Skyline Drive, Check

Jan and I had both been on the Skyline Drive at some point in our lives, but didn't remember much, so while in Luray, VA, we wanted to try to drive the whole thing.  It is 105.5 miles through all of Shenandoah Valley, mostly built by the CCC, along a ridge line with awesome views.  

We hadn't been driving the truck much as we transited the country from Texas to Buffalo, but when we drove around Buffalo, the tires made so much noise we could hardly hear each other.  It was a totally self induced problem of which I can take entire credit.  I am usually very careful to rotate the tires on a regular basis, especially with all the towing.  It dawned on me that the last time I rotated the tires had been in Atlanta in the spring!  I really screwed this up, so calculating, we drove it 7000 miles and towed it 10,500 miles all since rotation, and towing the truck causes a slight bit of wear on the outside edge of the front tires.  And that wear or scalloping was causing our really loud noise.  We knew we needed to get tires soon, as we have driven them 32,000 miles and towed them another 31,200, so they have over 63,000 miles on them now.  With the noise driving us nuts I wanted to get them rotated asap.  At least get the offending tires off the front and on the rear which I though might quiet them down some.  So we looked around and found a Discount Tire, we do all our business with them, in Waynesboro, VA, right where the southern terminus of the Skyline Drive is, so we killed 2 birds with one stone, grabbed a picnic lunch and after the tires we headed north back toward Luray on the Skyline Drive, and quickly found out putting the bad tires on the back really made no difference in the noise:-)

Unfortunately we were plagued with fog, low clouds, and drizzle or rain much of the time we were there.  You'd get a break now and then, but overall we could have done better with the weather, but it was still beautiful.

But on our way north, and it is slow going, it is very windy, and the speed limit is 35 mph, and of course you want to stop at almost every overlook, so it takes time.  The weather kept getting worse and we started picking up rain and drizzle so we left the drive in Elkton, completing about a third of the drive, 30 some miles.  Also you have to remember there are only a few points on the drive where you can get on or off, in fact only 4, the ends, and only 2 more in the middle.  Front Royal, the northern point, Waynesboro, the southern point, Elkton where we got off, and Luray.  

We had the luxury of waiting a day for the weather, so we tackled another little project that has been driving me nuts.  I have mentioned it in the past, we have a braking system on the truck so when we apply the air brakes on the coach, the brakes on the truck are applied as well, and we are supposed to get an indication of when the truck brakes are on with a small light by the driver's seat in the coach.  If you remember we worked on it extensively in Florida before we left, only to find out the light bulb had burned out.  But this summer it has been blowing a fuse intermittently to say the least, it might work for a day or so before blowing or it might blow on the first application of brakes.  When we were in Durango, we replaced the switch, and ran a brand new wire from the truck's battery to the switch as we felt maybe the wire was too small, after all the entire run is probably 65-70'.  It worked for awhile, a day or so and we thought we licked it, but no.  So I checked the receptacle on the rear of the coach, rewired the truck from the switch to the plug on the front, and rewired the plug, and it worked for a few more days until it blew.  It is truly driving us nuts.  Today I am going to check, again, the connections at the light and even run a new dedicated ground to the light and we'll try again.

So the weather looked pretty good the next morning so we took off to do the northern third of the drive from Front Royal back to Luray.  This time we noticed signs of color here and there.

Then the next day we completed the middle third, so now we can say we did the entire Skyline Drive, and this time we could see a little more color.  I think we are a week or so early unfortunately.

But then the weather really moved in and we had a rainy and cool day so Jan made corned beef and cabbage for dinner which set us up for one of our favorites that we do about twice a year.  The next and last day there we had to move sites, which we did, and then we had our special lunch, Ruebens and of course a Guinness! 

Oh yeah!

So that completed our time in Luray, and we left early the next morning for a really long day, especially for us, a little over 400 miles to Waynesville, NC, near Maggie Valley and Asheville.  We arrived after an uneventful day to Creekwood Farm RV Park, packed to the gills, people everywhere with the sites narrow and close, in fact they use their pullthroughs actually like two back ins with your campers almost touching.  But it's clean, nice and right on a gorgeous little stream with great location in western North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

So the first thing we did and were so excited about was to go to the grocery store, and I'm sure it must sound strange for me to say that, but we are now back in the land of Publix, our favorite.  We can now get those things we love that you can't find elsewhere, and then out to lunch.  Jan gets her haircut today and I have dealt with our tires, which haven't gotten any quieter.  I have an appointment for new ones, so they will be quiet again soon:-)