We woke this morning in Natural Chimneys Park near Mt. Solon, VA. There was absolutely no noise last night, unlike our former lodgings down in Buchanan at Middle Creek. We got to watch the fireflies turn our camp spot into a tiny light show last night. We felt we were prepared for some more exploration today so we took off for a cruise into Mt. Solon, a nearby community with some great old houses.
We also were on a quest to get some propane for our onboard system in our trailer so we started looking for propane vendors on the phone and found that although there are many outlets that allege they sell the stinky gas, virtually none around Mt. Solon actually do. We finally settled on a Tractor Supply store in Staunton, about 20 miles from Natural Chimneys. We got the cylinder mostly filled due to Tractor Supply’s policy of not filling cylinders to capacity. For some reason, they will only put 27 pounds into a 30 pound cylinder.
Since we were so close to Staunton, we decided to give it a sniff and ended up being delighted with our decision. Staunton is a very old town and the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson. It also is the location of an amazing number of fantastic buildings, both municipal and residential. There are some colleges here, including Stuart Hall which was the first college for women in the South. Unfortunately for photograph seekers, Staunton also has a form of rural electrification that results in irregular webs of conductors obscuring almost every angle available for photos. Today’s photos are a testament to the thorough coverage of phone and electrical conductors that fill every view of the beautiful structures.
On the way back home this afternoon, we spotted a five-legged horse that looked like it was made from papyrus reeds and a very comfortable bunny lurking under our trailer.
We took some photos of the great stuff around Mt. Solon and Staunton. To see ’em, click here

We were delighted to leave Middle Creek today. We were pretty disappointed with this facility and the round-the-clock noise from high-speed traffic. Unfortunately, on the way out we again had to navigate through the seven miles of low branches over the road and untrimmed roadside shrubbery that extended their nasty branches out to seize the downspouts and air conditioner enclosures on our trailer. We made it to I-81 without any cheesy plastic damage.
We headed north on I-81 for a pretty drive through Virginia countryside, passing Roanoke and skirting Staunton on our way to Natural Chimneys Park, an Augusta County park near Mt. Solon. The roads between the interstate and the park are skinny and challenging, particularly when oncoming traffic shows up. We went real slow and soon arrived at what turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous facility with massive lawns and lots of shade trees. There are fireflies here. They rise from the gigantic lawn in the evening, right about dusk. I know I shouldn’t be fascinated with bioluminescent bugs but I am. They seem almost magical; tiny meteors rising from the ground and heading up through the trees.
To see some of these little flying things, click here

Yesterday Peggy was feeling a little under the weather so we hung around the trailer all day while allergens had fun with Peg’s sinuses. Today, however, her ailments were down to a manageable level so we went exploring. We fiddled around a little in the town of Buchanan which has some nice houses with gorgeous architecture and got some fuel before heading up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our quest for today was to cruise from where we are at about milepost 90 southwest down to Smart View at milepost 155, the furthest north we had gone from Fancy Gap. The road from Buchanan to the Parkway is short but very twisty and there are no straight sections because the road follows a creek. In about 5 miles we went up nearly 1300 feet.
As expected, the scenery along the way was terrific. On the southeast side of the Parkway we could look 1500 or 2000 feet down into Virginia. On the northwest side, we could peer down into the Great Valley which runs all the way from northern Alabama to Washington, D.C. I-81 now runs down the center of the valley. There are flowers everywhere, even in the massive rhodies and Mimosa trees. Crepe Myrtles also contribute to the riot of flowers. We spotted many ground hogs and quite a few deer in addition to a myriad of colorful songbirds.
Once we got to Smart View, we reversed course for about 3 miles and then dropped off the Blue Ridge into south central Virginia for some failed dead reckoning form of navigation. Along the way, we did find the Booker T. Washington National Monument where Booker was born into slavery. He fooled everyone and became a leader for his people, despite whitey’s efforts to hold him back.
Due to the nature of Virginia roads, it is very difficult to go anywhere because the roads are almost circular while being serpentine. To go east, one must travel almost every direction except east to get to the destination. For quite some time, I was not entirely sure where we were because our GPS unit, our road atlas and Virginia highway signs all refer to roads by different designations. We ultimately made it back home but I’ll be damned if I could tell you how we did it.
We took a few photos along the way. To see them, click here

