The Blog Where Horror Dwells: Another Parkway Pilgrimage

For Brugger and me, the pandemic impacted but did not snuff our regular autumn Blue Ridge Parkway pilgrimage. We did miss it last autumn because we were abducted and hauled away to Europe, but I would wager that’s a fair excuse. Today, unfortunately, we did miss out on the always-anticipated Mabry Mill breakfast because, although the restaurant was open, it’s so small and confined that I can’t imagine effective social distancing being possible in there. So, as painful as it was, we opted to avoid the mill and restaurant this year. As a consolation, I expect I’ll be making a batch of my own killer slapjacks for my breakfast in the morning.

Our adventure kind of began last night, as we headed up to Martinsville, where we got together with our friends Stephen & Samaire, which resulted in us drinking perhaps a bit too much, getting perhaps a bit too loud, and having perhaps a bit too much fun. It was pretty late when we arrived back at Pleasant Hill, so we got off to a slightly later start than we had anticipated this morning. This was hardly a complication, though, particularly since we were avoiding the Mabry Mill breakfast. As it was, we headed up to Fairy Stone Park so I could snag a relatively new geocache, which I did, and then made our way to Villa Appalaccia, the first of our winery destinations. A good crowd had already gathered — there was live music on the schedule today — but the winery folk did a great job with facilitating social distancing, requiring masks, and limiting the number of people inside the facility at any given time.

They were not doing tastings, but since we already know several of their wines that we enjoy, we ordered a couple of bottles of Aglianico, one to consume on the premises, one to bring home. Our favorite seating area at the winery is a remote walled enclosure, but as the musicians were setting up there, we opted for a secluded table at the edge of the woods, which wasn’t bad except for the fact it kept getting hot when the sun broke through the clouds. The temperature rose to 80 freaking degrees on the Parkway today, so we had to wear our summer clothes, in stark contrast to our typical attire there this time of year, which is distinctly cold-weather wear. I much prefer the chill.

We had brought along a picnic lunch, so we enjoyed that along with our wine. Now, the Aglianico was tasty enough, but a 2019 vintage; obviously young and a little too tart yet. I’m going to let the bottle we bought age for a couple of years. Make no mistake, Villa Appalaccia still makes some the best wines in the region, and I can’t wait to go back. I hope we can manage it before next fall.

We had a nice, secluded table in the shade near the restaurant (closed) at Chateau Morrisette

The skies darkened a bit while we were at Chateau Morrisette, but the rain held off for us.

From there, it was on to Chateau Morrisette, where we have had some good experiences and we have had some great experiences. No doubt due to the pandemic, and the Parkway offering attractions that allow for good social distancing, the mountains were mobbed today. Both Villa Appalaccia and Chateau Morrisette had very large crowds, but both get high marks for safety. We were able to buy a bottle of their Petit Verdot from an outdoor booth rather than having to go inside the winery. While I have always enjoyed their Petit Verdot, it has generally been less striking than Villa Appalaccia’s Aglianico. Today, it was the other way around. For the first time, probably ever, we preferred Chateau Morrisette’s fare. Again, no one would ever mistake any of these wines for Old World or US west coast, but for what they are, they pretty much hit the spot.

The skies began to darken a bit as the day wore on. The chances of rain increased during the afternoon, but happily for us, the skies never dumped on us. Once we wrapped things up at Chateau Morrisette, we hit the road for Reynolds Homestead in Critz, VA, where a bit more geocaching awaited me. This one was an Adventure Lab cache, which is a bit different than your typical follow-the-coordinates-and-find-the-cache cache. Adventure Labs are “virtuals,” in that there is no physical container to find (unless, as in this case, you put information together from the various virtuals to find a physical cache somewhere nearby). Using the Adventure Lab app, you go to a series of locations, find the specified landmarks at those locations, and answer questions about them. Each one you correctly identify gives you credit for a geocache find. And if there is a bonus cache, you will also get information to help lead you to it. I find these a lot of fun, and this one provided for some exceptional scenery. I had done some geocaching at Reynolds Homestead back in 2008, and I’ve not been back since. Located on about 7 acres at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Reynolds Homestead is the birthplace and boyhood home of both tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds and A. D. Reynolds, whose son Richard S. Reynolds was the founder of Reynolds Metals. The lab cache took us all around the property, from an imposing old Catalpa tree (which was part of a much older cache — “By the Old Catalpa” GCJMCV — which I had found on my 2008 visit); to the main house, which took on a distinctly haunted aspect as the clouds grew darker; an old slave graveyard; and a spring in the woods along a beautiful nature trail. Happily, I was able to locate the nearby bonus cache without difficulty.

After all that, we hit the road for home. We did make a stop at a local jewelry store, where we had to pick up a little something, with which I had surprised Ms. B. a while back, that needed sizing. Done and done.

It was a day. Nary a thing happened that wasn’t better than be slapped in the belly with a wet trout.