30. Apr, 2016
30. Apr, 2016
SATURDAY 18-10-08
Last night we were rocked to sleep and woke at times during the night to the sound of the wind and rain on the swaying RV. As a consequence we didn’t sleep too well and had a bit of a lie-in to make up for it. Following a discussion last night we’ve decided to make our way back towards Waynesboro, Virginia, and the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We will miss out Norfolk, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg on the way as we’d rather spend our time up in the mountains looking at the natural beauty rather than lots of over-restored properties, reproduction items and people dressed up in period costumes and roll playing. I’m sure it’s very nice for those who like that sort of thing, but for me it’s all a bit WallyWorld.
For our return journey we were to cut cross country using US158, Hwy32, US460, I95 and I64. The journey on the minor roads before reaching the dreaded Interstates was a delight. We travelled down dual and single lane roads with shops, gas stations and businesses in the small communities with interesting scenery the whole way. We even managed to get to an ATM machine for some cash and get the RV tyre pressures checked properly having asked them to put extenders on the valves to the outer rear tyres and remove the second fancy chrome rear wheel trim, joining its partner in the cargo locker. Now we can’t lose either of them and are now flashing less chrome than a Harley Davidson.
We passed fields of cotton and soya, as well as other crops and lots of small areas of swampland. It was all very rural and I had the pleasure of a nice relaxing drive at 50mph without holding anybody up. The rural roads ended at Richmond as we approached it from the south. According to my research it has an interesting historical area, but all I could see were small skyscrapers, ugly industrial complexes and rail yards.
We had planned to spend the night in the car park of Wal-Mart at Waynesboro but the Satnav wouldn’t accept the address we had for it, and so instead went further down the road to their branch at Staunton where we’re holed up with a number of other RV’s. The past two evenings have been noticeably colder, quite autumnal, yet the night before that which we had spent in the Wal-Mart car park at Richmond on the outbound journey to Kitty Hawk, was very hot, to the point where I considered running the air-conditioning for a while.
Tomorrow we will be up at a reasonable time and make our way back to Waynesboro to start our 500 mile trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
LOCATION TONIGHT: Wal-Mart, Staunton, VA (GPS: N38.135823 W79.046830).