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.
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Our accommodations for the past two nights were at the Babcock House, which is a little more commonplace in having six or seven rooms. We had one upstairs near the front of the house, and while the floor was a little creaky, and the TV set rather small by modern day standards, it was otherwise a comfortable room. The parlor downstairs was lovely and had a nice period feel, but we spent most of our free time on the front porch, as my companion loves a good porch swing on a pleasantly mild night. That said, my companion did take the time to work a wooden jigsaw puzzle they had available in the parlor – one featuring a nice winter scene with a reindeer, penguins, and a snowman. Maybe not the right season for that theme, but it's the nice, cold thoughts that count when it's in the upper nineties outside every day.
Amherst Library, Amherst, VA
After breakfast at the Babcock Inn, we checked out and began our journey north to Staunton, which took us back towards Lynchburg and up US 29 to the little town of Amherst, which like with Appomattox is also the name of the county that the city lies within. My companion worked in the library until about 2:30 PM and then we went over to a restaurant he saw that just sounded too interesting not to try, even though it was a bit early for our next meal.
Being from the 'deep south', we're quite familiar with the Joel Chandler Harris' tales of Uncle Remus, in which the locale of the 'briar patch' comes up several times, particularly with regards to the famous character B'rer Rabbit. So, it's always interesting to stop in any place named "The Briar Patch" and see if they're playing up to those stories or just picked the name for unrelated reasons. This place seemed to be the latter, but it was a very charming restaurant and we enjoyed a wonderful pasta primavera – so good that we took the rest with us (it was a huge serving). We weren't sure whether it would keep all the way to Staunton, but we just had to try.
Blue Ridge Parkway, US 60 Buena Vista to VA 56 Montebello
We're planning a full run down the Blue Ridge Parkway to finish off our seven week trip next month, but since we were in the area, we got a preview of the parkway by taking it for about twenty miles. The views are always breathtaking on the parkway, and it was a little hard getting off it so quickly, but we knew we'd been seeing a lot more of it in just a few weeks.
Staunton, VA
We arrived in Staunton in the late afternoon, and after checking into our hotel and letting my companion catch up on his work, we found our way into downtown and looked around to get our bearings. We'll be here for three nights, so we'll really get a good look at things tomorrow when the regular businesses are open, but right away we could tell this is no dead town at all. The vast majority of spaces are filled and we saw plenty of people out and about even after five o'clock. From what we've heard and seen, this town has become popular with the younger set, especially artistic types, helping to keep it vibrant. (Think of it as the Virginian equivalent to Austin, Texas.) After looking around for a good while, we went back to the hotel and had a light snack, then went looking for a good park and found the Montgomery Hill Park, which had great views and some cozy places to curl up with a good book. I'm sure we'll be back here the next two evenings, no doubt.
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!
Our accommodations for the past two nights were at the Babcock House, which is a little more commonplace in having six or seven rooms. We had one upstairs near the front of the house, and while the floor was a little creaky, and the TV set rather small by modern day standards, it was otherwise a comfortable room. The parlor downstairs was lovely and had a nice period feel, but we spent most of our free time on the front porch, as my companion loves a good porch swing on a pleasantly mild night. That said, my companion did take the time to work a wooden jigsaw puzzle they had available in the parlor – one featuring a nice winter scene with a reindeer, penguins, and a snowman. Maybe not the right season for that theme, but it's the nice, cold thoughts that count when it's in the upper nineties outside every day.
