Virginia, Part 3

One of the most notable places to eat around Stuart is the Mabry Mill, a historic site that also boasts a restaurant and gift shop. It's located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is something of an extension of the Skyline Drive. We had planned to come down the Parkway, but ran out of time the day before.

However, we did get on for a while to visit the Mill. At right is a family picture in front of the Mill; below is a short video of the Mill in action. My camera picks up all the noises and sounds around when I'm filming, so in addition to water you'll hear voices. Just kind of tune them out....




Mrs. Wood spent the day showing us some of the sights around Stuart and the surrounding area. We visited Lovers' Leap, a small mall featuring gift shops with local crafts, and a housing development with the homes built right up against the hills. I think it was Elkhorn Acres, but don't quote me.)

We returned to the Woods home and met up with Delano, and the five of us went to dinner together. At right are my parents and Mr. Wood in the carport of the Woods home. Below are all of them on the front porch of the Chocolate Moose, which the Woods had recommended to my parents.


The following day, however, we noticed something odd about the car. Unlike many of our trips, we drove this one ourselves, so it was the family car and understandably my parents were worried. Mrs. Wood gave us the name and location of her mechanic, and we took the car in. The problem was in the transmission -- it wasn't shifting out of third gear into overdrive. The mechanic fixed it, but we decided to cancel the rest of the vacation and head for home.

All was not lost, however. We started back up the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we did get to see a lot of scenic areas we missed the first time. Again, a 35 m.p.h. speed limit. Also, it was rainy and the visibility was poor in places, but it was still a nice area to drive through. We stopped at the Peaks of Otter lodge for lunch, which consisted of mostly sandwiches. At right is the view out the back window of the lodge. We also visited the gift shops and the National Park Visitors Center down the road.

There is a lot of wildlife in the park, and this herd of deer decided that traffic rules were only for humans.

We made reservations via cell phone for a motel in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on route 81 North, which was about as far as we thought we could go that day. From there we drove home the next day, running into snow in the Poconos. The next round of vacation time is in November, and instead of finishing our Virginia trip, we'll save that for some time in the future and will instead be off to Springfield, Illinois, "land of Lincoln". Those write-ups will be on next.