The torrid temperatures today were even more crushing than yesterday but we went roaming around anyway. It is fortunate that our truck has very effective air conditioning and we rarely strayed from nor lowered the windows of the comfy cab. To start our drive today, we popped over to Front Royal about 20 minutes away and pulled in at the Knotty Pine Cafe. We ate here in 2015 when we passed through this part of the country and the food is still good. They also have an old milk shake machine that has three propellers so they can make 3 shakes at once. I think the machine is older than me but it still works well, at least it did on my shake.
About $22 later, we were on a quest to find a rural road we had driven before (in 2015) but we were challenged by using my memory for recollection so it took us a while to find it. We both remembered the beginning of the road once we were on it but Virginia roads can be circuitous and we ended up emerging from our exploration in a different place than we did last time. Once back on a main highway, we drove into Sperryville, checked out some of the local architecture and then continued over the north end of the Blue Ridge and back down into the Shenandoah Valley.
In general, the Shenandoah Valley is bordered by the Appalachians on the west and the Blue Ridge on the east but right in the middle of the north end of the valley is a big ridge called the Massanutten that divides the valley into east and west sides. We drove up and over the Massanutten and ultimately came out in Woodstock. We turned north on US-11 through Strasburg, Middletown, and Stevens City where there is an amazing collection of architecture of houses and churches. This part of the world is lousy with churches so all the folks who act like assholes for six days a week can repent without conviction on the seventh. They also had big plantations here and the owners had tip-top houses although it is doubtful the help had housing that was so spiffy. One of the places we stopped was a plantation where there were some sweltering archaeologists digging us relics.
The structures run the gamut from log and heavy timber construction to intricate brick and ashlar masonry and wood buildings with nifty Victorian filigree. A lot of the roof membranes appear to be hammered lead sheets that will rarely leak but folks are discouraged from drinking from the cisterns unless they want to go to church more. The building types in this region offer building buffs a rare look at 350 years of building type evolution. I am surprised at how many ancient buildings are still standing although we spotted some that have collapsed and the kudzu is going to get them or already has. Despite a few decrepit old buildings, this part of the world is very beautiful, at least from inside an air conditioned space.
There’s pix. Click here