Skyline Lodge in the area you mentioned and visited the Luray Caverns....that scenery at 5AM watching the fog lift from the Shenendoah Valley from my balcony was what made the decision to move to anywhere along the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA. 30 years ago I made the move to just south of Wytheville and have my own piece of that mountain ridge. The next time you're looking for a 'pit stop' on your trip to SC, get in touch...I'd love to have the chance to meet and invite you and your wife to my home for dinner or even over night. Whenever I go to Cleveland to see my daughters and sisters, I'm so happy to see the Bluefield/Bland tunnels on the way home because I know I'm almost back here. LOL
I've spent the last week getting this ready for Florence to enter my area....picking up everything lose in the yard and on the porch, moving things to the back of the new carport (enclosed on three sides) that holds the new backhoe/loader and all of the attachments for that tractor and many garden tools, bringing hanging plants and porch plant containers into the house, securing other outbuildings, protecting new trees recently planted, turning picnic tables upside down, and firing up the generator to make sure it's ready again and that all the gas cans are filled. I had just finished up digging out three new garden areas around the house and replanting....glad I held off reseeding some grass areas....and actually a month ago when he was here on leave had Derek build up the creek walls to keep the water from overflowing into the yard like it did a couple of times during a heavy rain because the culvert opening was too close to the wall/bank and went over the top of it. He announced, when he finished, that we now had a 'Trump Wall' and nothing would get where it wasn't supposed to be anymore. LOL
The rains are coming this morning, so last night I filled the tub, made a few pots of coffee ahead of time for pitchers, defrosted frozen lunch meats and a loaf of bread, brought out the electric hotplate and countertop grill, finished the dishwasher and laundry, emptied all the litter boxes (3 cats, 3 boxes lol), and made sure all flashlights, camping lanterns, etc are fully charged. I also have a few oil lamps handy. Because of the nutcase cats, I don't use candles anymore. I have a few wall lights in the kitchen and bathrooms that are rechargeable, too, so I don't have to use the flashlights to go from room to room and waste the batteries. When (it's never an 'if' here) the power goes out, the generator gets fired up and every two days the freezers get plugged in to keep 'topping them off', the fridge gets plugged in regularly so I can keep using it, and when I decide to cook something, the plug gets switched to the hotplate or grill then back to the fridge. Tons of books on hand and new afghans get made during blackouts....and if things get really bad, I have a root cellar built into the side of one of my mountains that me and the animals (Cody the chocolate lab and the cats) can head to (all three cats fit into a large dog carrier together).
Like I said, been down this road so many times over 30 years that it's all routine now....I worry about the old trees and saturated ground more than anything else. It's not supposed to be too bad here...7-12" of rain and maybe 40 MPH windows....I've been through Andrew and then 75 MPH winds a few years later, but my local weather is calling for local flash flooding in low lying areas near major creeks and the New River with winds around 15 MPH. But we could have an angel blow softly in your ear and lose power for a week here....We just got the phones back two days ago after being out for 8 days because of a 'cable failure' whatever that means in CenturyLink speak. So if I disappear again for a while, expect my return (that's for YOU, drp, since you seemed so happy to see my posts again).