Zombies (7/27/2023)

“It must be the zombie apocalypse” was our reaction, while sitting in the parking lot of the Burger King in Hillsville, Virginia. A sirens was going off, an ambulance was coming by, various fire engines, and not to count the large number of police cars. We were on our first real camping trip in our van; post retirement. Somewhat of a dress rehearsal for our coming trip across country, and also just our first real vacation. (By the way, I am borrowing the zombie apocalypse metaphor from Nigel Saunders from the Bonsai Zone who always uses that phrase when he hears a siren.)

We left home on Monday morning for the Rocky Knob Camp Ground on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside Floyd. We planned to stay there two nights, knowing well that there would be no electric hookups; water was available at the restrooms. In other words, camping was relatively primitive. It proved to be delightfully true when we got there. It was a larger campground than expected, and the camping spots were fine. It took a bit of adjusting to get a somewhat level site, but by the second night we were fine. We had taken the van out to go to a magnificent hiking spot (more about this a little later), followed by lunch at a winery and a visit to Floyd which was downhill from the campground. So, when we returned, we had learned our lesson and parked the van at a more level position.

After two nights, we packed up and drove to Grayson Highland State Park. Their campground is much more developed; it has running water and electricity. Spots are tighter together, and here again, partially because of my choice and because of the vehicle, getting a perfectly level (sleeping) site was difficult. However, the second night was a charm. We stayed in the park, did some magnificent hiking and after two nights, we moved to Highland County to visit friends where we camped in their driveway but ate and showered in their home. My wife even managed to break their toilet seat cover. The following day we drove home.

What amazed me the most about both camp grounds was that they had volunteer hosts. These were older couples in their 70s and 80s who stay at the place for free and help with hospitality and in the camp store (if there is one). Something to consider.

The hiking:

In the Rocky Knob Recreation Area, we did the Rock Castle Gorge Trail the first day. We only did the lower part, approximately 2.8 miles each way, although our FitBits told us it was closer to 3 miles (so 6 miles total). It is an absolutely gorgeous trail. A fairly moderate hike (on the easy side of moderate in our eyes), with some nice up hills and vistas along a wild creek. It was extremely enjoyable. We topped it off with that visit to the Chateau Morrisette Winery for a glass of cold white wine and a cheese plate for lunch. The winery is very dog friendly; I highly recommend a visit to this winery. The location, vistas, layout and the wine a super.

On our way out, on the second day we walked the 3-mile Black Ridge Trail. This trail was also very nice, somewhat slightly more challenging, but very pleasant with some nice vistas. This trail has much more variability in the landscape; however, both trails in this area were great.

In Grayson Highland we only walked one trail. The 3.7-mile Stamper’s Branch Trail kicked our butt; however, it was great! With the 3.7 miles I mean that the trail is actually only about 1.9 miles each way and it leads from the camp ground to the visitor’s center. The trail has an elevation gain of close to 900 feet and let me tell you, these 70-year-old knees felt it. Moreover, coming from sea level, I noticed that we peaked at an elevation of almost 5000 feet. Grayson Highland is near Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest mountain. I enjoyed the types of vegetation we hiked through and we even saw a bear in the far distance.

So how did my bonsais fare while we were gone? I had received a LinkTap Wi-Fi watering timer what is called a “tap linker”. This is a Wi-Fi water timer that opens a valve to a hose on which I had two sprinklers mounted. I had the sprinklers go on every morning for 20 minutes. Let me tell you, from the looks of it my plants loved it. They look lush and in much better shape compared to when I water them by hand. Thank goodness, my neighbor Bob was also looking out for them, and all was good.

In all, we had a successful trip. We now feel much more comfortable and want to do again. Living the retired life! Not like zombies.

Our Rocky Knob camp site.  Somewhat primitive, but very pleasant.

Our first hike.  It was a nice tail along a stream.

Chateau Morrisette Winery.  Our cheese palte after a nice hike.  A great way to recover.

The view on the hike of our second day (departure day) on Rocky Knob.

Our Grayson Highland Hike.  The stream crossing.

Westmoreland State Park (10/28/2019)

This weekend I spent some time in a cabin in the woods at Westmoreland State Park in the Northern Neck of Virginia. It is one of the state parks we visit fairly frequently for a weekend in the off season, to get away from it all and relax. As we sometimes do, this year we were sharing our accommodations with Betsy, a high school friend of my wife, someone we have been friends with for more than 40 years.

It is just nice to be away from home and be out in the woods, sitting on the porch of this small cabin in the woods that supposedly was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps sometime between 1933 and 1942. There are newer cabins in this row, but it is nice to be in an historic one like this. It surely is cramped and somewhat primitive (or read not well stocked), but so be it. I live in motel rooms for luxury.

This morning we had a big storm roll through and right now it is sunny and somewhat windy. The temperatures are unseasonably warm for this time of year, but so be it. We are living in the years of global warming, and we will just need to learn to live with it.

