Oct 15th to 19th - VA to Kentucky

Oct 15th - Wed - Front Royal, VA
Our destination today was the Skyline Drive that goes south from here and follows the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 109 miles. Perfect sunny day for the trip with a picnic to enjoy somewhere along the way. Skyline Drive is within Shenandoah National Park and overlooks the Shenandoah Valley from many of the 75 lookout points along the way. Trees are not quite in their best fall colors but it was beautiful with not much traffic. We decided to drive only 65 miles rather than the whole 109 as Terry was thinking that it was all starting to look alike! So after lunch we left the drive on the west side and headed back to Front Royal.
We bought some firewood on the way back so we could enjoy the evening outside for a while. I caught up and posted the blog while Terry visited with some neighbors. After dinner, our golfing neighbor came by again and we chatted until the fire died down and it was cool enough to come in.

Oct 16th - Thurs - Front Royal, VA
Time to do some detailed cleaning inside the rig today - fridge, top of the stove, microwave & oven. Tip of the day - no matter how infrequently you use your oven, do not wait 4 years to clean it!
We went to Winchester, about 20 miles north, to Costco and got 2 new tires for the truck. It seems like we just got some but the back tires wear quickly with the weight of the 5th wheel. Back at the park, I put captions on pictures while Terry used dry wash to clean the 5th wheel. Dinner, TV and another day is done.
Oct 17th - Fri - to Milton, West Virginia
We are heading to Tennessee but it is about 10 hours so we split it into 2 days as we rarely drive that long in a day.
When we got into the Appalachian Mountains, the colors of the trees were gorgeous. There were some pretty long hills, both up & down but the highway was good. Occasionally in the median there were huge patches of purple/mauve flowers. I’m not sure what they were.
We are in Jim’s Camping in Milton which is west of Charleston & quite near Tennessee. Another “place to stay” for $20.
One thing that we have noticed for about 3 weeks is the emphasis on decorating for Halloween where we have been traveling. Some houses are just covered in decorations and most businesses have done some decorating.

Oct 18th - Sat - to Cave City, Kentucky
4 ½ hour drive in the sunshine today. We are at a PA park (Singing Hills) in Cave City which is a couple of miles from Mammoth Caves National Park. It is a small park with very friendly owners.
After setting up, we drove to Mammoth Caves and purchased a ticket for a cave tour tomorrow. Then we stopped at a gift shop with a “Mystery House” that we had to check out. For a $1 each admission, we joined 7 other people for a tour. It is an attraction where everything is built on a slant so it feels like you are working against gravity. They also have pictures that are optical illusions. It was a lot of fun for a buck!
We carried on to the most amazing collection of stuff for sale that I have seen since the bizarre place that we visited with Claude & Val in Quebec. The outside porch and 3 large rooms inside were crammed with everything imaginable. One room had a fun sign on the door - “This is not a museum, all the junk in here is for sale”.
Back to the park to relax and visit with some neighbors. We wanted to have a fire but it was too breezy & cool. We are now in Central Time but are not going to bother changing clocks as we will be heading east again soon.

Oct 19th - Sun - Cave City, KY
Our tour today was at 10:30 (Central Time) so we had lots of time to be lazy. Terry went for a walk and was amazed when someone called to him by name. It was Billy who we met outside of Buffalo when we were heading to Niagara Falls on Sept 18th. He and his wife Lauri do not have a computer so we had not kept in touch with them. Turns out they were at the same RV park as us in Front Royal but they were gone a lot so we never saw them. Unfortunately, they are leaving today so we just got to chat for a little while. Then we printed a list of new CampClubUSA campgrounds for them before we had to get going for our tour.
Made it there just in time to board the bus which takes you to an entrance. We chose the Grand Avenue Tour which is 4 ½ hours and 4 miles long. Mammoth caves are not “decorated” caves with formations which we have seen several times before. The tour guide provides a lot of history and geography at stops between walking sections. There are large caverns, slot caves where you may have to crouch to avoid overhead rocks, oblong caves where rivers dissolved limestone and places with flat roofs where limestone has fallen until a stable layer is encountered. There are also LOTS of stairs and inclines - up & down - quite a workout. There was a stop in the middle for lunch and a restroom break. At the end was a short stretch of very picturesque formations which are created by water dissolving limestone and re-depositing it. The main formation is called Frozen Niagara. Back on the buses for the ride back to the visitor center and then home.
One of the couples on the tour is parked next to us at the park so they joined us at our fire this evening. John & Ruth are from Ontario, retired recently and rented a motor home to try out the lifestyle for 6 weeks.
The temperature is pretty cool at night now but not even close to freezing.