I woke up on early Tuesday morning greeted by a cool breeze and a dark horizon, it was time to take a shower and head to the Bangor International Airport. When I passed through TIA’s security checks I boarded the near-full aircraft to my surprise; most of the commuters were from Maine. Earlier during the week I had read an article on how to take photographs through an airplane’s window as it’s something that I’ve wanted to attempt the next chance I had; unfortunately my window was scratched to the point where they would show. The sun started to rise as the jet engines were warming, by the time we were in the air the sun was just above the horizon illuminating the dark blue sky that display a beautiful gradient. As we climbed higher Maine’s many bodies of water were covered with a light fog- a common sight in the mornings of Maine.

I arrived to the Cincinnati, OH airport a mid-sized airport and from there we were up and down in about 45 minutes. I arrived to Roanoke Airport in Jeans and polo with an under T as it was cool in Maine but in Roanoke it was roughly 90. We had dinner at The Cracker Barrel, I had the same meal as last time- Hardy Breakfast.

Thursday was a little cooler, in the high eighties with very high humidity. Mom and I hiked Otter Creek Trail which was roughly four miles long consisting of river bed trails, tree root stairs, crossing the stream, walking under bridges and the woods up and down mountain stream crevasses. At the end of the trail a log cabin restaurant awaited us at which Jack treated us for dinner.

On Friday we headed out to Jamestown, VA to visit the original and permanent English settlement that began the US’ history. Friday was probably the hottest day that I experienced for a very long time, the temperature was at 100 with very high humidity. When we first arrived to Jamestowne we drove the park loop that had informational signs depicting what the inhabitants did to survive. At the beginning of the trail a male Eastern Box Turtle was crossing the road; Jack stopped so I could take a look at it as I’ve never seen a Box Turtle before. Near the end of the loop there’s a path that leads to a beach on the James River, since it was hot, mom and I went in knee deep- the water was bathtub hot something a Mainer is not accustomed to.

Once we finished the loop we headed to the original settlement where excavation was still in the works, we visited the first Christian Church, a remake of how houses were built, remake of the three ships that landed and a museum that hosted many artifacts that were dug from the site. Tools have always interested me, especially early tools man has used to ease his work; the museum had a lot of old tools ranging from eye glasses, ear picks, make-shift knives, hoes, metal shards meant to stop intruders, etc.

Afterwards, we headed towards Virginia Beach only to find out that traffic was very very heavy- what would normally take 45 minutes took us roughly two hours. Once we arrived we walked on the beach and I went knee high since I did not not bring my swimming shorts.

Sunday was my first visit to Thomas Road Baptist Church since Jerry Falwell passed away a few months ago; his son, Jonathan Falwell is now the primary pastor for TRBC. I am always amazed at how God has blessed Jerry’s work and the people he’s help bring to Christ and one of the many things that show this is TRBC and its members. During the service I started to regret turning down a job interview for Liberty University last year because there are so many groups and outreaches that I would like to be apart of. TRBC posts the majority of their sermons on their website, even if you’re not a Believer, I suggest that you at least check one out, especially “Preparing To Build, Part 8″.

Monday’s weather was a cool (for Virginia) 82 with partially clear skies, Sharp Top Mountain’s visage was semi-clear. On our way to Sharp Top Mountain we stopped in an Angus field to snap a few photos. We purchased bus tickets to the top of the mountain as didn’t want to spend the majority of the day hiking; while waiting for the bus one of the Game Wardens allowed me to take their pet Box Turtle out so I could properly photograph it. Once we reached the top, the skies were regrettably hazy but we still enjoyed the limited view. On our decent a Doe walked passed us, ate a few leafs of a lower hanging branch, walked passed us again, stopped and stared at us. Mom was just inches from feed her a handful of leaves; the Doe was very calm and curious, she followed us down the majority of the trail, eating and watching as we walked. As funny as this may sound, I think she was a gift from God as I was complaining that I didn’t have an opportunity to take a decent shot of much today.

Later in the evening I photographed the Moon hours before the full lunar eclipse that I woke up for very early in the morning.

Today the skies were very clear and temperatures hovered around 80. Jack had to work today so mom and I headed to Sharp Top Mountain to hike down the Apple Orchard Falls trail. The hike was all down hill, from certain segments of the trail you could see a tiny brook trickling down the mountain, the farther we hiked down the larger and louder the brook grew. The pathway was rocky and wrapped down the side of the mountain like a snake wrapping around a tree or its prey. Roughly half way down we came upon a large ledge cave, I was curious to see what was inside, when I got near the entrance mom thought that it would be funny to roar like a bear… I jumped but continued on to see what was inside- thankfully the cave was too small for a bear.

When we reached our destination I was surprised to see how large the waterfall was, it must be 150-180′ high. I climbed up to explore the waterfall and to cool off.

On Wednesday mom and I headed to Lynchburg to shop, we went to one of the malls and looked around for awhile. I purchased a few items of clothing from Hechts (Maceys), JC Penney and Sears. We had a good sized thunderstorm, the thunder was heard very clearly inside of the mall.

Thursday the skies cleared up and the temperature rose to around 85. Jack, mom and I headed towards Salem to take a tour of the Dixie Caverns. The Caverns were found in the early 1900’s by a dog named Dixie, the dog stumbled into a hole in a mountain, and Dixie’s owner witnessed this and went in after to rescue the dog. This cavern has an interesting design; it actually goes up into the mountain rather than going down into the mountain. Our tour included a group of 2nd graders and as you can imagine, they were very loud and energetic. I always enjoy taking tours of these caverns; it’s amazing the see how the Flood (the Great Flood in the Bible) carved out a cave in the ground and than water and moisture created Stalactites and Stalagmites. My digital camera unfortunately did not have a good time; I was able to snap a few shots of the cavern until the moisture short circuited the electrical components. I’m going to attempt to fix the issue myself since it’s out of warranty, if I fail- I’ll have to purchase a new camera. Here’s a couple of photos I took before my camera died: Stalactite and Wedding Bell.

Later in the evening mom and I went to Super Wal-Mart to re-print some of my childhood photos, I’ve been wanting to create my own photo album and now is a good time to start.

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.