Why am I not out there, strolling through the woods? We brought Jake, our old dog with us, and probably because of all the driving and excitement his tummy is somewhat upset. Since the girls are such old friends (50 years and counting), I have no problem “dog sitting” while they have fun and are out visiting a winery or two. I have been reading my Kindle and just breathing in the nice mild air sitting on a rocking chair here on the front porch. I may go for a brief walk while Jake is sleeping. 

A great walk after the rains were done.  It was unseasonably warm of the 27th of October.  I was in shorts and t-shirt.

Westmoreland State Park is on the Potomac River. It is sandwiched between the birthplaces of George Washington and Stratford Hall, the birthplace of General Robert E. Lee. We have visited Stratford Hall; it is surprisingly non-confederate and they do not push the civil war there at all. It is really worth a visit. The park itself has some great trails and the bluffs are full of fossil shark teeth that are there for the picking. 

Fossil Beach at Westmoreland State Park.  This is a very picturesque area with a large wetland to the right.

What was the Civilian Conservation Corp that built the cabin that we stayed in this time? During the depression, President Roosevelt established the Corps to get the unemployed off the street and back to work. These young men were put to work for the good of humanity or the country by doing public works projects mostly to protect and develop natural resources including the development of state parks, building reservoirs and other public projects. Westmoreland State Park was established during that period and I am not sure if these were worker’s cabins or meant to be used for recreation. However, now they are.

As some of you know or could conclude from a recent post, I am currently reading some of Wendell Berry’s work. His latest work was a little rough, and I will get back to it, but I am reading his collection of essays “What are People for?” I hit an interesting quote that he has of Wallace Stenger, a writer, naturalist and birder who I had never hear off. Mr. Stenger was a professor at Stanford University, and wrote that thought “thrives best in solitude, in quiet, and in the company of the past, the great community of recorded human experience.” This is the reason why I do not mind sitting on this rocking chair being left alone to think, read and to record my experience. Mr. Berry goes on and writes that the recorded experience does not need the Pantheon of Great Writers, but that it includes us all rather than the “Harvard Five-Foot Shelf.”

As I mentioned in my post entitled “Remember Nature” recording my opinions, feelings and experiences as described by Mr. Berry has been the intention of my blog posts all along. In my blogs I try to record what I see, write down my feelings and opinions, part with some of my education and experiences, show some of my photographs, and maybe even have some fun as well. My writings will never win awards or be included on that shelf, and that is okay; I just hope that some folks read it and are entertained and maybe learn something from my musings.  And so, I hope that you enjoyed this post.

Virginia Wines (3) (11/10/2014)

This past weekend we spent a day tasting some Virginia wines.  We traveled to a Blue/Green resort in the Gordonsville area (near Charlottesville) and on the way we visited some wineries and bought some wines to drink that evening.  We drank wines from wines from the Rockbridge winery, Ox-eye winery (and no we did not visit either of these two wineries), Grayhaven winery and Cooper Vineyards.  It is a pity that we visited the Weston Farm Vineyards website too late, otherwise we would have noticed their announcement that Google maps cannot find them (we searched for 15 minutes and gave up).

This does not even make a dent in all the wineries in Virginia.  My understanding is that Virginia is the third or so wine producing state in the U.S, and the latest winery map touts that there are 250+ wineries in the state.  As I mentioned before, 10 years ago I was skeptical about Virginia's ability to make red wine, but they have come a long way.  I actually like a lot of the reds they produce at this time (granted I am a red kind of guy).

As with anything, I believe that education is essential in life, and that is also important when drinking wine.  I read the wine spectator and a nice assortment of books on  wines and wine making although in no way am I a wine expert of a wine snob.  The only wine I can pick out of a line up of blind taste testing is the Merlot by Boogle, but that is also because my father-in-law brings it over very frequently when he comes over for dinner.  But yes education is important even in this period of anti-intellectualism.  Why drink the same bud-dry or a cheap box wine, when with a little education and adventure you can drink something better or more interesting for about the same price?

Today's post is not a winery review, I will do one again in the near future.  In the past I reviewed the wineries and wines I have visited and tasted from the Tidewater (click here) and the wines from northern Virginia (click here).  But below are some of the Virginia wines that we still have in our collection.  It is a pity that Virginia wines are so expensive, compared with their counterparts for California or even from France, Spain or Italy; otherwise I would definitively want to drink more Virginia wines and visit more wineries.  Now I have to limit it to two or three wineries every year, and limited consumption; Virginia wines are not for the people that live on a budget, that is for sure.

The Virginia wines we still have in our collection (some date from 2006 and one from 2004)

Highland County (11/3/2014)

Monday was the last morning of a long weekend in Highland County.  It was fun to see our daughter, who drove over from Morgantown and to visit with friends who had decided to move away from the Tidewater of Virginia and settle in the mountains.

The morning started out nice.  We had rented a cabin in the B&B and the sun was just coming above the horizon when I walked over to the main house for a cup of coffee.  Low sun angles make amazing pictures. so I quickly walked over to a cabin that is known as the "Bird house" and shot the picture below.  The orange glow of the sun on the foreground and the distant mountains created a great picture.

Before leaving we decided to go for a walk.  The road we took was past the B&B towards what I assume is Sounding Knob, since we were walking on Sounding Knob Road.  The knob is in the Highland County Wildlife Management area and according to the map, the knob is close to 4300 ft high.  We only walked for an hour, but it was nice to be out and about.  I could not help taking the picture of the lone tree in the pasture along the road.

