23 May 2001 Wed: Harper’s Ferry, WV – Harrisonburg, VA

After three rainy days in the Harper's Ferry, WV campground, the sun came out and the weather was perfect for a camp -- so I am leaving... go figure! Well, I can't let the weather dictate where I want to go, and I decided to go back to the Shenandoah Valley and see some more of the great state of Virginia. I was possibly tracing the route of my Harbison, Thornburgh, Polson, Bryan, King, Haywood and Hope families before the Revolution as they moved south and eventually went throught the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky.  It was a fine day. The squirrels were out, almost coming into the van. Also the people began emerging from their big motor homes. There weren't any Appalachian Trail hikers. Too wet I think.


I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to stay - but knew it would be at a motel, as I wanted to connect back to the internet and recharge all my batteries –the jump-start power battery, Video Camera, Cell Phone, and Laptop batteries. It was a beautiful day. Heading down south into the Shenandoah Valley I came to Winchester, I ate at Shoney’s breakfast bar and even got a discount for being elderly! $5.49 –I had eggs, bacon, hashed brown potatoes, strawberries, pancakes, French toast, chicken, mashed potatoes, I left all the nutritious food alone, I guess. I decided to travel further down and perhaps stay at Strasburg or New Market, but pushed on south to Harrisonburg. I needed to stay at a town that had a “local call access“ to dial up the local AOL access phone number for my internet connection.

I chose Harrisonburg's Day’s Inn because they advertised having data ports, free local calls, and refrigerators. Truth is, not all the rooms have data port phones or fridges, and there was a $1 phone access. I couldn’t get onto the internet in the first room I got, so insisted I change to a room with a data port phone. Then I called AOL and got some help, and connected with a new AOL access number – one with a slower speed I guess. Well, after all that work, I headed for the jacuzzi and got a wonderful water massage on my poor neck. Carefully watching the time, I was out of the jacuzzi for the start of the last episode of “Boot Camp” on television - now I can rest in peace, the girl, “Whitlow” won the $500,000 and I don’t have to watch any more evening TV. The TV in my van gets good receptions for some channels, but uses the van battery, which I want to be careful about – so I don’t drain it. I spent a couple hours online and answered e-mail and enjoyed hearing from friends.