A Little Down Time in the Shenandoah Valley…

Now that we have settled in at our friend's farm in The Shenandoah Valley we sure have enjoyed a few days of doing nothing but relaxing after our whirlwind travel south. We have visited here often enough that we fall into a similar routine once we arrive. Every morning we wake up and enjoy a leisurely breakfast while having the luxury of looking out over the Valley.

After breakfast we take a walk down to the Shenandoah River where we never tire of the panoramic views of the river, the farmland and surrounding mountains. The river has been down a bit from our last visit but still plentiful enough to encourage wildlife. One morning we spotted what I am pretty sure was a mink. We startled it along the banks of the river and watched it scurry off.

We almost always see a few deer, a pair or red-tailed hawks, squirrels and rabbits. Occasionally we see turkey and bald eagles. A morning or two ago we spotted a pair of bald eagles. A funny sight occurred as one eagle was settled on old dead tree branch looking out over the river. Another eagle came to light on the branch beside him and when it did the branch broke and both eagles fell several feet before they both righted themselves to fly off. How cool that was to see…

We have also noticed a few interesting insects on our walks. Wooly worms are rather abundant as we have seen them most everywhere but my favorite insect sighting has been seeing the velvet ants in the area this fall.

Velvet ants are not actually ants at all as they are in the wasp family. The beautiful velvety red female is the one most often spotted. She is wingless as her counterpart male is not. As such she is often misidentified as an ant and not the wasp she actually is. Being a wasp she hasp a vicious sting but thankfully has no interest in stinging anyone unless she is provoked.

Another favorite afternoon activity has been playing a little disc golf at the County Park nearby.  It is a very nicely laid out course with some challenging baskets. It always makes for a fun afternoon and we have happily seen some improvements in our game after having played the course several times. At the end of each day we would enjoy a happy hour and cook a nice meal to enjoy with our spectacular views…

We at a bit concerned about our winter home this year as we have reservations for Imperial Bonita Estates (IBE) in Bonita Springs Florida. You may not remember or know but that is the site where Hurricane Irma made landfall after hitting the Keys.The hurricane caused a lot of damage to the park but most of the damage came form the floodwaters of the Imperial River which has only in the last day finally begun making its way back into its banks. There is much to do to ready IBE for winter guests and our reservation was to be for three months beginning December 1st. We figure we will wait another week or two to see if we will need to find another place to winter or not  Oh well, such is life of the wandering full-timers on the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We left Toms Brook Virginia today and headed south to Kerr Lake in North Carolina for a few nights. Then on to Dickins RV Park south of Raleigh North Carolina to spend some time with our daughter who recently got engaged…