"Dixie Caverns" near Salem, Virginia

We left Falls Church on Thursday morning after a very enjoyable 17 days off the road, staying in a home and relishing all that Washington DC has to offer. We did a short drive to Culpepper, VA where we stayed overnight in our van, camped on the Reiman's 150 acre property after a wonderful afternoon catching up with them and having an amazing buffet that night in Culpepper. Reimans are family friends for Denise since she was a little girl growing up in Hawaii where the Reimans lived across the road. Eager to help with animal feeding, the girls begged to be awoken at 6:30am so they would not miss out. (This level of early awake-up motivation has not been witnessed by either of the girls parents to date)! After a hearty breakfast for us humans we did the rounds -- feeding the miniature horses, the calves, peacocks and dogs. Then we made our farewells and departed for Fincastle, VA about 3-4 hours down the road where a great friend of Rose's lives. We stopped part way for a tour of Monticello - the plantation estate once owned by late, great Thomas Jefferson - and were appropriately humbled and delighted at his wonderful home and estate. The only negative was the icy wind that whipped off the mountains making any outdoor activity (especially standing in line waiting to do a tour of the Monticello home) nearly unbearable. Heading onward to Fincastle, we skirted for 15-20 miles along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway that follows the famous Appalachian Trail and were rewarded with some amazing ice sculptures created by small springs that had dripped down the sides of exposed rock facing the road. In the late afternoon sun a sparkling veil was created along the face of the rocks that caused us to slow to 10-20 miles per hour to enjoy their natural beauty. When we stopped for fuel later in the day, the temperature was hovering at 28 F without the breeze. The wind chill factor brought the temperature down a good few degrees further and, not surprisingly, no-one volunteered to hop outside the van to help Doug with the fueling. Dixie Caverns park is the closet RV stop to our friend Dane who joined us for dinner tonight with his Mom before scooting Rose home for a sleepover. We'll join them tomorrow around mid-morning so the girls can go horse back riding at their farm. Our plan is to head on to North Carolina tomorrow afternoon.