Monster Geocaching Trip: Day 5, The long ride home

Just like, well basically every other morning on the trip, we were "up and at them" before the sun.  We had one last hike in the Smokies on the agenda, then it was basically a long drive home, seeing the just about the entire length of I-81 through VA as well as literally every inch of it in WV, and MD.

Our hike was 6 miles on the AT, north of Newfound Gap to the Icewater Spring Shelter and back.  We met a section hiker from Florida at the shelter, then near the end of the hike where many day hikers were out of the a stroll on the AT, one guy passed asking me if I was coming from Maine.  All I could think to say was "I wish!" (although I'm well aware that the reality of starting on Katahdin and being here in August aren't really reality because of the weather I would have had in New England in March/April)

Anyways...some pics from the hike:

Yup...we're a long way from Maine.

Trail scene, ascending out of Newfound Gap

Taking in the smoky views

Tempting to go to Charlies Bunion...

Shelter view

The large Newfound Gap parking area was crawling with tourists and we didn't waste any time getting packed up and headed (pretty much) towards home.  There was one small detour that dad wanted to make, and I didn't have any objections:

Kentucky!

We stopped in the town of Middlesboro, just on the other side of Cumberland Gap to learn a little bit about the entire area being a meteor crater via an Earthcache.

By this point it was around noon and we were already getting tired, but still had hundreds of miles to drive.  We decided to limit it to just a couple of final geocache stops in southwestern Virginia, and then it was just driving and trying to stay awake.  My first experience with 5-hour energy was positive and it seemed to work well for approximately four hours.

I really should have taken a picture, but somewhere near Winchester VA, we went through a serious downpour and emerged with a stunning double rainbow view to the east.  The colors for both rainbows were some of the most vivid I've ever experienced in a rainbow.

All good things must come to an end, and around 10:30pm we rolled into Mechanicsburg to drop dad off.  I checked the quite literal "trip odometer" and it read just a couple miles under 2000, a mark which I passed on the 20 minute ride home, where I found that the skunk smell from days prior was still lingering after I pulled into the garage.  I had a rough, tired day at the office waiting for me the next day, though there we no regrets about having such a "busy vacation"!