Skyline Drive driven

Today, we left Leesburg, where we had crash landed after getting off the plane and with the exception of a short trip up to my Dad's house for a light meal of Seared Tuna and Shrimp and productive conversation....I mean after I got the old folks to stop with medications, ailments and deaths. Geez, what is it with getting older? If I end up like my parent's comparing ailments and meds like middle school kids comparing scars and chipped teeth, I am going to die from embarrassment!
Anyway, I digress.
We tried to take Route 15 south to 66, pretty much a straight line, I must have blinked because I ended up on Route 7 instead running parallel to 66. Virginia roads are really weird.
We stopped for lunch and I talked a deli store to make Mother a butter sandwhich (which took some explaination) also no one had ever ordered on there so they had to make up a price for it! I had a simple and delicious homemade chicken salad sandwhich . The place is a gas station/mart/deli opposite (diagonally) the Skyline Drive entrance.
We finally found our way to Front Royal and the Skyline Drive, only to learn that part of it was closed due to fallen rocks near Mary's Tunnel (or at) So we drove the 32 miles of it before taking a detour down Highway 211/350 through the Shenandoah Valley before returning up to the Skyline on Route 33 to resume the last leg of the drive.
Funny fact about me, I always sing the Shenandoah song whenever I cross it (without fail) this means I get about the first 2 lines before I am across and repeat it several times as the Shenandoah is one wiggly river.
"I'm bound away!" and such....
It was spectacular with amazing views of the valleys on both sides plunging through the forested slopes and mountains/hills surrounding the drive. There is a real sense of peace which we accentuated by listening to Spoken Poetry as we drove along the emerald shrouded road.
I found cause to pause to watch the path of a eagle (probably gold - although I pretended it was the bald) circling, cutting through the sky. There are places in this country where you can forget the metropolises that so many of us live inside of. 
We took a stab at the Blue Ridge Parkway but only ran as far as Route 60 before exhaustion and a thunderstorm/downpour drove us away down the valley back to the Lee Highway and a Best Western Hotel in Lexington (VA).
We ate our second regrettable meal of this trip at Applebees which was better than Wimpies. Seriously when did Americans start putting cheese on BLTs and still have the nerve to call them BLTs? Should be called BLT nasties. Yuck.
I had shrimp which was tolerable but instantly forgettable.
Also asked for a Beer Shanty and ended up with a full glass of Blue Moon beer and a half glass of sprite....should have known not to ask. The Bar woman did not want to rip me off of the $5 beer. Sheesh. I got it corrected only to get it with a quarter slice of Orange in it. It did not help. I miss Castle larger but it was blue Moon or lite beer. Ouch.
And that is why Mike is no longer eating at Applebees.