A New State Park; “I’m Sleeping Where?”; Idle Hands in an Old Time Diner; Front Royal Images; Best Bike Trail Ever! Help, Mouth on Fire!!!

We rolled into Virginia’s Shenandoah River State Park outside Front Royal late yesterday and got The Bus set up for daughter Elisabeth’s visit. She was driving from Washington, DC, for a visit and some serious mountain biking. It’s a lovely park, only two years old, and has flat, level, concrete pads for RV’s, a real luxury. The leaves are just thinking about turning into their autumn attire, and several red headed woodpeckers are going rat-a-tat-tat in dead treetops looking for lunch. After a nice ribeye steak dinner with a quite decent Cabernet, we got ready to hit the sack. But wait! We tried opening the couch into the double bed that we thought it made into, but Nothing Worked! Was this merely a sham convertible couch? Surely Engineer Ty could figure this out... I pulled out this drawer, and Suzanne said, “What is that? Storage we didn’t know about?” “Yup.” (We have had The Bus for 18 months and didn't realize that drawer was even there!)

My Lovely Daughter Elisabeth, in a laughing voice, asked, “What else do you have that you don’t know about?” Suzanne replied, quite logically (I thought), “Well, we don’t know that, do we?” I was sweating for almost 10 minutes before finding the cleverly hidden and disguised lever that presto-change-o turned the couch into a “short-and-soon-to-be-lumpy-and-actually-not-very-comfortable” bed. (I almost had the naughty thought that she deserved a lumpy bed for making fun of her Dad, but I would never do that...)  

On Tuesday morning we went to breakfast in an old-fashioned downtown diner in Front Royal. Wynn’s had a nice menu and typical down-home breakfasts. 

I was craving real country ham, which, as every Southerner knows, you can only get south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Fortunately, we had crossed that boundary on Monday afternoon in northern Maryland. While awaiting our meals, I used my idle time to build a pyramid. My Lovely Wife, now apparently in league with My Lovely Daughter, made jest of my engineering prowess. “What is this, Pick on Ty Week?” I asked.     

While sightseeing around Front Royal, the Train Engineer’s Daughter climbed up on this old red caboose, pretending to be on a luxurious coach tour of North America... "Hey, you are..!" 

Ever wondered how those street clocks keep good time? Well, they probably don’t... here are Fred and Myron working on the town’s old analog clocks. Fred adjusts the time while Myron keeps nitwits from walking under the cherry picker... 

Instead of the two government workers, the cherry picker crane, a safety truck, a government employees union shop steward, OSHA regulations, and civil service pensions, why not hire Gepetto and his assistant from this local clockmaker’s shop, Pinoccio's? (Yes, that's how they spelled it...) It would have to be cheaper; after all, Pinoccio’s health insurance would only have to cover termites. But could you trust him? After all, we know that he had a problem with a nose that grows longer when he fibs. Well, as long as he wasn’t elected to public office, he should be okay...  

This impressive military-based school sits on a hill overlooking Front Royal. Founded in the 1890s, Randolph-Macon Academy has a solid reputation for quality education, and the buildings are gorgeous. 

Unfortunately, “The Place” that used to be a business is no longer in operation; but it had a memorable sign! (The sign reads, "There is no place like this place anywhere near this place so this must be THE PLACE".)

We went mountain biking on the black diamond-rated (“Difficult” level) Bear Bottom Trail (yes, you read that correctly), which was probably the prettiest singletrack trail that we have ridden so far. It wound up and down rolling hills through heavy hardwood and pine woods, with occasional switchbacks and rock gardens to keep you on your toes. We stopped for a breather and a photo, and only had a couple of minor falls between us. 

For lunch we sampled one of Chris and Gina Lavelle’s gifts, Bill Gray’s Hot Sauce. Suzanne almost followed the directions, but had she done so, I might be writing this blog from the local ICU. The directions said to add the contents of the jar (17 ounces of fiery cayenne hot sauce that even Mexicans raised in Tabasco province would balk at eating) to 4 ounces of ground beef... as it was, she only added 8 ounces to 16 ounces of hamburger, and it required the use of this fire extinguisher to cool down the mixture! I think Chris decided to get even for the gooey stuff I put on his shoes at the race...