Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts Day 3

Cumberland Mountain State Park TN to Natural Bridge KOA VA
Wed 7 June

 

It was chilly in the morning--a welcome change from Texas.

The drive--from Cumberland Mountain State Park in Tennessee to Natural Bridge KOA in Virginia--seemed horrible. We left at 9:44 and arrived at 5:03, losing an hour to the time change and also losing almost an hour at the traffic light from hell over the one lane bridge from Purgatory to the Love's from the inner circles of Hell. At the Love's we had to wait such a god-awful amount of time to get to the pump, I had time to walk the dogs before Ed even got up to the fuel station. And that followed on a Love's in the morning where we got stuck behind a supremely slow trucker who didn't get gas at all but still pulled up in front of the pump (in the post-fueling position) and went inside for fifteen minutes.

In addition to all the stoppage frustrations, we drove through gorgeous mountain views...in the rain!

 

 Seldom was it really hard rain, but almost always drizzling or spitting or misting. And the traffic was horrendous. All big trucks on the right and cars stuck in the passing lane who wouldn't just keep moving on. The road curved right and left and up and down and never, never got very wide. Except during the intervals of road construction, when it was downright NARROW.

Glad I wasn't driving--I'd have been a nervous wreck.

So the whole trip took six hours fifteen minutes and it was only supposed to take five-and-a-half. And that doesn't count the loss of a time-change hour which resulted in us not eating supper until six-thirty.

Poor Molly didn't get much walking at all, even though this KOA has a good bit of area cleared around it which makes for a nice little walking place. Poor me, too--there were birds all over the place, but I was having to fight Molly and the ground hogs and squirrels and chickens outside the coop who were taunting her with their presence. Blah!  I'm feeling enormous frustration--if I stick with this stupid dog, I may never get to watch birds again.

 


That's not true, of course. It's just that this is a working trip. On a normal trip for pleasure, we'd stay a couple of nights at the same place and that would give us plenty of time to go for long walks and a jog or two, on top of me getting some quality (bird watching) time.

 

 

Overall, though, it was a very nice KOA. Vertically challenged, of course, just like the park the day before.