Today we woke up early and headed off to Duffield, VA to see the Natural Tunnel. The tunnel amphitheater is 400′ high, the stream ran very deep through this once ledge and carved a natural tunnel through the caverns. In the 1800’s railroad tracks were laid through the tunnel to save time transporting minerals. The railroad was and is still used to carry coal and natural materials from the mines. We road down the steep hill on a chair lift which carried us to the foot of the hill and the entrance of the natural tunnel, after looking into the tunnel we hiked up the trail that took us up the winding ledge until we reach the top, a point where you can step out on and look down the 400′. The weather was close to 100; needless to say we were very warm. We took an alternate path down that took us through a more wooded area.

After the hike we had a picnic mom and made for us, the food was refreshing, I always enjoy a good picnic. Duffield is not too far away from Tennessee so we decided to stop and pickup a magnet of the State. We all collect the State magnets of where we have visited.

The Appalachian Trail is very beautiful in southern Virginia; all you can see are the rolling mountains in a blue haze for miles and miles. On the hillsides there are hundreds of Black Angus cows just roaming the fields looking for grass to eat. The mountains look massive as you’re driving through the valleys winding around sharp corners.

I am now sitting on the swing on the front porch waiting for the fireworks in the surrounding towns to be fired off. Sharp Top is starting to fade away into the night; the lightning bugs are coming out to perform their own little fireworks.

I’m taking in the scenery, noises from the birds chirping, cows mooing and thinking about how mom as always tries so hard to make vacations fun and worth while- I must say that she always succeeds, I’m very thankful for such a loving mother.

The weather in Virginia has been very hot, hovering around 95 degrees, but the important difference between Virginia and Maine is that VA does not have the humidity that ME does when it gets warm.

I flew out of Bangor on Saturday morning and arrived in La Guardia airport an hour later, the airport was medium sized, the runway is partially on the harbor. After waiting about 45 minutes in NYC, we took off in a small Lear jet; I was near the engine so the ride was very loud. I was able to see the Empire State building from the air, I was hoping I could see more of the city but the smog and humidity was too heavy.

I landed in Greensboro an hour later; the airport looked the same as last year which is expected. I met Mom and Jack in the luggage pickup section. We waited for my luggage until it was announced that everyone’s luggage on my flight was flown to Buffalo, New York. We were told that I would be able to get my suitcase(s) the next day.

Mom and Jack have a new vehicle, it’s a Buick Rendezvous, it’s very nice and I am considering purchasing one for myself, the MPG is roughly 27. We headed home after having dinner at the Cracker Barrel and relaxed the rest of the night since I was tuckered out.

On Sunday we went to Trinity Baptist Church in Bedford, the assistant pastor preached, he is 20 years old and has not yet graduated from Liberty University. He spoke a very good sermon, one that hit me.

Later that night we headed towards Lynchburg to pickup my suitcase and went to Liberty University to watch the fireworks. There must have been 25,000 or more people there. Mom and I walked over to the new Thomas Road Baptist Church, it’s massive and beautiful inside. I wish I could of heard Jerry Falwell preach there. Tim LaHaye also teaches at Liberty and lives on Campus, I would really have liked to have met him, he is the co-author to one of my favorite book series, Left Behind. The fireworks were very good, they were shot off from Liberty Hill.

On Monday mom and I sat outside for awhile and talked; I also read some of the Left Behind series in-between waiting for the not-so-camera-friendly birds to land on the feeder. I was able to snap a few decent shots of a Cardinal and a Tufted Titmouse bird and an American Gold Finch. Later in the afternoon we went to see Superman Returns, which was an excellent movie. I’m a huge fan of Superman and his mythology, I was a little surprised on the way the ended the movie, but I will not spoil it.

I finally found Coca Cola in a glass bottle; I have been looking in all of the stores in Bangor for them, supposedly from some online message board research that the majority of the States have Coke in a bottle for sale. I purchased a 6 pack from Food Lion; the Coke actually does taste different in the glass bottle. The cap is metal, but it does not twist off like Root Beer glass bottle cap does, you actually need a bottle cap opener. I’ll be buying a few of these and taking them home with me.