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The Skyline Drive is worth doing. I can see why it would be gorgeous during spring and fall. The simplest way to do it if you're in the DC area is to do a quadrilateral - I-66, skyline, I-64, I-95. We drove out on the Lee Highway because I avoid interstates if possible. Driving up the Lee Highway by itself was refreshing, and so was the middle third that we drove through (Luray to Elkton). Skyline Drive is peppered with "Outlook points", and places that you can park and hit the Appalachian Trail (which runs more or less parallel to the drive). I'm not going to recommend one or the other point, because everyone has different tastes, and they are mostly all pretty. However, there IS one place that I would recommend - when you're in the middle third of the dive, do not miss the Dark Hollow Falls.
I have a thing for water, so I jumped at this one, and I didn't regret it. Its a solid 3/4ths of a mile one way and a pretty steep downhill trek from the road to the actual falls; it was icy in patches but certainly no more than mild-to-moderately challenging. We ran down and came back at a pretty decent clip (felt a little winded and was sweaty, but only because of the speed of ascent and temperature. Plus I'm in terrible shape). They say it takes 1 1/4 hr; we took 45 minutes.
But the falls themselves are very pretty. It's more a set of smaller falls as opposed to one massive drop, and it is accessible at several places. Given the time of the year, the flow was not torrential and the water was SUPER icy cold. It tasted good, but less sweet than I expected. Overall, well worth the 10 bucks for the weekly pass and something I would DEFINITELY do again in the spring and fall next year.
The other thing which I will do next year is go visit to a vineyard. There are several in the area, and we wanted to go to Veritas or Jefferson, which apparently are good. And this organic ice cream maker called Perfect Flavor in Waynesboro...
Also on the trip, I almost ran over a cop who had pulled someone over. I guess I was so hypnotized by the lights that I forgot to move over one lane. My mirror missed his ass by about two feet. Man, was he PISSED. I sort of apologized while driving off, but I kept my eyes glued to the rear view mirror for a while; I was pretty sure he would catch up and give me an earful (at the very least), and there was no way I was going to speed up to out race him, was there...
After we got off the drive, We stopped at Elkton for some (pretty awful) diner food. I felt bad for the small town. The place (or what we saw) was dying. There was absolutely nothing that I could say was positive about the place. It wasn't even quaint or pretty. Honestly, when people talk admiringly about small towns here in America, I just don't get it. Really. What I saw was a set of decrepit buildings, failing businesses, meth addicts and a general air of staleness. And a remarkable ability to screw up fries that came out of a freezer bag.
But jokes apart, these are the places that politicians talk about when they talk about main street being in trouble. And it is true - places like Elkton are in deep, deep trouble. I don't want to sound TOO negative about the place because I only got a snapshot, but what I did see wasn't pretty. We spoke to a couple locals, and you could tell times are not good. But its more than just shuttered shops and unpainted houses; it's this sense of foreboding that you get from the place and the people that tell you that something is seriously wrong. I don't know what it is or what caused it or what the future holds for these people. But what I do know is that while we could drive away and head back to comfort of our homes to blog about lousy french fries, the people of Elkton can't. This is their life. And it isn't looking too hot right now.
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