After a night on Brenna's couch, I woke up early (0630 with alarm) and started teleworking. I got to spend a little time with my daughter before she left for work (Teacher Work Day) in Harrisonburg (she departed at 0815). Meanwhile, I stayed at her apartment to continue teleworking. My breakfast was snacks, which I used to power through several meetings. It was actually a rather slow work day after lunch time - I made a "Nomad Life" meal with food from my car that I prepared in Brenna's kitchen. Despite the slowness, I continued working, with no breaks until 1700, when Brenna arrived home. After she got ready, we departed for Shenandoah National Park (with a quick stop for gas) at 1745. To reach the hiking trailhead I had in mind, Brenna drove east (via US-33) until we could enter the park at the Swift Run Gap entrance. We used my lifetime "America the Beautiful" pass to get inside and then drove about 10 miles north of US-33. We ultimately stopped at the Appalachian Trail parking lot at Milam Gap. While exiting the car, I noticed that Brenna hadn't worn good shoes and had no coat, which was kind of surprising (because of the lower temps). Undaunted, we left our car (1815) and started hiking towards the southeast. Initially, this took us from the trailhead, across Skyline Drive and onto the blue-blazed Mill Prong Trail. The whole area yielded some good memories (it was one of my first-ever AT hikes), birding opportunities (so many Eastern Towhees!) and funny photo opportunities (Brenna almost fell into a creek we crossed). We didn't see another living soul (or animal) but continued to be mindful of the decreasing daylight. Through it all, we got some exercise and good Daddy-Daughter time. After turning around at the beginning of a large descent (about one mile from the car), we re-crossed Skyline Drive and walked towards the northwest on the AT. On the west side of the road, we passed a rocky outcropping that allowed for some great sunset photos and selfies. We ended up walking nearly another mile before turning around; we reached the car (after about 3.5 miles of walking completed) at 2000. By then, it was nearly dark and the presence of a lot of deer nearby made both of us nervous about potential animal encounters during the return drive to Harrisonburg (this was, after all, where Brenna had actually hit a deer a few years ago). As a precaution, Brenna drove VERY slowly on Skyline Drive, much to the chagrin of several other guests to the National Park. Since I'm her dad, though, I was glad that she was being careful - we avoided catastrophe and were able to turn our attention to dinner plans. This ended up being a difficult conversation because of the lateness. Brenna insisted that we shouldn't stop anywhere that was within 30 minutes of closing (to avoid being rude to the staff) and that ruled out a lot of restaurants. At one point, I just pointed to some fast food locations we were passing (near US-340) but Brenna rejected them ("not healthy"). Eventually, we stopped to check on a Brewery and Burger joint but learned they'd already closed (at 2000). The place that I'd been wanting to visit (an Italian Restaurant, located near Massanutten, we'd patronized before) was actually open but the debating and (stopping at other places before we finally reached it) soured both of us on the place. Instead, we drove into Harrisonburg and stopped at Applebee's for dinner. We arrived at 2045 and were both relieved to find that they stayed open until 2300). Once seated, we looked over the menu and it started yet another debate - luckily, I was able to convince Brenna to order from a "Two for $25" menu. Despite my daughter's report that this wasn't going to be a good deal, in my opinion, the food (salads for both of is, rice and "Mexican" chicken for me, cheeseburger for Brenna) was very good. I even had a "Hurricane" drinks (Brenna thought that was funny). After our walk, it was nice to relax and keep talking together. We were finally done eating at 2155 and made our way back to Brenna's apartment. Both of us were very tired by then so didn't linger in conversation for long. We said goodnight at 2230 but then I got very caught up in a book I'd been reading ("Shaman") while laying on Brenna's couch and didn't actually go to bed until 0030. It was wonderful to spend so much time with Brenna this evening!
