8/27/14 We’ve made it all the way to Philadelphia, PA

8/27/14
We’ve made it all the way to Philadelphia, PA! In the last couple days we’ve made it up the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way through Shenandoah National Park. Although the main road through Shenandoah is named Skyline Drive, it really is of similar scenery and scale to the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nothing too terribly special through here that we saw other than the several speed traps setup throughout the park. We stayed the evening with our good friends Pam and Chris Schiele and went to quite the seafood restaurant just down the road from their house. I actually tried raw oysters again and found that they weren’t nearly as slimy as I remembered from a previous experience. We left this afternoon after lunch at a pretty good Mexican place named, aptly, “Mexico”…lol… It was pretty good, great guacamole, but the queso was white, not the usual, sharper cheese that our Oklahoman taste buds tend to favor. We made it over the bay bridge, through Delaware and in to Philadelphia where we had to, first thing, get a cheesesteak. It was great, I even think Misty probably posted a picture of my joy on the blog somewhere! We did a little sightseeing this evening and are now back at the, guess where, Holiday Inn Express. We haven’t used the camping gear quite as much as I’d hoped we would by this time in the trip, but, especially in the urban areas finding places to camp can be more difficult. We’ve learned over the trips we’ve taken that time
can be worth every penny one might pay for a hotel if it saves you from commuting back and forth from your destination. Just ask us about running an hour and a half in and out of Yosemite a few years ago. The economy if it doesn’t make much sense if you think two nights, in and out twice (1.5x4=6). And you’ve wasted 6 hours of your vacation and probably $30 in fuel just to save $100. It seems great standing there thinking your net savings will be at least $70, but let’s be honest, if your vacation isn’t worth more than $11/hr to you, you might be in the wrong place to begin with….. Well, off to Atlantic City next and then to Boston!