Today was a travel day. We will certainly go back to Natural Chimneys County Park if we are back in this part of the world. The campground is located in a gorgeous pasture, there are big stone chimneys there, the campground hostess was a sweetheart, the roads are pretty good, there are fireflies every evening and the utilities worked very well. There are no sewer hookups or wifi but we can do without those amenities since the scenery is so stunning.
Right before we left, there was a parade of tractors, bicycles, kiddie cars and flags through the park. Although the parade probably had something to do with the upcoming 4th of July holiday, we like to think it was for us. We dumped the tanks and boogied right after the parade. We drove on some razor-thin rural roads for a while but eventually got back on I-81 northbound and stayed on it to the town of Winchester about 15 miles from West Virginia, 40 miles from Maryland and maybe 60 miles from Pennsylvania.
We pulled into Candy Hill Campground in Winchester. It ain’t cheap but it is very nice with full hookups, shady sites, full amenities including good wifi, a pool and an ample laundry. When we called to get our reservation at this park, the unfortunate on the phone was cranky and miserable but onsite staff were great, guiding us right to our RV spot. There must be something terrific around here because the park was full of campers and geezers like us. It was also hotter than hell with temperatures in the millions and humidity in the high double digits. Fortunately, our air conditioning works well.
Check out the parade. Click here

Today we were able to spend our entire day on fun stuff. Before leaving Natural Chimneys County Park we figured we should actually get a look at the Natural Chimneys. They are not actually chimneys but are hoodoos or tall eroded pillars of limestone jutting up out of the pasture where we are camped. They are nice but they ain’t Bryce Canyon.
We headed up I-81 to a place called Front Royal which is the location of the northern terminus of Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive runs along the ridge on the mountain range east of the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley. This road is basically an extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway which we have followed all the way across Virginia and it runs 108 miles from Waynesboro to Front Royal. Skyline Drive is also the main access road through Shenandoah National Park.
We picked a pretty good day because the weather was mostly clear. Last time we were here, in 2015, Skyline Drive was completely fogged in so we mostly saw the trunks of trees and ashlar masonry guard walls along the pavement. Today we were treated to some great views over the Shenandoah Valley a couple thousand feet below us. It is magnificent country consisting of forests and farmland and everything is bright green.
Along the way we were extremely fortunate in our timing because we spotted deer, ruffed grouse and a foraging bear that wandered into the road directly in front of our truck. The wildflowers along the road were blooming at full tilt and the forests and rock ledges we passed through were fantastic. We have now covered the entire 400+ miles of the Blue Ridge and the Skyline Drive extension and we can heartily recommend these great roads to everybody willing to go slowly through magnificent scenery.
There’s pix. Click here

Today we were able to do some exploring in earnest. We drove from our great RV spot at Natural Chimneys County Park near Mt. Solon, VA, and headed east. We passed through a bit of Staunton and continued through Waynesboro until we got to a point where the Blue Ridge Parkway turns south and Skyline Drive turns north. Skyline Drive is a magnificent road that runs along the mountains on the east side of the Shenandoah Valley. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along, surprisingly, the Blue Ridge which skirts the southern parts of the Shenandoah. The scenery here is magnificent.
Today’s drive took us south down the Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 0 to around the James River which is at about milepost 80 or so. Since the weather was relatively clear today, the views from the Parkway were terrific, both ways. We spotted tons of birds, some ground hogs, a couple deer, a series of waterfalls, a beautiful lake and the James River. The views of the Shenandoah Valley were stunning from the plentiful overlooks along the Parkway. Sumacs were sporting gorgeous flowers today.
We finally dropped off the Parkway and descended into the Shenandoah Valley where we soon found ourselves in the absolutely staggering architecture of the town of Lexington. It is an old town and also the home of the Virginia Military Institute where numerous American military officers have been trained. At one time, I believe Robert E. Lee was the head honcho here. The Lee Highway passes right through the campus. Only the rich and buddies of senators get to go to Annapolis or West Point. The remainder come from places like VMI. VMI is quite a facility, rivaling most major universities. It’s a monster.
To see the pictures, click here

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