Friday a.m. August 22 - Staunton, VA

Today, we head north into Pennsylvania. Not sure where we’ll end up but expect to spend several days in the south-central part so Margaret can do some exploring and possibly some genealogical work.

Yesterday, Thursday, we spent the morning in Staunton, VA. I knew nothing about it before yesterday. Turned out to be quite an interesting place. Among other facts, it was the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, 28th President; Mary Baldwin College; and the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. The town was incorporated in 1871. From the paintings and pictures in store fronts, it appears much of town hasn’t changed in the 137 years. And that’s not a slap, it was quite picturesque and quaint.

We visited the Sun Spots glass blowing gallery and watched the gentlemen make “watering orbs”. I’m not sure that’s the exact title, but you’ve seem them on TV – you fill the orb with water, then invert it in your potted plant and it delivers the “appropriate” amount of water over time.

After strolling Beverly Street (one of the main drags) and waiting for Margaret to do the requisite antique shop crawl, we had a bite at the Coffee on the Corner. Actually there were several good looking restaurants in town but we weren’t that hungry (late breakfast).

I’ve included a couple of photos of the more interesting buildings along Beverly Street. I don’t know if it will show up in the photo, but the owners / residents have a flair for unusual colors in paint.

After lunch we drove west (almost to West Virginia) through the George Washington National Forest – quite pretty. This part of the country hasn’t had a lot of rain this summer so most of the creeks and streams were dry.

The elevation here is about 1,500 feet above sea-level. So we have been blessed with cool evening and mild day. Most of the day time, it is in the mid 70’s and evenings are in the upper 50’s. A far cry from the 90+ days in Florida (and elsewhere in the US of A). Our RV park neighbors are from Destin, FL, and plan to return here for a 3-month stay next year. There is certainly a lot to see in the area; but not sure I’d want or need three months.

In retrospect, I had a writer’s block this morning. Nothing I typed in sounded very good (of course, that may happen more often than I realize!). But in the interest of getting this out, I’ll go with it.

A side note. I’m not sure why, but there are more motorcycles on the road than I remember from past years. Is it the fuel crunch, shorter trips in the East thus more cycles, or is it my memory fading? While we were having lunch on the Blue Ridge Parkway three days ago, I watched an older gentleman getting ready to mount his Harley (they all have Harley’s). The MACHO guys tie a bandana. He had a ready-made skull cap that looked like a tied-bandana. Isn’t that cheating?