hard to tell, but we were actually able to see the full color spectrum including the elusive violet.


Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Home! We headed for home. Not much to tell since we were on the road all day. No stops except for gas and restrooms. We got in town a little after 4 pm and unloaded stuff at my parents' first and then I headed home and got home about 5 pm and took everything out of the van.