Day 2 - Frederick, MD to Charlottesville, VA

After free breakfast at the Townplace Suites in Frederick and a morning workout, we headed off to our first sight of the day.

Antietam National Battlefield

Union cemetery.

We weren't able to make it to Gettysburg yesterday, but Antietam was arguably more important anyway.  23,000 casualties in a single day is hard to comprehend.

Aptly named.

The battlefield is mainly corn these days.

Watchtower.

One of many statues.

After the Civil War, we moved on to West Virginia.

Welcome to West Virginia!

                                Canal House

Erin is pleased with her West Virginian lunch feast.

I was informed this restaurant was cute and a picture was mandatory.

Harpers Ferry had a table to farm restaurant called Canal House that was fun.  We even received free raspberry tart!

Looks like a place to come back and explore someday.

We didn't get a lot of time there because we needed to head south to avoid driving the mountains at night.  We stopped at a 7-11 on the way out and found that West Virginia really is full of bearded men wearing camouflage and hillbillies.

Then the rain came.

Welcome to Virginia.

At least there were random dinosaurs to entertain us.

We headed to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and drove in pouring rain and fog for hours on mountain curves.  Not really that much fun.

Views that would otherwise be nice.

After a while we detoured to something more exciting.

Luray Caverns!

Erin's first underground experience.

An organ.  That's normal in a cave, right?

Fried eggs?

After the cavern tour, we headed back to the National Park where there was slightly less rain and fog than before.

Much better views this time!

We wanted to avoid driving at night in the rain on curvy roads, so we went to Charlottesville for dinner.

Zucchini fries are a vegetarian's delight.

We thought it was a local place, but it turned out to be a chain.

We checked into the Cavalier Inn which is run by UVA.  It turned out to be an old Best Western that the university bought and "renovated."  That means they converted an outdoor motel into an indoor hotel.  They literally built a glass exterior and replaced the railings to create interior hallways.  The rooms still pretty much feel like a cheap motel.  Some of the furnishings look new, but charging as much as they do is borderline robbery!

Oh, one last thing.  We found a transportation museum.

Luxury carriage from way back when.

A model T!

Do they still make or sell these?

Fun day.  Tomorrow we head to Floyd, VA for the 4th of July Jamboree!