Yesterday was a day spent doing small chores around the campsite and then cooking halibut for supper with mac and cheese and stewed tomatoes.  Last night the temp dropped to 26 degrees and froze our water hose so this morning's first chore was giving our hose a hot shower!  While I was doing that, Judy took pictures of the geese in the campground and then we decided to head up to Skyline Drive(Shenandoah National Park) for a little sightseeing.  We were pleased to see that since our last trip(about five years ago) the road between the south entrance to the park north to the Swift Run Gap entrance has been redone and both the road and the stone walls on the berm have been rehabbed and made the drive much safer and more enjoyable.  When we exited the Drive at Swift Run Gap it brought back memories of a special event assignment I had in the late seventies when President Carter went fishing at Camp Hoover in Shenandoah and several rangers were brought in to work a security detail with the Secret Service.  My team was assigned the 4-12 shift as patrolling security around Camp Hoover and Marine One, the President's helicopter.  It got so foggy that night you couldn't see beyond the hood of the patrol car and the Secret Service guys were very nervous about their limited vision.  The marine guard was due to change at midnight and the relief guards were supposed to report to the command center for briefing at 11:30 p.m.  The report time and relief time came and went with no sign of the relief detail and the Secret Service went into HIGH alert!  The radios did not work well at Camp Hoover so I assigned rangers to augment the helicopter and Camp Hoover detail and started South from Big Meadows for the 15 mile drive to Swift Run, normally a 20-25 minute drive.  I was looking for a military van and fully expected to find them over the edge of the mountain!  After 45 very long minutes I finally found the van sitting on the side of the road with the relief guard detail all intact but very confused about where they were going.  Seems they went into Elkton for dinner and stayed too long and then could not find their way in the fog.  I escorted them back to an extremely irate Marine major and an extremely relieved but upset Secret Service detail.  We never found out what happened to those guys but my guess is that it was not pleasant.  President Carter enjoyed his fishing trip and arrived back in D.C. the next evening unaware of what transpired on the mountain.  

We took a few pictures from Skyline drive and provide them for your enjoyment.  As you can see the peak color is past but still beautiful.