Great Friends and a Pig Roast

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Everyone should be blessed with at least one friend who will be there for you no matter what, no matter the years or the distance that seperate you.  I have that friend in Debbie N.Although she lives in Ft. Lauderdale with her husband Tim (who I have also known since High School) and their two wonderful children and even though we only see each other a few days each year, when we do see each other it seems like time stands still.  Debbie and I met on the first day of High School, over 35 years ago  and while it has been almost that long since we lived in the same place, our friendship has never wavered. She really is my BFF!  While Guy has known Tim since High School where they played sports together and got into all kinds of mischief with the rest of "boys club" he never really knew Debbie (since she moved in 11th grade) but they became fast friends Saturday night and that makes me so happy :)Debbie and her family were in town to run a 5k ColorRun to benefit cancer research and to visit Tim's family.  We were invited to join them for an evening BBQ at Tim's brothers home. Not only was I excited to see Debbie and Tim, but I had not seen Tim's family in many, many years so I was doubly happy to attend.We had so much fun! Debbie and I caught up, laughed, cried and gossiped as we always do when we are together.  We, along with Tim and Guy drank a few to many beers and decided their kids were finally old enough to hear a few of our tales from HS.  Some of our revelations shocked them I must say.Debbie and I (not my best photo I must say)Guy and Tim sharing a few laughs For the BBQ Tim roasted an entire pig in a "China Box".  I had never seen this done before and was really looking forward to trying the pork as it is one of my favorites.  Tim did not disappoint.  It was amazing!! Tender, moist, cooked to perfection. I so wish we lived closer together and these times together are so fun and so special.  We are hoping they (Deb and Tim) come up for the HS gathering in October, if not Guy and I have promised to get down to their place hopefully by the end of the year.We love you guys...

Belle Isle State Park - Part I - Setting up

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Guy decided he wanted to do a break-in weekend with the new RV over Labor Day weekend and tasked me with finding a place to take it that was about 2 hours from the house.  With only two weeks out, this wasn't that easy but we did find Belle Isle State Park had availability and was in the Northern Neck which we both loved so a reservation was made.As I always try to turn 3 day weekends into 5 day weekends I took Thursday and Friday off work and we headed out Thursday mid-day. We wanted to leave by 12:00 but had a small delay in getting the 5th wheel hooked up to the truck. Okay not a small delay it was actually a hour long delay but after some wiggling and waggling it connected and we were off.Arriving before the official check-in time proved to not be an issue and actually gave us almost the entire campground to chose from. Since we didn't have the golf cart we decided to stay close to the bath house and chose site 10 which had a long pull through and had tall trees on both sides. It proved to be perfect with lots of shade, although next time we will take 15 if it is available as it proved to be the most private with woods on three sides.Set up posed its own set of issues as it took us 45 minutes to get the camper off the truck. Something about a slide lock and neither of us noticing it LOL. It won't happen again.Once we were able to get this issue resolved everything came together in no time and we were able to head off to the local Wal-mart (30 minutes away local) and grab some food and drink supplies for the weekend. We spent the rest of the day and evening just hanging out at the site and a bit of driving around the park.  Here are some of the photos I took:The truck and camper combo... The welcoming bike barn at the entrance to the camp grounds (this is where they store the bikes that are available for rent).  More about that later.CampgroundsOur Campsite Up next - We have visitors 

Our New Visitor

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So a few days ago Guy calls me to tell me we have a new visitor who looks like he is going to stay for a while and he sends me this picture.  Yes this young man/lady has learned to leap from the porch to the finch feeder, turn upside down so as to hold on and enjoy a tasty meal. He is so comfortable that I was able to walk all the way up to the window and video him.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMR-hjJOrGsThe feeder, it gets moved ASAP says Guy.

The Cougar

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Went with Guy Saturday to shop for a new camper. He was ready to upgrade and knew he wanted a Fifth Wheel but other than that was open to lots of ideas and options.  I will be the first to admit I don't know much abour camping or RV's but I am learning and always have ideas (lol) so I was more than happy to shop and help spend his money :)Wow there are so many options, I had no idea how plush and home-like some of these campers can be.  We must have looked at 10-15 and after the first few I was getting totally confused as to which was which but after a hour or two I really had my favorite three in mind (based on asking him lots of questions on what he wanted and liked and how he planned to use it). He also had his top three choices so we compared notes and we both had the same camper as our #1 so he bought it.Here is the new Keystone Cougar High Country.  He brings it home in a few weeks and already we have plans to take it camping over Labor Day weekend for the test trial.
Not bad is it? Definitely more Glamping than camping in this unit.The only thing that would have made this a more perfect unit would have been if it had a fireplace inside. 

Skyline Drive

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While up at Massanutten we decided to spend one afternoon exploring Skyline Drive (for those not from VA who may be reading this Skyline Drive is a 105-mile road that runs the entire length of the Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.).While I had driven this road many times in the past, it had been years since I had been on the top of Skyline and neither Guy or I had ever seen it covered in snow and ice.  As we entered we were told the south rim was closed due to the snow but we were welcome to drive the north rim. So while the south is higher and more scenic we had no choice and headed north :)Starting out the roads scenery was like this:

That though soon changed to this as we got higher into the mountains:.  Here is also where we started to see the Ice cycles forming along the mountainside:

They looked so mystical and huge, some were 4-5 feet long and thick.  I imagine it will take a few weeks before they would melt away.

I hope that one day we are able to explore the south rim (covered in snow) to see the differences in the views but if not I would happily drive the north again. Just another reason I love living in Virginia.. the beautiful mountains!.

Until next time hope you have yourself a wonderful day.  Enjoy!