Vacation, 2nd Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2011 - Day 2

We started the day off looking for a McDonald's for breakfast in Front Royal, VA and came across this sight. It was a big flea market that was also selling fireworks! You don't see that at home.

Then, off to the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park! So excited to be back.



Something you see the length of the Skyline drive are the stone walls used as guardrails. These were build by the CCC back when the park was built.





I had decided that I wasn't going to take many pictures this vacation, but that didn't last long. I just couldn't help myself. Everything is just so beautiful up here. I was hoping that the Monarch butterflies would be here this year. I saw a few today but not like last year. Maybe I'll see more as we go further south.


I took this picture of us to put on Facebook as my new profile picture.



The wildflowers here are just beautiful. One of my Facebook friends said this is probably milkweed? Whatever it is, the bees love it.



I'm not sure but I think these are dandelion puff balls. If they are dandelions they are much bigger than at home. I thought they were pretty with the light shining through them.



We went in and out of thunderstorms today. At one stop these bikers were scrambling to get their rain gear on. I was glad I was sitting in a dry car!



The storms made for some interesting pictures.








After finishing the Skyline Drive, we headed down into the valley for dinner. We ate at a really good BBQ, then drove over to Schuyler to Walton country. We are going to spend more time there tomorrow to satisfy my Walton obsession! LOL! This is the little depot in Rockfish that also served as a Post Office. This is referred to in many Walton episodes. It was open from 1910 until 1985.



We were heading into Charlottesville to check in to the same motel that we stayed at last year, when we ran into a HUGE thunderstorm. The lights started going out in the city and it was pouring really hard. This was probably the hardest rain I have ever been in. I kept hoping we weren't going to have a tornado because I really didn't know where we would go. We pulled into our motel and at the same time their lights went out. We rode the storm out in the parking lot and then headed out to find another place, not knowing how long the electricity would be off. We found another place down the road that had lights on and were very grateful to get off the road for the night!