Back in May, friends/regular travel companions, Terry & Beth, joined
Brugger and me for a few days' sojourn in the wine country of central
Virginia, with our headquarters at the
Wintergreen Resort. On that trip, we were able to enjoy a brief but mighty nice dinner and
visit with long-time friends, artist Cortney Skinner & author Elizabeth
Massie. Well, that was really too little of a good thing, so Ms. B. and I
decided we must return to the scene of the crime, and this time bring on board
as much of the local talent as possible. This area of the Shenandoah—Staunton
and Waynesboro in particular—is home to several writers and artists, all of
whom I've called friends for many years. Apart from Cortney & Beth, we
have Keith Minnion, Nanci & Phil Kalanta, Dave & Trudi Simms, and Matt
& Deena Warner (the latter of whom did a great job redesigning my website
earlier this year). We plotted a reasonably massive gathering in advance,
while leaving the rest of an extended weekend for Brugger and me to wander
about, discover spirits & vittles, go antiquing, hunt geocaches, and do
whatever deviant things our teeny minds might concoct.
Thursday, October 16, 2025
This morning, Ms. B. and I mounted up and set forth for Wintergreen, stopping
for a few geocaches, lunch in Lynchburg (
Chili's), and some provisions at the Wintergreen Market. Our little VRBO is cozy,
convenient to all the local amenities (wineries, breweries, cideries, and
restaurants) as well as our friends. We arrived right at check-in time (3:00
p.m.) and made ourselves at home. Happily, our host provided us with plenty of
necessities (like coffee), and as you can see in the photo above, we put some
of our own provisions to good use.
For dinner, we trucked over to
The Edge, which we'd enjoyed immensely on our previous visit. This time was equally
good. A damn fine gin martini, I can tell you, and a hell of a good turkey
burger with bacon. Afterward, Ms. B. and I retired to our lodgings, where had
some cheesecake and a smidgen of wine for dessert. And we watched
No One Gets Out Alive, which we'd seen before, but found it enjoyably creepy.
A most satisfying inaugural evening, to say the least. Till tomorrow.
Friday, October 17, 2025
Hey, it's a geocaching morning! I rose early, before Ms. B. even stirred, had
a quick breakfast and coffee, and then set out for a cache less than half a
mile from our lodgings, at least as the crow flies. Damn, those lucky crows. I
took a shortcut down to the trail, as it was only a couple of hundred yards
behind our place, but what a couple of hundred yards. Steep, steep terrain,
mostly covered with mountain laurel, and if you've ever bushwhacked through
mountain laurel then you probably understand how abusive its whip-like
branches are. SWAT! WHACK! THWACK! Gracious!
Once on the trail
proper, I had to cross about a dozen contour lines on the map, and we're
talking terrain that is steep, rocky, and slickery with leaves. So, with all
the winding up and down, that less than half a mile turned into a full
mile-plus, with every step requiring a lot of caution. No kidding, a bad step
in such terrain could have dire consequences.
But let me tell you,
what gorgeous terrain it was. Fall color is far more advanced in these woods
than in the neighboring areas. There's a flowing stream near the trail with
some nice waterfalls. And when I finally arrived at the cache, I found it in
good condition. Understandably, it doesn't get much business out in that area,
but it was certainly worth the effort. (I don't think I paused as often to
rest when I hiked nine rugged miles at McAfee Knob to get my 10,000th cache a
few years back.)
After this adventure, Brugger and I stopped at the nearby market to pick up
a few picnic provisions, and then we drove down to
Valley Road Vineyards, not too far away. Here we found some pretty good local wine. Our timing
was good because, just as we started our picnic, a passel of tour buses
pulled in with several passels of people, which just about filled up the
place.
Our next destination was a couple of geocaches on the
outskirts of Waynesboro, then into Staunton, a few miles farther on. Brugger
went antiquing, and I went...caching. Found several fun ones, but then I
realized my phone was nearly dead—and my spare external battery was
completely dead. Thankfully, I was done caching for the afternoon. Anyhoo,
Ms. B. and I met up again at
Accordia Wine Bar, which we had discovered on our trip here in May. A little liquid
refreshment hit the spot here.
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Valley Road Winery
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Overlooking the valley from just outside of Waynesboro
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Finally, we came to the most compelling reason for our visit—meeting our crowd
of ne'er-do-well friends at
Thai Staunton restaurant. Keith Minnion and Dave & Trudi Simms couldn't make it, but Matt
& Deena Warner brought their sons, Owen and Thomas, so our table was pretty
well filled up. The food and service here were fantastic, and the company was
the best there is. There were lots of memories between all of us as well as many
newer stories to tell. After dinner, we hopped a couple of doors down to
Kline's Ice Cream Shop, had sweet treats, and yammered a whole bunch more.
