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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Clifton Forge is a railroad town going back over a century, and today hosts the C&O Railroad Heritage Museum. Now, there were a lot of railroad companies back in the day, and many probably have history centers. So what makes the C&O special amongst them? Chessie: the railway kitten. Yes, if you lived in the mid-Atlantic states between the early 1900s and the 1970s, you probably heard about Chessie, the mascot of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) railroad. Born from a wood engraving of a sleeping kitten spotted in a store by a C&O exec, Chessie turned into arguably the biggest railroad mascot ever with her slogan of "Sleep like a kitten." The heritage center has an unbelievable array of Chessie memorabilia, but then again she was featured on everything imaginable from consumer merchandise to products used exclusively on the trains and in stations and offices. Of course, there's much more to the C&O than just its mascot, and to that end there's all sorts of railway memorabilia including a number of rolling stock on the rails outside (that's train cars for you everyday people). A great stop for any train enthusiast, we spent our entire lunch break here enjoying the history.
Clifton Forge, VA
Clifton Forge is far from dead, but its not a thriving as it was in past decades. There's still some active stores downtown, including an Ace Hardware that spans the ground floors of about five buildings, but there's a lot of vacant spaces as well. My companion visited here regularly in his youth when his grandparents were alive, and remembers when there was more life to downtown, but on the upside the town is slowly trying to revive itself, and he wishes them the best of luck. One of the interesting quirks about the town is that it's built over a stream, so much of the core Main Street area is actually bridge decking, which becomes apparent when you get off to the side and discover areas like the one pictured below.
We had pizza and salad for dinner tonight at a local place called Michael's in downtown. The food was good and filling, so we didn't have room for dessert, but maybe the next time we're in town we can try the cheesecake.
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!
Clifton Forge is a railroad town going back over a century, and today hosts the C&O Railroad Heritage Museum. Now, there were a lot of railroad companies back in the day, and many probably have history centers. So what makes the C&O special amongst them? Chessie: the railway kitten. Yes, if you lived in the mid-Atlantic states between the early 1900s and the 1970s, you probably heard about Chessie, the mascot of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) railroad. Born from a wood engraving of a sleeping kitten spotted in a store by a C&O exec, Chessie turned into arguably the biggest railroad mascot ever with her slogan of "Sleep like a kitten." The heritage center has an unbelievable array of Chessie memorabilia, but then again she was featured on everything imaginable from consumer merchandise to products used exclusively on the trains and in stations and offices. Of course, there's much more to the C&O than just its mascot, and to that end there's all sorts of railway memorabilia including a number of rolling stock on the rails outside (that's train cars for you everyday people). A great stop for any train enthusiast, we spent our entire lunch break here enjoying the history.
