GreenVille VA - 2018

We arrived at Stoney Creek Resort and campground here in GreenVille,VA.  Glad you could make it too.  I don't know about you, but we did a bunch of stuff while we were here from 13 - 20 Jul.  Oh...where to start?  I know, let's start from the beginning.
  The main reason we came down here was to do the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It's about 469 miles long and we are setup up to stay at three different campgrounds to complete it.  So what did we do first?  That's right, Shenandoah National Park (not even part of the Blue Ridge parkway).  It's only 105 miles long.  We pretty much just drove and stopped at overlooks to take pictures.  We were also hoping to see wildlife.  We did see deer and birds, but not much else.  Here is the pictures of Shenandoah.
  The next day, we headed into the Blue Ridge Parkway.  One of the things that we noticed in the park was they had a lot of overlooks...or that is what they call them.  We call them places to pull over.  Most of them only overlook the woods that are 10 feet in front of you.  They do have some with views, and others with views if you were 30 feet tall (to see over the overgrowth), but most are just on the side of a hill.  When you do have a great view, there is no place to pull over.  The speed limit is higher in Blue Ridge parkway (45 MPH) than in Shenandoah park (35 MPH).  Except on the sharp turns of course.

So our first hike was at the Humpback Rock,  It was about a 2 miles round trip.  One mile up and mile down.  I don't think there was any flat portion of the trail at all.  At the top, was a bunch of rocks that stick out from the side of the hill.  Terry looked at them from the base of the rocks.  I went to the tips and took a gander.  Here are some pictures of that place, along with some old buildings before the trail started.

Later that day, after some more driving down the Blue Ridge, we headed to town and decided to check out our very first Presidential Library.  It was Woodrow Wilson's Library and Museum in Staunton VA.  When we arrived, they had a tour that was just about to start so we were able to tag along with them.  At the end of the tour, I had to ask what a Presidential Library is.  The answer is it's the whole complex, at least in this case.  Here they had a museum, and the house he lived in and another building which I am not sure what it's used for other than getting the tickets.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of he house, but we were able to snap a few of the museum and outside the complex.  Here are the pictures we took.

Geez, that was a busy two days.  Now time to relax...I mean go do more stuff.  So off to Luray Caverns in Luray VA.  This was a large complex that had a kids museum/playhouse, a car museum, the cavern itself, and a few other things that we were not interested in, but you could do too.  We decided to do the Caverns and the Car Museum.  (Check out the links for the pictures).  The cavern was nothing special even though they say it's the largest cavern in the east (But Mammoth Cave says they are the longest in the world.  Not sure what the difference is.).  The car museum had some interesting cars to include an electric car.

After the Caverns, we had to check out Cooters!  They even had a diner.  So off we go.  When we walked into the diner, it was more like a fast food looking joint, but not with fast service.  The food was good though.  They also had a museum that had pictures and stuff from the show.  What show?  How could you!  It's the "Dukes of Hazards" show.  I guess it was before your time.  Anyway, here are some pictures of it.

After we got our bellies full, we headed to check out some civil war sites.   The first place was called "Virginia Museum of the Civil War (New Market Battlefield)".  It was a good size museum (but aren't they all) with lots of stuff.  This place was also at a battlefield site too.  In fact, there was a farm house that survived the battle.  We were told the people that lived there, hid in the basement during the battle.  What's interesting is we were told later in our adventures that normally the armies (on both sides) would destroy any structures in their path so the enemy wouldn't be able to use them.  Anyway, I took a picture of the battlefield (the green pasture, and I couldn't see any dead bodies.) and of the house and museum too.  Here are the pictures.

Just before you get to the Virginia Museum, there was another museum called "New Market Battlefield Military Museum".  This museum had some items I never seen before also.  I took a lot of pictures of this museum also, but i cannot put them out on the site.  they said I couldn't post them on social media, so if you would like to see them, let me know and I will send you a link to them.

The next day we headed to Monticello.  This was Thomas Jefferson's house.  He was all about gadgets.  In fact he had a clock that would also tell you what day of the week it was.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the house, so you will just have to go visit it yourself to see some of the cool gadgets he had.  We did get pictures of the house and basement though, along with some out buildings.  Nice place and the tour was good too. When we were in the gift shop we saw a candle Putter-outer.  I guess the rich couldn't just blow out candles like us common folk.  Maybe when you go, it won't be raining like it was for us.  Of course, everywhere we went this summer rained on us.  Good thing we invested in really good raincoats. I also took a picture of a cemetery for the Slaves.  Can you believe they didn't even get a headstone!

After we left the Jefferson's shack, we saw a brown sign that said "First Colony Winery".  So off we go to get some old grapes...or NOT!.  They just named it that a couple of years ago.  Go figure.  Anyway, Terry said the wine was yummy.

The next day it was off to the Blue Ridge Parkway again.  But first, we had to do a hike in Shenandoah National Park...South River Falls.  Terry said it was an easy 2 mile hike...5 miles later, we finally reached our truck again.  We did walk on the Appalachian trail for a little bit.  In fact we met a guy that was walking it since April starting in Georgia.  He said he did about 900 miles or so, so far.

Fallingwater Cascades (see a trend?) was the next hike (in Blue Ridge Parkway) with a stop in between to "Battery Creek Lock" where they used to move freight from a river to a town.  It was in use from 1851 - 1880.  Here are the pictures for the South River Falls, Fallingwater Cascades, and Battery Creek Locks.



Well that is it from this location.  Next stop Chantilly Farms Campground in Floyd VA.  Come along and take a nap...I will.