13 August 2021
It’s Beth’s birthday and we are headed off on a new adventure.
Even though the posting is seven months behind where we are today, we hope you will enjoy a new series of posts highlighting places on a 45 day trip to Maine, New York, and Wisconsin.
Leaving home at 0830, we reached Charlottesville, Virginia by lunch time. Jane Harcus, one of Beth’s childhood friends in Michigan met us for a picnic lunch.
Jane chose a site on the grounds of Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. Parking was free and the weather was perfect for a picnic.
The girls caught-up while waking in Kemper Park on the Sunders-Monticello trail. Even if you don’t visit Monticello (which you absolutely should do at least once) the park offers easy parking and pleasantly shaded trails where one can stretch out after a drive.
Another hour up the road, we turned into the driveway of our first night’s stop, a former apple orchard, now a beautiful vineyard.
Our port side view was of the Allegheny Mountains rising behind the grapes at Barren Ridge Vineyard.
Barren Ridge is part of the Harvest Host program* where businesses invite self contained RVers to spend the night in exchange for purchasing their wares.
Here is where we parked. With plenty of room to turn a big rig around, the view to the right was gorgeous. One advantage to having a small camper is being able to arrange so we look out at the best view and put sights like these dumpsters on the service side of the vehicle. We especially appreciated that we could see our camper while relaxing on the vineyard deck.
The “small world” event of the day was exchanging stories with Shelby, one of the vineyard founders. It turned out that her sister is one of our neighbors back in Durham.
Starting the first day at an easy pace, we traveled 212 miles northeast from home in Durham to Stoughton, Virginia.