October 2022 Part One
After three months since our last adventure and hot, grueling summer weather in Houston, we packed our van and headed east. We had three main objectives for this trip: most importantly, a visit to Brian's mother in Pennsylvania. Secondly, a change of scenery (or to put it another way for us city-dwellers, any scenery at all)! Finally, to fulfill some geocaching goals. Our time for this trip was limited, so we covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
To get to Pennsylvania, we routed ourselves through northern Georgia. We attended a large geocaching event in Rome with an Egyptian theme. 500+ attendees and lots to see and do in the area. We camped about an hour away and enjoyed waking up to temperatures in the 50s! The challenge of camping at this time of year is the long hours between sunset and sunrise, but the weather was gorgeous.
An unusual way to sign in at the event - jigsaw puzzle pieces
seen in a store window in town
This pedestrian bridge has many "love locks." We didn't add one of our own, but did
find and unlock the geocache amidst the others.
Statue of Romulus and Remus given by the city of Rome, Italy
Another reason for visiting northern Georgia was to find geocaches in more counties in that part of the state. We camped at two state parks before moving north into Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina. It is our favorite national forest in the eastern part of the U.S. and is very scenic and at the southern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Indian Springs State Park - oldest state park in Georgia. We filled water jugs, but
did not consume the water because of the sulfur odor.
Watson Mill Bridge State Park - we enjoyed a 1.5 mile hike through the woods from our
campsite to the bridge after most of the other visitors had departed.
Looking upstream with the bridge in the background
Fall color and waterfalls in the Cullasaja Gorge on the way to Franklin, NC on a chilly day after waking up to 38 degrees at 3,700 feet in elevation.
On our drive across North Carolina, we stopped for a visit in the old town part of Salem for some history.
250 year old buildings
Can you guess what the gray box was used for?
Now here is a surprising bit of historical trivia!
Before we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnels, we made a brief stop in Virginia Beach. Not much activity in the off-season.
"The Norwegian Lady" facing the Atlantic in Virginia Beach
where a Norwegian ship was wrecked in 1891
We wanted to visit at least one National Park Service site that we had not seen before so we detoured through the Delmarva Peninsula to Assateague Island. Many people have heard of the Chincoteague ponies that are at the southern end of the island in Virginia in a national wildlife refuge. This herd is owned by the local fire department and horses are rounded up annually and some are auctioned off as a fundraiser. The wild horses we saw on the northern end of the island (Maryland) in the national seashore are managed differently. No direct human contact by park rangers. Mares are darted with contraceptive vaccine to manage the size of the herd and prevent overgrazing of beach grasses that stabilize the dunes. We did see one mare in the campground that was obviously habituated to campers. She approached us at our campsite one evening. I could have touched her nose, but I took photos instead. She also rubbed herself on a signpost next to our site.
After a sunrise on the beach, we saw more wild horses on the way out of the park.
Enough sightseeing, Brian's mother was awaiting us in Johnstown, Pennsylvania!
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