Finally, we all
parted ways, and Brugger and I drove the spooky, dark backroads to our lodgings.
It was quite a day, to say the least, and the evening gathering could hardly
have been more fun and mentally/emotionally refreshing.
We started
watching
The Ritual, which is a cool, creepy film just right for the season, but since we were
both tired and about ready to pack it in, we stopped halfway, figuring we'll
finish it tomorrow night. I managed to stay up long enough to finish today's
blog entry.
I foresee another possibly rugged hike in the morning.
G'night.
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Front: Thomas, Deena, Matt, Nanci, Phil; Back: Cortney, Beth, Owen,
Ms. B., Old Dude
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Saturday, October 18, 2025
Today, the No Kings Protests will be held all over the country, and if we
were at home, Brugger and I would certainly be taking part in the
Martinsville gathering. We'd thought about going to one in Staunton, but we
ended up getting a very late start this morning, and we wouldn't have been
able to make it in time. We are kind of sorry to have missed it. Anyway...I
can absolutely assure you, those of us who protest this regime do NOT hate
America. Quite the opposite. We protest the burgeoning autocracy. We protest
the disregard for the rule of law and the US Constitution. We protest the
escalating attacks on our free speech. We protest the demonization of those
who disagree with the extreme right's imposition of its policies of pure
self-interest. If you don't see this happening, right smack right in front
of you; if you somehow see protest as hating America; or if you say, "If you
don't like it, then leave," you are truly too brainwashed, too dim-witted to
be reasoned with. This country IS my home, and I don't leave my home because
it needs one hell of a house-cleaning. Right now, it surely does.
Here in Wintergreen, first thing this morning, I set out on foot after a
cache at an overlook about a mile away. It wasn't a rugged hike like
yesterday, but the ups and downs are still pretty extreme right here on
the mountainside. At ground zero, my coordinates bounced me all over the
place for a while, but I finally homed in on an apt-looking spot. Sure
enough, I found a hook where the cache would have resided, but...no cache!
Dammit. Anyway, I scratched around the area for quite a while with my
hikey stick and finally turned up the container buried in the leaves. So,
I signed the log and re-hid the cache where it was supposed to
be. Ah, success!
Just as I completed my task, a nice lady approached me and asked if I was
geocaching. I said that indeed I was, and she told me someone she knew hid
this particular cache. She didn't know that much about caching overall, so
I explained a few of its finer points. I've been at this activity now for
over 17 years, and I still have the bug. I don't see it ever going away
Brugger
and I soon headed out for brunch at
Beltie's, a nice farmhouse-type restaurant where they also have Beltie cows! Big
and cute, I'd call 'em. Some of them quite enjoyed being petted. I had a
bucket of coffee and a fried chicken, pimento cheese, habanero-bacon jam,
and arugula biscuit, which was so good I just about hollered.
From there, we found wine at
Afton Mountain Vineyards, which was decent. Their best wine was a blend called Bacco, presumably
from "Tobacco," since it had the distinctive and very agreeable aroma and
taste of rich tobacco. That made me very happy. Then we headed over
to
King Family Vineyards in Crozet, where we ended up sitting with a very nice couple
who live in the area but have traveled all over the world. We shared quite
a few enjoyable travel tales. The wine was generally very good,
particularly their blend called Seven. And finally, we topped off our
little winery tour at a beautiful place called
Chiswell Farm & Winery. It's probably the most scenic winery I've ever visited, and their
Meritage wine was superb. The images below are from Chiswell.
From there, we drove down to the old Crozet Tunnel, now known as the
Blue Ridge Tunnel. It's an old railroad tunnel cut clean through the mountain, almost a
mile in length. It's now a rail trail, and yes, there was a geocache.
Interestingly, Ms. B. happened upon it quite by accident. We really loved
going through the tunnel—it's very dark and very chilly (and in some
places, quite damp). When we arrived, it was pretty crowded, but by the
time we left, the sun was going down, and we were damned near the last
living souls at the place, which made it almost—and very agreeably—creepy.
L: Southeastern tunnel entrance; R: Ms. B. dancing in the dark
L: The Blue Ridge Tunnel is almost a mile from end to end; R: the northwestern tunnel entrance
Once we departed the the tunnel, we found dinner at a fairly new pizza
restaurant called
Trinacria, which was right next to Beltie's. The (exceptionally large "small") pizza
was quite good.
Finally, we returned to our place and finished
watching
The Ritual, which really is a fun horror flick, and perfect for the Halloween season.
Tomorrow...it's back to Ground Zero.
Peace out.
