Saturday, October 25, 2014
We are currently at Rocky
Knob campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway, about 10 miles from Floyd, VA.
Floyd has one stop light and
a whole lot of energy. For a small town,
they are packed with restaurants and shops.
They take their tourism seriously.
A park worker at Peaks of Otter visitor center recommended we stop in
Floyd and she knew what she was talking about.
Live music abounds Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the shops and
restaurants. We went in for lunch on
Saturday and hit the farmer’s market, where I scored allergy friendly focaccia,
bread and muffins! Steve shopped at the
century old hardware store and visited the local computer museum.
At the General Store, I had
Brunswick stew and cornbread, both allergy friendly. It was wonderful! Steve had tomato soup, homemade bread and
pumpkin pie. He said they were good,
too.
We did manage leave
Baltimore on Thursday, October 16, and have been traveling the Blue Ridge
Mountains ever since. On our way to
Winchester, VA, to have our hot water heater replaced at Camping World, we
stopped at Harper’s Ferry. I had never
been and our one hour visit wasn’t enough, so we planned to go back the next
day.
We found a campground in
Winchester that could take us for three nights.
This is leaf peeping season and campgrounds over the weekends get
booked. There was also a civil war
re-enactment going on nearby, but the campground managed to find us a spot for
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Luckily,
the campground manager is very good at directing you to back in, as the spots
were tight. But we had what we needed.
Friday we drove back to
Harper’s Ferry and spent the day. I
think Harper’s Ferry is best known for John Brown’s raid on the federal armory
at Harper’s Ferry. He was an
abolitionist and wanted to arm the slaves.
He was captured, tried for treason and hung. This was in 1859 and was one of many things
that precipitated the Civil War. I
remembered something about John Brown’s raid and that it took place at Harper’s
Ferry, but I could never remember if John Brown supported the North or
South. Now I know.
What I didn’t know (or at
least remember) was that there was federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, proposed
by George Washington. Harper’s Ferry is
located where the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac River, making
transportation easier (although nothing was easy in those days). Because of the gap in the Blue Ridge mountains
created by the rivers, it was a passage way to what was then the west.
Robert Harper acquired land there in 1734. He established the ferry in 1764. Jefferson visited in 1783 and climbed part
way up the mountains to view the scenery.
The rock he apparently stood on is now called Jefferson’s Rock and is on
the Appalachian Trail. You can’t stand
where he stood, because some of the rock has fallen and is unstable. But I climbed up to it, along with Steve and
Obi. (Steve carried Obi.) So I’ve walked in Jefferson’s footsteps and
on the Appalachian Trail.
Walk up to Jefferson’s Rock
Jefferson’s Rock
View from Jefferson’s Rock
Graffiti on Jefferson’s Rock
Washington visited Harper’s
Ferry in 1784 and several members of his extended family settled in the area in
later years. After the armory was built,
it produced most of the guns used by the army, along with an armory in
Massachusetts. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis
outfitted most of his expedition here.
He met up with Clark near Louisville, KY.
In spite of many floods and
the passing of time, there are still a number of 200 year old buildings in
Harper’s Ferry and it is an active town as well. I always spare a few sympathetic thoughts for
the current day residents of historic areas, as they have to deal with all us
tourists on a daily basis.
We found a nice place to eat
in an old rail car across from the railroad station. They had an outdoor seating area, so Obi sat
under the table and the waitress brought him some water. Steve went on a ranger led tour later while
Obi and I enjoyed the scenery and chatted with some other guests. One recommended that while we’re in Texas, we
try to stay at the Lost Alaskan RV Park near Big Bend National Park. It’s supposed to be really nice and we’ll get
advice for our Alaskan trip.
On Saturday, we headed for
Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
Being the middle of October, the colors were just beautiful. The vistas were lovely, and all the restrooms
crowded! All of the campgrounds were full.
If I had thought about it, we would have
done the drive on Friday, when most people would still be at work and done
Harper’s Ferry on Saturday. But after
the first couple of overlooks, we could usually park and enjoy the view when we
wanted. The traffic wasn’t that bad, but
all of the ranger stations, restaurants (and there are several), and restrooms
were crowded.
I had packed a lunch, so we
ate in the truck. We were going to
picnic, but it was quite breezy and chilly.
We weren’t pulling the trailer, as there is one tunnel too low for it
and the road is pretty twisty. That
meant we had to drive back to our starting place, but we used I81 for
that. However, we ended up 9 hours on
the road that day, which is way too much.
But the scenery was worth it.
Sunday was moving day and we
packed up the rig and headed for Lexington, VA.
Actually, the campground’s address was Natural Bridge, VA. We could have tried to stay in one of the
campgrounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway (our next destination) but Steve needed
to attend a meeting by phone on Monday and it was time to do laundry. So we headed for a KOA. Laundromat, cell phone service, dump the
tanks, refill the propane and the satellite tv worked. What more can you ask for? And we had a decent view out the back window.
Chores complete, we checked
out of the KOA (KOA stands for Kampgrounds of America and is a franchise
operation; very family oriented). I
didn’t have a great impression of KOA’s when we started this journey, but they
are clean and well kept and have almost everything you need.
We headed for the Blue Ridge
Parkway, which starts where Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park ends and
continues down the Blue Ridge until it reaches Smokey Mountain National
Park. By pure luck, we are here at peak
leaf peeping season and it is spectacular.
The pictures don’t do it justice.
Our first campground is
Peaks of Otter campground, $8 a night with senior discount (love it!). We stay 2 nights, driving up to the James
River visitor center and checking out the canal and locks there. They are no longer in use. At the visitor center in Peaks of Otter, a
ranger takes us on a walk up the mountain to an old graveyard. Some of the original settlers of the valley
are buried here and the graves go back to the very early 1800’s. It’s a very rough graveyard and needs to have
some work done or it will slip under the forest floor and disappear.
View out our window at Peaks
of Otter campground.
The valley our campground is
in was a route through the mountains for early settlers and later a tourist
destination both for the scenery and to escape the heat of the lowlands. I’m glad Franklin Roosevelt established the
parkway and provided funds and workers for it.
WPA (Works Progress Administration) and the CCC (Civilian Conservation
Corps) provided much of the labor. These
were government entities used to employ people during the depression. Without these two organizations, much of the
National Park system would be totally undeveloped.
Yesterday (Friday) we headed
for the campground we are in now, Rocky Knob.
The campgrounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway have no hookups, but do have
picnic tables, fire rings and most have restrooms and dump stations. We are running off batteries and solar. But tomorrow we head for another KOA, just
off the Parkway. We need propane and it
will be nice to have electricity, even if only for one night.
View from our picnic table
at Rocky Knob
Being on the Parkway, our
cell and Internet service have been very spotty. I don’t mind.
It’s a small price to pay to enjoy the beauty surrounding us. We try to get satellite radio occasionally
during the day to keep up with the news and when we do have cell service, email
loads to Steve’s phone so we can keep up with our friends and families.
My mom seems to be settling
into the nursing home and has good days and bad days. But she walks a lot in the mornings (with an
attendant) and I think sleeps better at night for that. And when she does have a bad day, the staff
takes good care of her. Dad, Joe, Lisa,
and their daughters visit her regularly and she usually knows them or is
asleep. Dad still has his aches and
pains, but is getting much better sleep.
Obi is coping with his
blindness. I think he may have a little
vision left, but not much. Here he is in
his bed in the trailer.
And Maria is enjoying the fall season!
Deb
