Fall in the Shenandoah Mountains

We are winding up our job here in Mineral, VA. We are really enjoying the beautiful fall foliage in the area and took a bike ride today on the back roads here to soak it all in. Skyline Drive, in Shenandoah National Park, is about an hour west of us and we found some time to go check that out. It was a little hazy so we didn't have crystal clear, long distance views but we can cross it off our bucket list. We thought the color palette prettier around here than it was up on Skyline Drive. Temps today are 80 degrees so perfect for short sleeves on the bike.

 

 

Lots of boaters out on Lake Anna today (at least the ones who played hooky from work) and the combines were working in the fields, harvesting the crops. We drove around inside Lake Anna State Park to check out all the different areas. This is a beautiful state park, right along Lake Anna. They have a very nice campground (water and electric - no sewer but they do have a dump station) with large sites. The state park is on the site of an old gold mine so some of the ranger led expeditions involve panning for gold. Sounds like fun !

The lake is man-made and was built to provide cooling waters for the nuclear plant here. They have a visitor center with all sorts of hands on exhibits. I must say that although I'm not an advocate for nuclear power, the visitor center is well done. One bit of info we learned is that nuclear provides 20% of the world's power. Hydro is the largest source of electricity.

I wonder if the country is on high alert or something cause we went by the visitor center over the weekend and found out they were closed. We were on the bike and as soon as we got near the guard station at the entry point, two guards stepped out and approached us. One guy put his hand on his gun and was looking over the bike (clearing with an eye on the storage compartments). He graciously informed us that the visitor center was closed and how to exit the property. Linda didn't pick up on any tension from him but I sure did. In light of the recent foiled plot by the guy that tried to detonate 1000# of explosives in NYC the other week, perhaps there is still an elevated alert at places like this. The nuclear plant itself is tucked away where you don't even see it.

The one neighbor we had in the park left today so I think we're the only campers here tonight. Sure is peaceful and pretty ! We're loving it to get our paperwork done and get ready to package the job. Hoping we get time to squeeze in another bike ride before we leave the area.