Virginia Mountains

I’m not much for big cities, but Washington DC was much nicer than I expected. After three days in the city though, I was ready for the country. Bob and I set up camp at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Staunton, VA. We visited the Frontier Culture Museum which was wonderful. They purchased existing homes in Ireland, England and Germany that were built around 1700 and then brought them here to reflect the people who settled in this area. The museum also included an African homestead representative of Nigeria and several early American homes. We were able to go inside these homes and talk with people dressed in period clothing who were well versed on daily life. I especially enjoyed visiting with the livestock - cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and a cat.

We spent a full day in Shenandoah National Park which is gorgeous. It was also very crowded on this Saturday with people taking in the fall colors. We drove 70 of the 105 miles of Skyline Drive, which runs the crest of the mountains and were lucky to see a black bear cub crossing the road. This park has 500 miles of hiking trails and Bob and I found one that wasn’t too busy – a nice loop that included 1.5 miles of the Appalachian trail. The AT runs near Skyline Drive through the entire park. We hiked on it a bit in Maine and will try to catch several more sections as we work our way south.

We took advantage of a sunny day in the low 70s to tour Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. This beautiful estate sits high on a hill overlooking Charlottesville, VA. It was great to hear about his life and accomplishments. Jefferson and I would have really gotten along well since we both love wine, skylights, great views and travel.

After many hours at Monticello, Bob and I had a lovely dinner on the pedestrian mall in downtown Charlottesville. This is a very livable city with many fine restaurants, shops and entertainment. It is also home to the University of Virginia, which Jefferson founded in the early 1800s. Hampton Roads, the publisher of my book, is also here.

The Blue Ridge Parkway connects Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. This 469-mile road, runs the ridges of the Appalachian mountains. We drove the first 30 miles of it, but it started raining and thick fog settled in, so we had to come back to our campground. We’ll pick it up again later.

I think we’re almost at the end of the fall colors especially with the wind and rain we’ve had recently. We’ll see how things look as we cross West Virginia and stay a few days in Kentucky.