At the Top of the World

Monday, May 9th Shenandoah

We left Staunton, heading for Shenandoah NP. On the way, we stopped at the Augusta Stone church where my 8th great grandfather Jacob Stover (Stauffer) is buried. Jacob was Swiss & came to this country. He was the first settler of the Shenandoah Valley. He was promised 5,000 acres if he could recruit settlers.

He went to England & Switzerland & still had problems getting enough people to settle. Here is the story. He settled barnyard animals on the acreage, gave them names, & got his acreage.

He married Sarah Boone, Daniel Boone's aunt. So probably Daniel scouted out that area.

I was a little disappointed in our first day at Shenandoah NP. After the incredible green of about every surface in Kentucky & W. VA, it just wasn't what I expected. That was being down at the Shenandoah river with all green surrounding us.

The first hint was that we were up on Skyline Drive around 3500 ft. & not down at the river. The other thing was that almost every area seemed to have dead trees from fires & lightning strikes.

There was probably 15 pullouts but too many burned trees. We did see many beautiful blooming dogwood trees.

I think I've told you about all our car picnics, mostly from inclement weather. We'll, we had another at the first pullout because the picnic grounds were far off & we were hungry! We laugh about those picnics.

We stayed at Big Meadows Campground. We were "roughing it" with no hookups, & no cell service. We couldn't call Jeremy for his birthday or Sean to check on him. By the way, to all of you who are wondering, he is working really hard to get home next week!

2nd day Tuesday May 10th.

As we were getting ready to go, a deer came into the campsite by us. Fun way to start the day!

Our first stop was the Harry Byrd Visitor Center.

The displays talked about how Hoover & then Roosevelt helped to make Shenandoah NP possible. How the CCC developed it & how the hordes of people came.

I love these 3 thoughts.