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 after-the-fact, 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 when I was doing the trip, my pictures are limited to the major attractions, but I'll try to make those galleries a little larger than I do in my later blogs.
Select/click any image to see it at double (or more) the current size. While viewing a large image, use the left and right arrow keys to view other images on this page. Select/click on the large image or any part of the darkened area, or press 'Escape', to return to the blog page. Note: Table of contents is now located at the bottom of the page.
One of the biggest draws of the Dillard House property is its unique restaurant. It's not an all-you-care-to-eat restaurant, but the kind of place where they bring out a full southern meal in serving dishes and place it on the table for everyone to enjoy family style. There's plenty to go around and no one ever leaves hungry. We had lunch here and almost didn't need dinner later ... well, almost. The second picture below is the view from the front of the restaurant – even after all of those spectacular Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Mountain views we got to see, this one's pretty darn good, too.
A separate business housed on the Dillard House grounds, the Dillard House Stables offers a variety of horseback rides, available to those staying on the property and outside guests. While I rested up in the room, my companion went on a one-and-a-half hour ride, which goes down into and through a river for a ways, the water getting up to the horses' bellies. He says it was quite an experience and that his guide was very personable with some interesting stories. Most of the pictures below are of the horses that were on their rest break, none of which were used on my companion's ride. The second to last picture is of his horse from atop it, and the last picture is of his guide (again, looking out from atop my companion's horse.)
Feeling a little peckish late in the day, we ended up walking down to the Valley Cafe, which is housed in an old bank building, which means of course they still have the old vault for guests to peek into (and which is most appropriately being used to securely store the wine bottles). We got a simple soup and salad dinner then walked back to the Dillard House property to sit outside and enjoy the last evening of our huge seven-week adventure.
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!
All original content ©2025 Kevin Pittman and may not be reused without permission