DAY 89 : October 4/22 Tuesday. Shenandoah, VA to Williamsburg, Virginia

 It was cold last night at Shenandoah, and we set the furnace to come on automatically if the inside temperature reached 64F, and it came on over and over again all night (when we had climbed back into the rig after dinner/fire last night the thermostat read 57F!). In the morning, we turned it down to 60F and it still came on a couple of times. I was up first and made coffee and french toast (no cinnamon... must put on list!). A bit rainy outside and a good morning to tuck in for a bit.

Kids worked on their plastercine and wax experiements from last night, cutting away the plastercine to see what forms the wax made. Not entirely sure of the results but it kept them busy and happy!

After breakfast and plastercine time, we walked over to the shower block in the cold only to find out that they were pay showers! Kids were reluctant to begin with, and to have to walk over in the robes in the cold only to find they had to PAY ($2.50 for 5min) and to WAIT for daddy to bike back for change for us all, it was quite the travesty. Definitely a little disappointing at first, but the nice hot showers made up for it once we all got in there. It was a good reminder of how lucky we have been to have good showers included in our stays, and taught the kids the importance of efficiency when washing hair and showering and that 5 minutes shared between two people is actually a decent length of time! haha. 

Scrubbed and shiny, we hustled back to the RV in the cool misty air and tucked into some Math time. We have workbooks for the kids for their grade level and Jonathan has been the main math instructor.

By 11am we left our campsite and headed for the Ranger Station at the Byrd Visitor Centre for the kids to show Ranger Chris all their hard work they did in completing the tasks in their Shenandoah Junior Ranger Workbooks. He was awesome with them and went through every page and asked questions and was keenly interested in their adaptations pages where they drew and explained all the unique features of their imaginary creatures. He called over another ranger to come look at them, saying how "terrifying" one of the creatures would be to see in the wild with all its crazy adaptations. Very fun. He signed their books and they repeated the Jr. Ranger oath with him as he gave the official ceremony for earning their Shenandoah Jr. Ranger badges... these ones were beautiful wooden badges, duly earned. 

With badges complete, we left the Visitor Centre at Big Meadows around noon... cold and windy driving weather. Beautiful drive along Skyline again, heading south... stopping at a few pull-outs for the view and so Ollie could take photos for his collection. We pulled over around 12:30pm at the South River Picnic Area to make food and tea - omelettes by Jonathan, and were back on the drive around 1:30pm. 

We exited the Skyline Drive at Swift Run Gap's entrance/exit to the park and drove to the Junction for Hwy 33 east to the Hwy 29. By 2:!5pm we were in Charlottesville, Virginia and found a truck wash where we could have a by big enough to power wash the rig. 

Jonathan washed the rig while the kids and I walked just across the parking lot to a strip mall where we'd go grocery shopping at the LIDL food mart. On the way we passed a Wild Birds Unlimited store and the kids wanted to look around. Super nice store (like the ones at home) and we had a nice time admiring all the things. The shopkeeper was super friendly and we had a nice chat about birds and the new birds we'd seen while on the east coast, and he helped look up some of the ones we were unsure of. He was very interested in learning about our trip and had been to some parts of Canada before, with Vancouver being on his "to-do" list for future. Nice experience there and the kids wanted to purchase a swedish dish cloth with a cardinal on it before we left and did our grocery shopping. The Lidl was kind of a discount/warehouse type grocery store and we found most things we wanted (no cinnamon). Jonathan had finished his scrubbing of the RV and drove it over to the parking lot to meet us out front. 

3pm, back on the road and it was an interesting drive on the outskirts of town. We decided to drive up and check out Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house/heritage site, on the way. While we didn't pay for the tour up to the home, itself, we explored the visitor centre which had well presented displays and information along with a short video about Jefferson and the property. We were quite intrigued about his intellect regarding historical architecture and how he applied it to his home in Monticello. Kids were most impressed with the gift shop. 😅

6pm-ish : Afterwards, we began our drive towards Williamsburg (it's 11c outside btw). We had booked the least expensive site online at Anvil RV park, a family owned campground in Williamsburg, as we were driving. Not long after, we received a call on Jonathan's cell phone (US number) from the campground. The lovely lady there asked when we might be arriving (15min) and she let us know the office would be open until 7pm and our package would be out front if we arrived later. She also said she upgraded us to a deluxe site (with patio and porch swing and patio set/umbrella) at not extra charge... site 77 the first site as you enter the grounds. Jonathan said thanks and asked why... she said she had that site available and it was just for the night, so no trouble. Happy to take it, even though it was chilly and rainy and we wouldn't likely use the "upgrades". 

Pulled in around 6:30pm to our deluxe site... very nice gravel pad, with concrete patio, table/chairs/umbrella,  and swing bench. Kids were excited because there was a little games room AND a heated outdoor pool! rad. They also had the place decorated with some fun halloween decorations. Andrea was super lovely when we registered, and said we could have that spot again tomorrow night at the same discounted price if we wanted it. Kiddos enjoyed the games room until it closed at 7pm... shuffleboard, arcade games, huge connect-4, hoop shooter, and mini ping pong. Fun. 

Tucked in for dinner - black bean wraps by daddy - and then did a bit of research about Jamestown, tomorrow's destination. Apparently Busch Gardens amusement park is super close to here, but we didn't tell our kids about it. Is that bad? Saving up amusement park stuff for the big guns possibility a little further south. Still assessing hurricane damage and effects.