It's been a while since our last blog. That's because our son and wife visited on the way to Virginia and Monticello. We had a great time - the Wooley Worm Festival was in full swing in Banner Elk, so we drove through the beautiful countryside in autumn splendor. On Monday we drove to Damascus, Va. and rode 17 miles of the Virginia Creeper Trail. It is an old railroad bed which suffered a lot of damage in a 1977 flood. The railroad was used by a logging company. The train was so slow climbing the hills, loaded down with logs, it became known as the Va. Creeper. The tracks were removed, and it became a 35-mile hiking/biking trail with over 30 bridges. Half of the trail is flat and/or downhill. Guess which half we rode.?.

We continued on to Abington, Va., a town established in the 1700's where we spent the night. After a great dinner, we went to our rooms and there was some serious sleeping. I'll tell you more about this interesting town on a later blog.

A week from Saturday we will begin our trek home. It's time; this morning it was 27 degrees. We have returned to the days of scrapeing the windshield and "warming up the car". Don't really like it.

Yep. That's icy frost covering the car at 9:00 a.m.

Wooley worms are put on the strings and raced. They crawl upwards, and there is a winner every "heat".

Here we are ready for our adventure on the Creeper Trail. Yes, we needed the jackets, gloves, and ear muffs. It got cold in the shaded forest.

Steve & Jen

The Trail

Bye for now.