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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This morning we left Staunton, circling around the southwest part of the city and then heading west on US 250. Rather than focus on a city or town today, we were enjoying the journey on the way to our next multi-day destination.
On the eastern side of the Washington and Jefferson Forests that US 250 passes through is a small day-use area built around Braley Pond. We followed the signs out to the parking area, from which you can see the pond, and then did the roughly one mile walk around it to stretch our legs. A nice quiet and peaceful area, albeit the trail was a little challenging to follow at times.
Nestled in the peaks of the Washington and Jefferson Forests is this small site that provides a look into history exploring a civil war unit that fought in this area. The short loop trail has a series of informational signs that tell the story of one soldier's experiences in the war, many of which are quite sobering.
Up in the Blue Ridge mountains at the intersection of US 250 and US 220, about ten miles from the West Virginia state line, is the quaint mountain town of Monterey. With a population of less than two hundred, this is definitely small town America, but the views are breathtaking, and made even more so by the simplicity of the town, which doesn't even have a traffic signal: just flashing warning lights at the intersection of the two highways in the middle of town. After we had lunch at the Curly Maple, we walked around and got lots of pictures before heading south on US 220.
Built out in what looked to have once been a true general store, and still selling a small selection of merchandise in the front, the Curly Maple restaurant serves breakfast and lunch five days a week. We got a Belgian waffle (this one the more common Americanized kind) with a side of eggs for my companion. The waffle was great and it was fun to have our meal in this old fashioned atmosphere.
We didn't stop along US 220 at all other than to get gas, but you can't go down US 220 from Monterey to Covington without seeing the Homestead Resort: US 220 literally wraps around the resort on the western side of the property. We didn't stop on this trip, but my companion has gone in and walked around briefly once in the past. It's definitely a high end resort, a bit too fancy for our modest tastes.
After we reached our lodgings in Clifton Forge, VA and settled in, we ventured back towards Covington to Penny's Diner, built next to a motel that caters to the railroad personnel who still come and go through the area (Clifton Forge and Covington are both along the classic C&O rail line, which still carries freight on a daily basis as well as AMTRAK trains.) Penny's is built in a replica of one of the classic silver diners with the shiny polished metal exterior. The food was not bad – about what you'd expect for a 24/7 diner. My companion had the fish dinner with a side salad for me, and then we headed back only to have to stop and watch a family of skunks cross the road. Okay, I'll have to admit, I've never given much thought to skunk families, but they do have families like the rest of us, and the little ones were rather cute in their own sort of way.
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!
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