We ended the morning with a drive to Bridgewater Virginia and a visit to the Bluestone vineyard.  This is another winery that I have to add to an up coming Virginia wine review that I write so now and then on this blog.  But suffice it to say the wines were decent; the place is pet friendly, and it was a great place for a pick-nick lunch with a glass of cold rose wine.  Regretfully, after arriving home at 6 pm, I was back into the car to drive to Fredericksburg for two days of teaching.  I need to retire!

Virginia Wines (2) (6/10/2014)

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about some of the wineries I visited in the Tidewater of Virginia.  Wineries like Dog and Oyster claim they have a similar climate as the Bordeaux region in France and that they should therefore be able to rival them.  We'll see it that happens in my life time.

Today I want to deal with the wineries I visited in northern Virginia, and rank them as well. Rappahannock Cellars was the first of the wineries I visited in Virginia (2003).  While I already was a wine enthusiast and had tasted in Missouri, this was a fun first experience, and my very first impression with Virginia red wine, which I found very below par at that time.  Things have changed in the past few years, and I can tell you the reds made by Chester Gap Cellars just a few miles up the road are among some of the best Virginia reds I’ve tasted lately (2013 and 2014).

Here is my review of the wineries I visited in the northern area (the date in parentheses is the year I visited the wineries):

Old House Vineyards  (2013) - 4 stars - Interesting place with some interesting grape varieties (barberra).  Inexpensive to taste.  Great place for weddings.

Rappahannock Cellers - (2003) - 3 stars (this rating is probably out-dated) - My first tasting in Virginia.  It was fun, but I remember a very touristy tasting room.  I still own their tasting glass and drink wine from it every day.

Chester Gap Cellars - (2013 and 2014) - 5 stars - A great secluded winery with the produces some outstanding reds.  Try their Merlot.

Fox Meadow Winery- (2013) - 5 star - Location, location, location.  Love the place, good wine, I was impressed by their Riesling.

Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn (2013) 3 stars  A very charming place, wine was so, so.  Live music was too loud to really understand the host.  This winery was the first that served wine paired with food.

Glen Manor Vineyards (2013) 2 stars  Great location and very scenic looking towards the National Park.  Wine was mediocre

Breaux Vineyards (2014) 1 star  Rude staff, crowded and expensive.  See my review of last month.

The picture below was taking at Chester Gap late April of tis year.

Virginia Wines (5/23/2014)

As some of the readers of this blog know by now, I am a lover of wine, and have written about it in this blog at times.  Being a lover of wine and having visited numerous wineries in Virginia, I can only say that they have come a long way.

I think the first Virginia wine I tasted was some Governor’s White from the Williamsburg Winery in 2000, and found it mediocre.  I toured the winery in 2012 and noted a great improvement in quality of some of their wines.  I remember taking my daughter on a college tour in 2006 (or was it 2007?), and since I had a designated driver, we stopped at as many as we could cramp in.  My impression at that time was that Virginia was getting better with their white wines, but that reds were poor.  There was one noted exception, which were the reds from Fincastle that I really liked.

Fast forward to the more recent years, and Virginia now makes some dynamite reds.  It is really fun to be able to see this progression.  In the following few blogs I will try to give you a list of the wineries that I have visited over the past years.  I will be dividing it into a three arbitrary regions (lowlands, Piedmont and mountains) and publish it in three postings.  This is different than the Virginia Wine website, but so be it.  I’ll rate them from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest/best ... and sorry, but I could not get these numbers to line up); however, note the year of my visit, that should give you a good idea if my rating is still current or not.  For example, I will rate Fincastle very high for my 2006 visit.  I tried to revisit them in 2012, and waited for 10 minutes in their tasting room and there was no one to serve me, even after I called out.  I left the place without tasting and/or buying more wine; it was very disappointing, to say the least.

Well here is my list of the low country wineries that I visited:
 

Winery

Bloxom Winery                    Eastern shore       2010     3 stars       Great location, great lunch (artesian pizzas), wines are fun, enjoyed the Red Kiss (none-dated blend).

Chatham Vineyards              Eastern shore       2010     4 stars       Great romantic location, nice wines, bring lunch or a snack and sit outside with a bottle of wine.

Williamsburg Winery           Tidewater            2012     2 stars       Expensive, commercial, nice whites, average reds.

New Kent Winery                 Richmond            2013    2 stars       Young winery which shows in its wines.

Dog and Oyster Vineyards   Northern Neck     2007    2 stars        May have had a different name (White Fences) when I visited. Enjoyed their Rose. Was in its infancy.

The Hague Winery               Northern Neck     2006    5 stars

                                                                           2010    5 stars       This is a winery I really enjoy visiting because of its quality wine and unpretentious.

Ingleside Vineyards         Northern Neck          2010    5 stars       Very mature winery with great wines. It is a little commercial.

The photo below is one from the archives.  I took it when we visited the The Hague Winery in 2010.  The line up of female behinds was just too much to ignore.