Second day on the road

We started off today having breakfast at L Dees Pancake House. It came highly recommended by the folks at the Park Service Visitor Center. If you are ever in Front Royal, we highly recommend going to the Visitor Center for information about anything remotely related to this area. The last time we came through, it was too cloudy to go over Skyline Drive. Instead, upon the recommendation of Visitor Center staff, we explored a bit of Virginia's wine country. And what a discovery that was!

Similar to last time, their recommendations for breakfast were right on the mark. If you are ever having breakfast in Front Royal, L Dee's is the place to be. It's popular with the locals and we were apparently a bit exotic to them. The lady at the table next to us remarked in a not so quiet voice, "I know I've seen her before, but I can't place where." Not quite sure which one of us she was referring to.

We started the afternoon at the North entrance to Skyline Drive. We stopped frequently to take pictures of the Shenandoah's to the east and the Blue Ridge Mountains on the west. We also stopped in the Park's Visitor Center and learned about the challenges with imported pests and blights.

We detoured off of Skyline Drive to go to the Luray Caverns. This was fun. The weather was perfect. Warm, dry, and sunny. We decided to do the Garden Maze before the Cavern Tour. The maze has 4 goals you are supposed to find in order to figure out the theme (no I am not telling you). We split into teams to see who get through it first. The Banana and I were on one team. The Good Mr. Dr. and La Suegra were the other. It suffices to say that The Banana and I won. We have bragging rights but the Banana insists that we enjoy our victory with grace. Fine, but only this once.

The cavern tour was cool, literally and figuratively. It is a really neat place. It is a long tour and it was made longer by a pair of obnoxious teens who kept pestering the guide with questions like, "Is there really a ghost down here?" and "What's your nickname?" and telling stories about surviving the earthquake of 2010 while camping. The tour group was large and several adults wanted to trip these young people down into the abyss. Nevertheless, it was a really neat place and we recommend it.

We spent way more time in Luray than we intended. So we hopped back on Skyline Drive for what turned out to be a not so quick dinner in the Dining Room at the Skyland campground. Our review of the restaurant is, "meh." The food was decent but the service could be improved. We were the only people they failed to bring bread plates to, so we ate out bread over our placemats. The waitress almost spilled or dropped something on me twice. It's been a long time since I've given a 15% tip but in this case, it was well deserved.

It was late at this point and we still had miles to go before we got to the resort. We decided to get off the mountain to save time and to not be in the mountain once it got dark. We did a straight shot to Williamsburg and arrived just before midnight. They gave us a temporary key and told us to check in before noon in the morning.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Good Mr. Dr.'s birthday.