This is a retrospective blog of my seven-week exploration of Virginia along with a journey through the Shenandoah National Park and on down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, North Carolina. 'Retrospective' means simply that it wasn't written during the trip, but is being written in hindsight a little over a year later. Baaswell Sheep accompanied me and is writing the blog in the way he's done my later blogs, since he's so good with the color commentary. Unfortunately, since I didn't plan for this blog back them, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little bigger than I do in my later blogs.
Select/click any image to see it at double (or more) the current size. Select/click on the large image or any part of the darkened area to return to the blog page. Note: Table of contents is now located at the bottom of the page.
We headed straight over to Bristol via US 11 and settled in there for a day of exploration. My companion has to work remotely on many of these days (that's the only way we could do a seven-week adventure), so that limits what he can do on the weekdays. He found a good library and that became his home base, working there as needed and taking breaks out in the downtown of Bristol. Bristol itself is unusual in that it's really two cities: Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia, which have grown together to have a common downtown and a main street (State Street) running along the Tennessee / Virginia state line. Thus, on one side of the street you're in Tennessee, and on the other side of the street you're in Virginia. The library was on the Virginia side, as was the restaurant where we had lunch, so we really spent most of the day in Virginia, but did cross over to see shops on the Tennessee side of State Street. We stayed here until late afternoon then left around four o'clock to head over to Damascus, where we would be staying for three nights.
After looking around at the options for lunch, we settled on this slightly upscale BBQ restaurant located in one of the buildings of the Session Hotel on the Virginia side of State Street. Being a rather hot day, we opted for indoor seating and my companion enjoyed a nice pork sandwich, while I grazed on a side salad.
My companion had always wanted to try duckpin bowling, and lo and behold there was a small entertainment center on the Tennessee side of State Street offering this unusual 'sport'. In duckpin bowling, the balls are smaller than standard bowling balls, the pins are shorter as well, and in the places where we've seen duckpin setups, the automatic setters utilize filaments tied to the tops of the pins to lift them up and set them down neatly in the standard triangular configuration. My companion did two games and found it interestingly unique compared to regular bowling, and surprisingly he didn't do all that bad once he got used to how lightweight the balls are.
Damascus, Virginia
After driving up US 11 to Abingdon, we turned off on US 58 and headed south-east down to the trail town of Damascus, Virginia, just a few miles north of the Virginia / Tennessee state line. Damascus is called a 'trail town' with good reason: it's the intersection of the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the Virginia Creeper trail, so hikers of all sorts come here or stop off here if they are doing long-range hikes. We found an interesting little privately run inn and got a room on the second floor of a freestanding building behind the main house. It wasn't terribly fancy, but we had a private bathroom and a kitchenette, letting us be somewhat independent for the next two days.
Beaver Dam Trail, Damascus, VA
Once we were settled in our room, my companion wanted to check out the tiny little downtown area and get oriented to where the trails come and go. He found one called Beaver Dam Trail and followed it a ways, but was surprised to find that it never really became a true trail – just a walking path alongside a road for most of it's one mile run. Still, it was a nice way to stretch our legs and see more of the town
Subway, Damascus, VA
While we have a kitchenette, my companion didn't feel like prepping a meal after two days of driving and the time spent exploring Bristol and Damascus. So, we had a quick meal at the local Subway, and then went to the local grocery store to pick up some items for lunches the next two days. He loves Subway's BMT sandwich, and I love their raspberry white chocolate chip cookies!
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
We headed straight over to Bristol via US 11 and settled in there for a day of exploration. My companion has to work remotely on many of these days (that's the only way we could do a seven-week adventure), so that limits what he can do on the weekdays. He found a good library and that became his home base, working there as needed and taking breaks out in the downtown of Bristol. Bristol itself is unusual in that it's really two cities: Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia, which have grown together to have a common downtown and a main street (State Street) running along the Tennessee / Virginia state line. Thus, on one side of the street you're in Tennessee, and on the other side of the street you're in Virginia. The library was on the Virginia side, as was the restaurant where we had lunch, so we really spent most of the day in Virginia, but did cross over to see shops on the Tennessee side of State Street. We stayed here until late afternoon then left around four o'clock to head over to Damascus, where we would be staying for three nights.
