* REVs and Relaxation!

4th of July weekend 2004 - we took the Boxster S on a road trip down Skyline Drive for some touring and relaxation, leading up to our ultimate destination: TracQuest's first-ever Driver Education event at Virginia International Raceway, on the VA-NC border.

First stop (Friday night July 2): a wonderful Bed & Breakfast called Killahevlin in Front Royal, at the northern entrance to Skyline Drive.  From our room, there were wonderful mountain views, and also this view of the parking lot; I didn't mind a bit!

(NOTE: click any picture on this page for a full-size view)

We had dinner in Middletown at the Wayside Inn, the oldest continuously-operating Inn in America.

In the morning, we checked out and opted not to get right onto Skyline Drive.  Instead, we spent a few hours canoeing on the Shenandoah River.  At least one turtle, one water snake, and 3 separate  groups of cows were enjoying the river along with us at various points.

Next we stopped at Luray Caverns; here are two of the better shots I took:

We wanted to make it all the way down to the Steele's Tavern / Vesuvius area, so we needed to hurry.  So my wife drove the next leg of the trip ;-).  Basically, she drove the middle third of Skyline Drive.  We saw many great views, and a couple of deer, and the trunks of a few slower-moving vehicles.  I know, I know, we should have stopped to take some amazing pictures of the Boxster with breathtaking views in the background.  But we needed to get to our next stop in time for dinner (hey, wasn't this part of the trip supposed to be RELAXING?)  -- so we got off Skyline Drive in the middle and switched to I-81.

We arrived at Sugar Tree Inn just in time to shower and make our 7:30 dinner seating at their restaurant.  The Inn is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, on Route 56.  My wife enjoyed the straight, FAST driving on the Interstate followed by the spectacular twists, turns, and elevation changes of Route 56 into the mountains.  (And I think the Boxster was getting a taste of what was to come on the track . . . .)

Sunday morning we checked out and went to hike Crabtree Falls, only 8 miles from the Inn.  It turns out these are the highest falls east of the Mississippi, at 1200 feet (if you include the 5 separate cascades).  As you can see from the photos, it was a somewhat misty morning; from the top, there was nothing visible worth photographing.  10 minutes after we started our descent, the sun broke through the clouds.

From the falls we headed south to Danville, checked into the Marriott Courtyard, and I surreptitiously scoped out a spot in the parking lot with a hard enough surface (and thankfully even a little bit of shade) to jack up the car and switch to the Hawk Blue brake pads.

Monday morning -- my birthday, and 4 years to the day since I put in the order for the Boxster -- we were at the track by 6:30 to help with registration and finish prepping the car.  This was my 9th track event, and my wife's third (?), but the first time we'd been to VIR.  What a FANTASTIC track!  Complex turns, incredibly long straights.  We each got behind the wheel; I took the shots below of my wife driving: