Memorial Day Weekend 2016 - Exploring Virginia's Highlands

With all the time in the world why would I choose to travel Memorial Day Weekend?!?!  So my dear friend Lynn T-G could go with me!  (Sometimes us ladies of leisure have to accommodate the working folk).  We started from Charlottesville, headed west to Raphine & Wade's Mill, a working flour mill c. 1750.  Then twisting roads led through Goshen Pass to Blowing Springs Campground in the George Washington National Forest.  Down to Warm Springs, for a leisurely soak in the mineral pool, then continued south to see breathtaking Falling Springs Falls, and ended the day at Buckhorne Country Store & Campground. For our final days we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway, camping at Peaks of Otter, where we had a drizzly walk to the old Johnson Farm historic site, enjoyed a fabulous pancake breakfast after a rainy night, followed by a sunny, warm hike on the Fallingwater Trail. 

Historic Wade's Mill in Raphine

Jefferson Bath House in Warm Springs (#4) - a great hour's soak!

Falling Springs Falls (#5), an 80 ft drop you can go behind

Humpback Covered Bridge, Covington (#6)

Can never have too much of this!

Johnson Farm, Peaks of Otter (#7), offers a glimpse into an earlier way of life.

This beautiful quilt is made of old feed sacks!

View from 20-Minute Cliff on the Blue Ridge Parkway, VA

May 2016 - Smith Mountain Lake and Crabtree Falls

First trip with Aflo - and my niece Andrea, fire-starter, wine connoisseur, and travel companion extraordinaire!  One night at a misty Smith Mountain Lake, VA and two nights at Crabtree Falls.   Unfortunately, a recent ankle sprain kept me from hiking (read climbing!) all the way to the top, but I did make it about half a mile.  Crabtree Falls is often considered the highest vertical falls in the east, if you count the elevation at the start in comparison the at the bottom, but it's more a series of cascades.

The awning sure comes in handy when it rains!

 

Campground kitty Lily investigates

Introducing the whole blog thing

Well, it finally had to happen I guess...a blog.  Not because I have anything earth-shaking to say.  Not because the e-world needs yet another self-indulgent outpouring of useless information or boring details of daily life.  Not because I've been asked to.  Just because...

I love to travel. 

So do many of my friends, if only vicariously.  And so, this is for you (yes, you!).  And a little bit for me, so I can journal online with photos before I forget where I've been in the course of getting to where I'm going.

Of course, being me, I'll have the usual useless tidbits (did you know Stonewall Jackson's arm is buried in a cemetery in Fredericksburg, Va, while his body lies in a Lexington cemetery?), as well as boring details of daily life (such as. today I'll be checking out the bike rack on the van to see if it fits).  Otherwise, it'll be mostly travel photos and observations.

Meet Aflo, my trusty 1999 Dodge F3500 camper van.  Her name means "Another fabulous living opportunity" although, if she gives me any trouble, it could just as easily mean "another f...ing learning opportunity".  We'll be traveling the roads together over the coming months (years?).  Glamping, you could say, since she's got a comfy bed, fridge, stove, sink, microwave, even a toilet and shower.

 

So, buckle up.  It's going to be a bumpy ride (literally, as there are several gravel roads in our future).