Virginia Creeper Trail

We had a great time over the July 4th holiday.  We went with some friends to ride the Virginia Creeper Trail.  This is a bike trail that is 34 miles long.  We rode the first 17.  Whimps I know.  It gets better--those 17 miles were down hill!!!  

It was to be a fast trip--go up on Saturday, ride the trail on Sunday and head home on Monday.  It was fast-all except for the drive up!  We had the bright idea that we would go through Asheville.  Now Steve and I have lived there and we know how traffic is on holidays and weekends during leaf season--unfortunately, we forgot!  I am not fibbing when I tell you that our 5 hour trip (with stops) turned in to are you ready 11 hours!!  11 hours people--in a car with lots of kids!!  

It took 2 hours to get from the SC state line to Hendersonville, NC at which point we stopped at Chic fil A to eat lunch with 500 of our closest friends who had been stopped on the interstate with us!  We called some friends and had them remind us the best way to get to where we needed to be without the interstate.  We didn't listen!  We believed the NCDOT website that said the roads were clear.  And if they meant clear of cars going over 2mph they were right.  So we made our painful way up to the next exit only (only a few miles that took almost 30 mins) and got off and went the way our friends recommended.  We finally made it to......

and then this happened.....Yep our friends had a tire on their camper to loose it's tread.  Thankfully we were almost to the TN welcome center.  So we spent the next hour replacing a tire and adding air to all of the others.

We finally made it to the campground in Virginia.  It was on top of a mountain and we were looking out over a Christmas tree farm.   The kids entertained themselves while the adults set the campers up.

After a great nights sleep--read my lips typing July and no need for the ac--we hit the trail.  

It was beautiful!!  There were numerous places along the way to stop and play in the cool cold mountain streams.  The kids wanted to stop at everyone and I think we almost did.

 Steve carried Landon across some of the rocks so that he could see the waterfall (it was small) and it kept him out of an area that had rocks to throw.  It really was a LONG WAY TO ANY HOSPITAL--who knows if it was a good one or not!  There was no cell service either so it wouldn't have been good if we had needed that hospital.

 Drew was with the adults in that he was good watching everyone else play in that cold water!

We did manage to get a pretty good family shot.  Thanks Connie!                                                                     

The cold water did not bother this guy at all!  He loved every minute of it!

Since Casey and Landon are so young, they got the pleasure of Steve pulling them in their bike trailer.  

It must have been very hard on them..........

About half way down the trail, there is a great little place to eat.  We heard the desserts were wonderful.  We had a picnic lunch earlier in the day so of course we had to try the chocolate cake and ice cream.

I think they both enjoyed it as is evidenced in the mess they made eating it.

This is one of the many train trestles we crossed.

AHHH, we finally reached our destination!  If you ride straight through, this ride should take about 1 1/2 hours.  If you stop and enjoy as much of the trail as we did it will take you about 6 hours.

After we had our bikes and selves shuttled back to the top of the mountain, we got ready and drove back into Damascus for dinner and their fireworks show.

The kids had a great time playing on and old engine and a caboose while we waited for the show to begin.

 Finally it got dark--right before all of the adults were ready to fall asleep!  The kids however were still going strong.....

 It was a nice fireworks show and NONE of my kids cried this year (well not because of the fireworks anyway)!!!  We must be growing up!

 The trip home was better/worse than the trip up.  We decided not to go back through Asheville but through Charlotte.  The trip took 5 hours.  That was good.  The bad part was that the first 2 hours were down steep windy mountain roads.  Here is one shot of our GPS and I took this near the end where we were having stretches of straight areas.

We had a great trip and would go back and do it again!!  But next time we would stay in Damascus.