Enjoying the East

Last weekend, Chase took his comprehensive exam at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. The dogs and I went down for the overnight trip with Chase, and the following pictures are from that trip. After Chase completed his exam, we stopped to take this picture, because it was the last time Chase had to go to Lynchburg for school. With any luck, we'll never have to go back there again - at least not for classes! In the background you can see LU's logo on the hill behind Chase.


On the way home from Lynchburg, we had planned to take in part of Skyline Drive, a scenic drive through the mountains in Virginia. We tried to take the drive once before (see the blog about that trip by clicking here), and were averted by heavy fog and rain. I was excited because it was a clear day when we left Lynchburg, but on the way to Skyline Drive, guess what we ran into...

It was quite an impressive flash thunderstorm that we drove out of within 10 minutes. (Whew!) So we did get to go on Skyline Drive. It's about 100 mile drive with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. There are only 4 places along the drive that you can exit or enter the road, but there are tons of lookout points and hiking trails to enjoy. There are some impressive views, and the haze over the valley when we visited was beautiful!

We stopped at probably the first 5 lookouts to enjoy the views, then realized it'd take a week to get through the drive at that pace. About 2 minutes into it, we had all the windows down and the sunroof open - the fresh mountain air was glorious!

It didn't take us long to realize that there was NO WAY we were going to make it the full 100 miles on Skyline Drive. Turns out the scenic overlooks really look out over basically the same landscape over and over again, and I didn't bring my "hiking shoes" (I was wearing sandals), so we didn't get out to do any of the trails. That said, it was a lovely detour that we really enjoyed.

The beauty of Virginia is very different than the beauty of Nebraska. There aren't nearly so many fields here, and there are actually hills and mountains. The trip out to see the beauty was a welcome relief from the miles and miles of pavement we get to see during the week. I'm looking forward to enjoying more of Virginia's beauty in the future!