Back in the Beautiful Hills

     It was a quiet day.  Our routine for packing up, even after being in a spot for a week, does not take us long to complete.  Everything inside the camper is stowed in its own spot or it will come flying out when we brake.  I make sure that all the cupboard doors are latched, the stuff in the frig is stacked well, all the books and maps need to go into their bin, the dishes washed and put away, the pots and pans stacked so that they don’t bang around, I bring the slide out and the awning in, all the windows need to be closed including the skylights, and the door is latched and locked.  Rick dumps the tanks and refills the water, I start up the car and we get it hitched on, we check the brake lights and turn signals, make sure the step is in and the antenna down, I turn on the GPS and away we go – easy, peasy.  It all takes about 30 minutes – even in the rain.  Then we are back on the road.

    So here we are at a city campground sort of in the middle of nowhere:  Buena Vista, Virginia.  The city park is huge and on the site of a farm owned by a friend of Stonewall Jackson (or so the woman who was restoring the old mansion said).  We are just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and this was the nearest campground, except for the one where you checked in at the gas pumps and then drove around to the back of the station where there are a couple electric hookups.

     I shouldn't complain.  We are parked on a big grassy area and have power and water, as well as pretty good phone service.  There are about a half a dozen other campers here.  We seem to be a big attraction to bored folks in town as there has been a constant stream of cars driving around just looking at the campers.  In the background we can hear the train that comes by every hour or so and has to blow the whistle as it goes through town.  It is raining so hard on the roof of the camper that the train noise probably won’t bother us.

   We are back in the foothills of the Appalachians.  During the week that we spent on the coast, the leaves have really begun to turn and bright red and gold flares all over the hillsides.  We had sun for a while today so we could enjoy the colors, but Virginia is in a big weather system that starts in Texas and we may have showers off and on for a couple days.  The temperature is going down into the 40’s tonight so it is nice to be able to have the electric heater on to take the chill off – yes, we are spoiled.  No TV reception so we watched a few episodes of the old show, “Northern Exposure” and remembered the 80’s(???).   A quiet night in our cozy camper.