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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My companion had visited this place a decade ago and wanted to see it again. It's a mostly outdoor museum, though it has a small indoor collection at the visitor's center. The outdoor part is two collections of buildings carefully relocated to one large plot of land. The first collection has houses from the colonial era, representing the origins of the many people who colonized Virginia: English, Welsh, Irish, and African amongst others. The second collection represents farm and rural life throughout the 1800s. Most if not all of the houses are open for self-guided tours, with costumed docents available to answer questions and demonstrate common daily tasks. There's a handful of animals, too, including a number of cats (kept then and now to help keep down the rodent population. At the end of the journey is a pretty cool large, octagonal barn, though it's used for group events and thus not open for general viewing inside.
Factory Antique Mall, Verona, VA
We saw this place advertized in one of those giant brochure racks at the hotel. It claims to be the largest antique mall in the country, and on that claim it did not disappoint. Give yourself about three hours if you visit, because you'll need it: this place really is the size of a small enclosed shopping mall. My companion managed to find a handful of things that he probably didn't need, but he at least got a few books to read, which is always money well spent IMHO.
Harrisonburg, VA
After the antique mall, we drove up US 11 to Harrisonburg, intending to get a quick look around downtown, only something was going on downtown, so you couldn't get close to it. We turned off to the east and ended up at the Valley Mall where we browsed around a little, mostly in the Books-a-Million. The mall had some vacancies, but was at least kept up nicely and had a reasonable number of recognizable stores and anchors.
What did I tell you? Yep, we went back to Kline's for another Carolina BBQ, this time with onion rings for me, and then we decided to try the butterscotch sundae. Not quite as good as the strawberry shortcake, but it's hard for anything to live up to "heavenly".
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!
My companion had visited this place a decade ago and wanted to see it again. It's a mostly outdoor museum, though it has a small indoor collection at the visitor's center. The outdoor part is two collections of buildings carefully relocated to one large plot of land. The first collection has houses from the colonial era, representing the origins of the many people who colonized Virginia: English, Welsh, Irish, and African amongst others. The second collection represents farm and rural life throughout the 1800s. Most if not all of the houses are open for self-guided tours, with costumed docents available to answer questions and demonstrate common daily tasks. There's a handful of animals, too, including a number of cats (kept then and now to help keep down the rodent population. At the end of the journey is a pretty cool large, octagonal barn, though it's used for group events and thus not open for general viewing inside.