Our Ten-Thousand Mile Summer

I did the numbers.

From the time we landed in St. Louis from Puerto Vallarta until our return home for the season a few days ago, we drove ten thousand miles this summer. I'm not counting flights, only our time in cars, on highways and back roads, exclaiming and pointing out to each other unceasing amazing sights. Usually Craig drove and I navigated, though I took the wheel when I most wanted to. With my paper maps crackling and fluttering, I'm a hell of a navigator, and when I'm not, we're totally into U-turns.

I love maps, always have. I've mentioned before in these columns that I have intentionally avoided GPS, and I'm often asked why in this day and age I don't make use of it. It's because I believe GPS would separate me from what I most love about travel: the exploration and the human contact.

My travel partner is as willing as I to take a risk now and then, to stop and ask when the route turns strange. Those moments, stumbling across an unexpected town or sign or covered bridge or forest, talking with the locals in order to discover where we've found ourselves, connecting with humans immersed in lives so different from mine, give me as much joy as anything about traveling. 

So it appears I left you last in Virginia. I was sorely tempted to do some detours in my writing, too, but decided for the sake of clarity to finish our east coast explorations. Virginia is so worth another story or two. After this, we'll zigzag around the North American continent at whatever whim arises.

On our way to Monticello, we stopped at the nearby Michie Tavern.

1784, did you see that? We will revisit that particular decade when we return to Mexico. One of the best things about traveling is getting a real feel for what was happening in different places at the same time in history.

In the brand new United States of America, Michie Tavern was one of those happening places. It was a tavern in the great old sense of the word: a place to rest, eat, water the horses, and sleep soundly for a night. Originally called an "Ordinary", the Michie also had an assembly room upstairs which served as the social center of the area, a place for performances, church services, and the political discussions that helped shape the young country.

We took the tour. How could we not? The hosts were gracious and welcoming and not one bit insistent, so of course we responded with eagerness and curiousity. Inside, the Michie has kept much of its old style.

Imagine arriving after a day's travel on horseback or by stagecoach, handing the horses over for food and grooming in the stable, and entering this room. The fire is blazing and there's food on the hob. Fancy a game with your fellow travelers? How about this one?

I'm going to make one of those. Simple, simple, but a challenge, as we found out when we tried it a couple of times. Roll the dice. What comes up? A seven. Now you have a choice: flip down 2 and 5? 3 and 4? 6 and 1? The object is to flip down all the wood markers without being stymied. Reminded me of craps, my favorite casino game: a knowledge of the odds is crucial, which comes from an understanding of the elegance of numbers.

I could almost hear the laughter, the clink of heavy coins being bet on the game, pipes lit, mugs filled with ale and hard cider as those early adventurers met in a warm and comfortable inn for the night.

I wonder what they ate? My guess is, pretty much what we ate.

We stood in line in the little old kitchen as they filled our pewter plates with old-timey food. Southern fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, stewed tomatoes and black eyed peas, biscuits and cornbread. In the common room where we sat to eat, friendly women passed every few minutes with platters piled high with seconds. "More?" Oh, sure. Country fried chicken? Gimme a break. And peach cobbler for dessert.

Yum.

Equally delicious were our drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We drove to Lexington where we stopped for a while at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery. 

We read the gravestones as we wandered back toward Jackson's tomb.

Jackson, who had been shot twice in the left arm by friendly fire, died a week later from pneumonia after having had the arm amputated. His arm was buried in another location altogether.

Stonewall Jackson's fellow Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, is buried nearby beneath the chapel of the Washington and Lee University. 

I found it fascinating to be traveling through the former Confederate states during the controversy over the Confederate flag. I mentioned in my last post that this part of Virginia struck me as being intelligent and educated. Local newspapers still thrive, a measure in my mind of independent thought, this one in Lexington itself.

As we drove each day from our somewhat secluded cabin in foothills, we passed through tiny communities. I noticed both the Confederate flag and the Stars and Stripes flying in front of homes and businesses, and was interested to see that the U.S. flag outnumbered the Confederate by a goodly margin. Yet the battle of the flags continued wherever we went in the south.

At the north end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we strolled through Staunton, another smart and well-preserved town where our eyes popped at the windows of an antique store.

It was our kind of place for sure.

The only thing that kept us from going crazy here and in several other shops we visited was the knowledge of our several forthcoming flights and their baggage restrictions.

Eventually we bid farewell to what quickly became one of our favorite areas in the USA, and drove off east toward St. Louis to spend a bit more time with family before our flight to the Pacific Northwest. But we both know that something about Virginia captivated us, and we will return soon to drive the Parkway while the leaves are turning their autumn colors. We have this vision of a farm with a little house on it, and a great big weathered barn to remodel into a live-in studio.

See you later, Virginia. 

Comments

[diedre haines]

Thank you once again! Your writing creativity coupled with your photography speaks volumes regarding what a multi-talented person you are. I enjoy my "travel" with you, and your timing in sending always coincides with my need for a break! Diedre

[Dee]

Well done, Candice! Lovely travel report, easy to see why you love this area. I totally agree about preferring maps to GPS yakking at you. I hate being in cars with someone who has to have the danged idiot box turned on.