Day 12: 105

Today it did get up to 105. We wanted summer and we got it!   We left our hotel a little late, about 9. I forgot to write down the starting mileage today.
Since we got up late, we decided that we could go up to Harper's Ferry. Lon got LOTS of stamps in his National Parks Passport. This is the second park we went to that the annual pass worked for admission. I like that!

Outside the visitor center.  I forgot how much Southerners like to talk. I could have chatted with the folks in there for much longer than I did. We told stories about bears, snakes, John Brown. It was a varied conversation.

Lon was tired of me talking too much. He saw a bus outside and asked where it went. Well, it goes down to the Lower Town of Harper's Ferry. The National Park part.  It's free. Lon ran out to the bus.  It was a short ride, but the bus had information on the town and what we are seeing as the bus made it's way down town.
This is the Provost Marshall's office Lon is looking into. I had to explain what that was, and I am not sure I did the best job

Canal Boats.  He read the entire description. A little light bulb went off, OH! This is what the canal was we saw yesterday!

Diorama! The town of Harper's Ferry at the height of it's prosperity

A wagon load of munitions. Well, sealed cases that at one time would have held rifles and empty powder kegs

Lon had some questions, and I did not have the answers. He ran up to two park rangers and they explained things to him.  He reported back his findings. He learned alot!

Lewis and Clark! Seems they were in Harper's Ferry too! I did not know that. Now we do.  There was a small building dedicated to what they did there
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/har.htm
It was too much to put in the blog.

The Shenandoah  river. We saw lots of kayakers going out.

Ice Cream! Yes, he got some of it in.  More mint chip. It was getting hot, almost 90 by then and it was only 10 ish.

Getting ready for something. I found out later that they would be doing a living history at Harper's Ferry this weekend. We might go back and see that!

We turned a corner on our way to Luray, and saw this lovely roadside attraction.  Lon wanted to stop. It looked like something from the 50s.
SUPER cheesey, but why not. We were here.

The entrance.

Pteranadon

Why King Kong is in dinosaur land, I have no idea

We left Dinosaur land on our way farther south. Love these old houses.

Here we are!  I am really going to do this again. Lon thinks I should be over my fear since we went into the Mark Twain caves.

The very best souvenir!  They no longer carried silver charms. I ordered one from ebay for my bracelet.

Come on Mom, This is FUN!

I think this is right side up
We went down 480 feet below ground
History Bit:
The Smithsonian Institution sent a delegation of nine scientists to examine the caverns and praised them for their ornamentation. The report of July 13 and 14, 1880 comments “... it is safe to say that there is probably no other cave in the world more completely and profusely decorated with stalactite and stalagmite ornamentation than that of Luray.”

See mom, fun!

We are just about done with our mile and a quarter walk.  We made it! 

We got lunch there, since we were hungry. 

At this point we had a choice to make. It was about the same distance to Appomattax Court House or to my sister's house. We went to my sisters.  It as a good surprise.  On the way to Karen's the heat and keeping things plugged into my power outlets blew the fuse.  I have to get that fixed tomorrow. Through the power of the internet, I found out there are two sets of fuses. The one inside the car, which is easy to find and replace and the one under the air filter. Guess which one we blew? Lon is going to help me tomorrow.  We made it to my sister's house without the garmin to guide us. We were very proud of ourselves.
We got gas at Luray, at 3:08
9.20 gallons at $3.25