Today was a travel day. We left the cute Fancy Gap Cabins and Campground and headed northeast. Fancy Gap Campground was pretty nice with full hookups, wifi, good scenery and great satellite reception. Unfortunately, the RV spots are pretty tight and can be challenging to back into, particularly by the backing handicapped, like me. The ground is steep near the RV spaces and many a spare tire dragged in the gravel as some folks departed.
The drive to our next destination was fairly mundane because we used the Interstate system for almost the whole trip. We took I-77 to I-81, exiting the freeway near the town of Buchanan. We then took some skinny back roads to Middle Creek Campground. It was a nice drive but an abundance of the trees shading the roads we took haven’t been trimmed in a while and we did a lot of dodging of low overhanging limbs and roadside brush. We put a new downspout on the trailer’s rear right corner at Fancy Gap and we were hoping it would remain in place for more than one day.
When we finally got to Middle Creek, we were only moderately disappointed. We were assigned a space that was only partially occupied by a dentally-challenged hillbilly and his spherical date and, although the camp staff directed the shit kicker to move his stuff into one space, they didn’t hang around to see if he would comply. When I attempted to communicate with the idiot, he became argumentative and it was easier for us to just let him encroach into our space. It rained cats and dogs later in the day and I hope he and his hideous mate spent a nice, wet evening in his tent. There are no sewer hookups at the sites and the dump station is inaccessible for everyone except circus contortionists.
The camp staff doesn’t do much of a job maintaining order here. There are loud dirt bikes doing wheelies on the road in front of our space. Nobody conforms to the 5 mph park speed limit, choosing to do about 30 instead. I hope nobody gets squished. The quiet hours of 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM are anything but quiet with strange noises being heard throughout the night.

We got a slow start this morning, maybe because we knew we would be spending the day on maintenance. We did some caulking work on the trailer, I fiddled around with the truck some and I dumped the waste tanks.
When we returned from our drive yesterday, we noted there was a large tree limb squatting on our trailer roof. Peggy got up on the ladder and broomed the limb off the roof. The strange thing about the limb was that it fell onto our roof when we were in Lenoir, NC, a few days ago but managed to remain there despite us pulling the trailer around about a thousand corners and up 2000 feet in elevation. Weird.

We slid out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway again today, this time going south. We started out at Fancy Gap Cabins and Campground where we are currently set up and headed for the North Carolina border. There are tons of flowers along the roads and the rhododendrons are in bloom. Our first stop was at the Blue Ridge Music Center where I had an emergency loaf pinch and Peggy picked up some CDs of local hillbilly music. I felt much better but I haven’t heard the music yet.
A few miles further south, we turned off on a side road and headed for the town of Galax which I seem to remember as a planet in the old Superman comics. It turned out to be a nice, small city with some gorgeous architecture, particularly the residential construction. There is also quite a bit of Americana and yard art strewn about the area. We even found a Borg. We also passed a house called the J. Sidna Allen house which was the home of a early 20th Century lunatic who shot off a cop’s finger and then was involved in a massive shootout at the courthouse when he did not agree with the length of his sentence. Four people were killed, nineteen wounded. Bullet holes can still be found in the walls of the courthouse. J.Sidna escaped for a while but he and his son were ultimately electrocuted for being bad. The local historical society got possession of the house recently and promptly built a foundation beneath it since the house was originally built directly on the dirt.
We returned pretty early in the day to replace one of our trailer downspouts and, as usual, I substantially underestimated the amount of time it would take to finish all the work. We finished up around 7:30, just in time to notice the other rear corner of our trailer needed to have some work done on it before it got ugly. I suspect we will finish the work tomorrow but, considering my recent labor estimates, don’t bet on it.
To see today’s pix, click here

Huzzah! Today we returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway for some exploration in Virginia. We both enjoy the great views and nice drive available on this great highway. It seems to be my favorite road to drive in America.
We pretty effectively covered the North Carolina portion of the Parkway when we passed through this part of the world in 2015. This time, it is our intent to finish up the Virginia portion when we get to the Shenandoah Valley in a week or two.
Our first foray was to initially travel a bit south until we got to the North Carolina border where we turned around and started north. Before we were done today, we had traveled as far north as a place called Smart View. We passed a grist mill at Mabree’s Mill which apparently does something with grist. I am not really sure what grist is but if I stop at the mill I can probably find out.
As hoped, the road is great to drive since the maximum speed limit is 45 mph and the scenery alongside the road is breathtaking. We spotted bluebirds and turkeys, deer and butterflies in abundance. The roadside flowers are showing a riot of color. The views from the frequent overlooks into North Carolina are magnificent. Views into Virginia ain’t bad, either.
We turned around at Smart View which is at about milepost 155. We are camped at milepost 202 so, including our little southbound portion, we covered about 120 miles today, all of it spectacular. This great road is truly an American treasure.
We got a few pictures. Click here

