Late Afternoon on the Skyline Drive

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #8
Linden, VA - Tue, 26 Nov 2024, 4:30pm

After visiting my niece Mattie and her boyfriend Kai over lunch in Front Royal today we refined our plans for the rest of the day. We already had plans to meet my cousin Matt and his family for dinner 30-45 minutes east, but Mattie needed to leave for work by 1:30 so several hours of the afternoon were unexpected free. I called and texted my middle sister, R.— yes, the one who's now grandma— to see if we could visit briefly or meet her for ice cream or whatever while we were in town. She didn't answer either one (typical) so we decided we'd visit a rock shop 30-45 minutes south while giving her more opportunity to respond.

No answer had come by 90 minutes later. We still had a 90 minute gap in our schedule, even factoring in travel time to Matt's place. We decided instead of arriving at Matt's 90 minutes early (which he said was okay) we'd take a scenic drive roughly in the direction of his place along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.



The Skyline Drive is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a road that traces the crest of the Blue Ridge mountains for nearly 500 miles through Virgina and North Carolina. We drove stretches of it a lot a few months ago in North Carolina just as a convenient— and beautiful— way of getting from hither to yon. And we drove parts of Skyline Drive that brought back childhood memories.

Late Autumn isn't the best time to see the mountains. The trees that had colorful leaves a month ago now have dead brown leaves or bare branches. And it's a bit chilly out to enjoy hiking. But that's okay; we took it mostly as a scenic drive. In beauty I walk... even when by 'walk' I mean drive. 😅



We stopped at a few of the roadside pullouts along the Skyline Drive. That's part of the beauty of the road. The road is so peaceful, and every two miles or so there's a tranquil pullout to see something. We nearly had the park to ourselves. That's the upside of visiting late in the Fall and late in the day: no crowds.

Dinner with Cousins, Nightcap with my Sister

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #9
Back in Falls Church, VA - Tue, 26 Nov 2024, 11pm

As I write this I'm back at our hotel in Falls Church, VA. I'm even back in our room. You'll see why that matters in a moment.

After meeting one of our nieces for lunch and then going on an impromptu road tour along the Skyline Drive this afternoon, we met my cousin, Matt, for dinner this evening. Well, we didn't just meet Matt. His wife, Sally, joined us for dinner. We also met Matt's son, "Tank", who's now a third-year student in college. He's home for Thanksgiving break but wasn't feeling well enough to join us for dinner. Surprisingly, though, he was feeling well enough to twist our ears in a vigorous conversation before we left the house.

Matt is technically not my cousin but my first cousin once removed. That bit of relationship naming means that his mom is my first cousin. His grandma and my dad are siblings. Yet among all my cousins I always felt close kinship with Matt because we were so close in age. (It also helped that we shared similar intelligence and curiosity about the world.) Yes, we're in different family generations despite being only maybe 6 months apart in age. Matt's grandma, my dad's sister, was older than my dad and married and started her family early. Her kids also started their families young.

That all took on new relevance when I told Matt about my generational shock earlier this week when I confronted the fact that my younger sister is a grandma. I am a grandma's older brother. Matt was unimpressed because my younger sister, now a grandma, only became a grandma in her mid-40s. I'm in my early 50s. Matt's grandma became a grandma by age 38.

Anyway, Hawk and I had a good dinner with Matt and his wife. Well, the dinner sucked, but good company more than made up for the poor food.

After dinner we drove back to our hotel in Falls Church. Hawk stayed in the room as she had a 10pm Teams call to join for our HOA back in California. I headed up to hang with my sister, who'd been out sightseeing in DC all day with her family and a friend from high school days. She was tired physically but still engaged mentally. We chatted amiably for 45 minutes over a nightcap. Her husband daughter came home after that, having stayed out to catch a movie. When they came in they were wrecked. I took that as my queue to call it a night. Now I'm back in my own room, Hawk is done with her call, and we'll wind down so we can plan our own day sightseeing in DC tomorrow.