Heading north

Slept great...total peace and quiet. Got up at 7am, and hit the road right away. We did another 20 miles or so on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Very scenic and we didn't see another car the whole 20 miles!

Blue Ridge Parkway this morning.

So now were having a late breakfast parked beside the Interstate 81, and we'll get some miles done today. Hoping to stop at the Luray Carverns along the way, just before the Pennsylvania border.

1:00pm

We are stopped at the Luray Caverns, and after some thought we've decided to spend the $22 each to get in. They are supposed to be the best caves in the Eastern U.S., so we're about to find out...although at a cost.

Going to have to drive fairly late tonight to make up some lost time. I think we'll be Walmarting tonight!

8:00pm

Just a quick note, we'll update again in the morning. Went to the caves...pricey, but pretty good. Drove for 3 straight hours, but very windy. Made it to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and staying at the Hollywood Casino and Racetrack parking lot.

11:00pm

Earlier on when I posted the last update, we had been using the internet in the parking lot of the Days Inn just off the I-81 near Hershey, Pennsylvania. We had seen a sign to the Hollywood Casino and Racetrack, and it was getting dark and rainy and windy, and I had enough driving for the day. So we checked it online, and the Casino was only about a mile away!

We parked up in the huge casino parking lot, and went inside. It’s a big place, with over 2,000 slot machines. When Ruth had been to Atlantic City last fall doing the tour bus job, she found this one slot machine that she liked, and apparently it likes her too! Anyway, it’s called “Mystic Lamp”, and they happened to have one of those machines here. So we each took $10 to use in the penny slot machines.

Well my $10 went quickly down to $4. I was using some other machine right beside Ruth. But her $10 quickly grew to $101.40! In fact, when she had that one big win, she cashed out. I used her machine to quickly get rid of my last $4, and then she wanted to continue to gamble with her original $10. So she did, and it soon disappeared as well. But we walked out of there $80 richer! Now we don’t feel so bad about spending $44 to see the caves today.

So we’re parked in the casino parking lot, and our trusty Hawking wifi antenna is picking up a nice strong signal from the casino. It even connects with no problem, and a page comes up saying “Hollywood Casino Guest Internet”. But then it asks you for a username and password. So I asked at guest services and the security desk for the necessary information, and nobody knew it! They said I would have to phone in the morning to speak to the right person. So they have guest internet access, but nobody knows what the password is. I just shook my head.

We’ll get up early and head for Scranton. Then we’ll stop just before Scranton and have breakfast and use the internet while the rush hour traffic clears up. Hope to be back in Kingston before 3pm.