Today was a travel day so we quickly folded our tents and beat it out of Green Mountain Park and its cramped RV space layout, ridiculously expensive wifi and early morning army of riding mowers and gas-powered line trimmers that descend from parts unknown to cut the tiny fraction of space occupied by lawn. It was certainly buzzing around there this morning.
We jumped onto pretty, mostly one lane each way rural roads eastbound through North Carolina until we got to I-77 where we headed north toward the border. We passed Mount Airy, alleged Mayberry of TV fame, again. The last time we came by this area was during our southbound trip from Tennessee a couple weeks back.
Right past Mount Airy, we crossed into Virginia and immediately started to climb up to the Blue Ridge. There is a six or seven mile stretch where we encountered semis creeping along in the slow lane but our F-250 seemed to have plenty of power because we passed almost all of them despite pulling a six ton trailer behind us. At the top of the hill, we turned off I-77 and drove a circuitous course until finding the Fancy Gap Motel and RV Park directly on the Blue Ridge Parkway where we pulled in and set up. It is cooler and the humidity is lower here, keeping us from being fricasseed during set up. We will go for a drive on the Parkway tomorrow. We have seen all of the Parkway in North Carolina but none of it in Virginia and, since I consider this the best road for scenery in the U.S., I can hardly wait.
The sunset is superb here. Click here

We spent today recuperating from the last 12 days of being with other adults and having to be nice. In my dotage, I have found that I am actually quite a prick when presented with anything different than my daily rituals like Irish Cream in my morning coffee, dissing or ignoring anyone else’s concepts other than those of my beloved spouse, going wherever I want on my schedule, not doing anything anybody else wants me to do (other than Peggy), being close to restrooms almost all the time and having my comfortable chair in which I recline. I have really turned into an anti-social butthead but I don’t particularly care. Crotchety is my middle name when outsiders present me with anything new or different. I am bad. I have many character flaws and personality disorders which suit me fine.
Our agenda for today is to dump the waste tanks, take the garbage from the trailer to the dumpster and to drive into town to get fuel so we can continue our explorations tomorrow. Ambitious, eh?

Today was another travel day and we were now headed, hopefully, in a direction that will eventually result in our being camped in an environment where normal humans are not barbecued by torrid temperatures and numbing humidity. Happily for us, we have spent most of the last couple days in Gary’s and D’Ann’s spacious but, more importantly, air conditioned house so we were able to substantially dodge the miserable environmental conditions.
Gary and D’Ann have fed and entertained us for the last few days and we have little to complain about. I did have some cauliflower ricey stuff that I thought had the consistency and flavor of chunky nothing but, otherwise, the Paleo food D’Ann provided was very tasty and we are delighted to have been wined and dined in royal fashion. Unfortunately, I was stupid when I thought I should go to South Carolina in the summer without making provision for power adequate to run our trailer’s air conditioning because it got pretty toasty in the trailer during the day and did not cool off much at night. There was some sweaty slumber.
Today’s drive took us exclusively on rural roads and it was quite beautiful along the way. Not long after leaving Greer, we crossed back into North Carolina where we drove on some more rural roads before arriving in the town of Lenoir, which the locals pronounce as “Lenore.” We pulled into the Green Mountain Park Resort which is a Thousand Trails facility so we get to stay for free. The park is located in the bottom of a skinny canyon and the spaces are tiny but they have nice decks, full hookups and plenty of shade which, along with our moving away from the equator, should help alleviate the miserable temperatures. As it turned out, we arrived when it was 92 degrees outside and my theory about moving north to avoid horrible temperatures may be in tatters. We do have a 50 amp electric connection and our air conditioning works very well so sleeping might be a bit better tonight than it has been the last few days.
Peg snapped a few shots along the way and you can see them if you click here