Cape May, New Jersey to Roxbury, Vermont

If you are not a birder, or a fan of reality TV, or have the need to dispose of a body, you may not be familiar with the Jersey shore and in particular, Cape May, New Jersey.  The Cape is home to thousands of shore birds during the fall and spring migration and, based on my limited interaction with the locals on the beach is also home to overly tanned tourists who bear a striking similarity to Tony Soprano and Snooki.

We came for the birds and were not disappointed.  We got plenty of close up looks at migrating waterfowl and also plenty of close up looks at biting gnats.  So, keep in mind the level of difficulty involved in photographing the birds below because it isn't easy to do that when you have to keep whacking yourself in the head with your iPhone.

From top to bottom, that's a prairie warbler, seaside sparrow, barn swallow and marsh wren.  These were all taken in a marshy, gnat infested area near where we were camped.  Just a quick word here about where we chose to stay.  It was a very exclusive Airstream only resort.

The unwritten subtext of this sign basically is saying "we are special, you are not".  You cannot stay here unless you own an Airstream.  Now, keep in mind it can be a really crappy Airstream but it can only be an Airstream.

Our Airstream, of course, is not crappy and we are, in fact, special so we loved the place.

After spending some quality time with the biting gnats in the marsh, we opted for a little boat trip and saw plenty of birds in their breeding plumage.

I don't mean to imply that Cape May is all gnaty and marshy, quite the opposite, in fact they have very nice beaches and you can actually find "diamonds" just washed up on the shore for the taking.

See, nice beaches and if you are patient and like sorting through thousands of small rocks, and really who doesn't, you too can find these elusive "diamonds", aka quartz.  

Cold Spring, New York

Cold Spring is a quaint, little town about an hour's train ride from New York City.  We had arranged to stay at Fred's brother's wife's sister's house which is occupied by some lovely, obviously tolerant tenants because we just showed up and made ourselves at home.  Thanks Tom, Jessica and Winny!

We took our first ever Amtrak commuter ride into New York city and it was a blast.  Loved it, and I wish we had options like this in Austin.  Don't get me wrong we have Amtrak but the one time I took it it took a day and a half to get to west Texas.  These trains are fast, fast, fast.

Look out here she comes she's comin', look out there she goes she's gone

It's like Grand Central Station in here

As I mentioned before, our MacBook was exhibiting epileptic type behavior and we had booked an appointment with the Apple Store in Grand Central Station.  In true New Yorker fashion the guy was pretty abrupt.  The conversation was short and not so sweet.

Guy:  So, what's the problem

Us:  The trackpad doesn't seem to work

Guy: Yeah, sounds like it's broken we can't fix that

Us:  Do you want to run some diagnostics or take a look at it

Guy: No, it's broken we can't fix that

Us:  Do we have any options

Guy: No, it's broken........Next

Thanks dude.  

Since we only had the one day in New York we opted to see the 9-11 memorial and we wanted to go to the museum but the line was crazy long.

Suck it Osama, the new World Trade Center

So, we opted instead to go the new Whitney Museum of American art.  Where, guess what:

The lines were crazy long

Sometimes art moves you if a way that words can't fully express

They could have left off the "Spring" part, it was just plain cold

Roxbury, Vermont

After our brief New York City stop, we hightailed it to the Mountain state for yet another brief, one night stop to visit our friends from Austin who have chucked it all and gone off the grid.  Living only with the bare minimum necessary to survive in the wilds of Vermont.

Spectacular views of 350 acre property from the front deck

Tiny, little log cabin in the woods

With a private yoga studio

And an apple orchard

This place is pure heaven but I worry about my friends being able to survive those cold, Vermont winters with only gourmet organic food, pure spring water, peace and quiet and maple syrup so I left them a box of Chez-its.

Blue Ridge Parkway to Shenandoah National Park

As you enter Virginia you will see a small sign informing you of a little known regulation which requires you to begin singing "Country Roads" by John Denver.  But wait, you say, that's West Virginia.  Is it really?  Or, is he referring to the western portion of Virginia or perhaps the town of West, Virginia?  These are the type of arguments you have with your spouse when he insists you stop singing about the Blue Ridge Mountains and mountain mamas over and over again.

The best way to experience the Parkway is to relax, enjoy the vistas, go slow and stop every 15 miles to recover from the nausea inducing back and forth turns that never end.  Henceforth, I shall fondly refer to this road as the Barfway.

Some nice, misty, mountain views

About 50 tunnels, all filled with zombies

Lucky for me we had reservations halfway through the parkway at a little place called Meadows of Dan.  Based on the name alone I should have known it was gonna be a little odd.  Sure enough, we find the place we were looking for and there was no one there, not a single soul which was creepy/wonderful depending on which of us you asked.

So, we just made ourselves at home and opened the Bambi door and turned up the music and started dinner.  As we sat down to have a glass of wine inside, these two, young, blonde women show up outta nowhere holding two bottles of wine.  In broken, giggly english/german they somehow got across to us that they needed a corkscrew.  Hmm, well all I can say is this may or may not have resulted in an international incident but Fred was more than willing to help them for some reason.  He opened their wine and they went on their way happy as could be.

The winds howled all night and the next morning the German girls were gone and these invasion of the body snatcher pods were surrounding the Bambi.  Coincidence?  I think not.

I was happy to leave.

Back on the Barfway, we dodged our share of bicyclists, deer, wild turkeys, tourists taking dogwood pictures and drop offs to eventually arrive at Shenandoah National Park.

Shenandoah National Park has more plant species than all of Europe.  I'll give you a minute to absorb that tidbit.  Talk about almost heaven.

Doggy woods were out in force

Wildflowers Galore (wasn't she a dancer?)

But for sheer variety and alien weirdness, I personally believe you can not beat a nice patch of fungi and Shenandoah has lots.

Fun Guy points out some Fungi

After settling in, we took a short hike on the Appalachian Trail.  Like, really short but technically we can now brag that we have, in fact hiked the Appalachian Trail.  We should have done this in our misspent youth because now the spirit is willing, but the flesh, not so much.

This part of the trail ends at section where all those hikers who should have known better end up

The museum at the visitor center had these boots that were donated by a woman who did the trail in 1978.

Later in the day I offered to donate mine, but they declined

The aptly named Big Meadows camping area where we were staying

A few of our campground companions, Eastern Towhee, a Raven on the nest with three chicks and a cat bird

Stony Man Mountain

Life is full of compromises, I listen to Grateful Dead on Sirius radio and Fred let's me practice my roadside interpretive dance routines

On our last hike of the last day, it started raining like a cow pissin' on a flat rock and our computer basically began having an epileptic fit so we took that as a sign that it was time to head on down the road to Cape May, New Jersey.

Next stop, home state of Tony Soprano.