Leaving The Flatlands!

First Leg Of Our Trip To West Virginia

On the first day of our mini vacation we stopped off in Staunton, Va.  For one thing I wanted to try out a local restaurant named Mrs. Rowe's.  I have a cookbook from this restaurant which has a reputation for it's pies.  I actually have made the Pineapple Cream Pie and the Original Coconut Cream Pie.  I highly recommend either of these recipes.  You can find Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook here.

As for the food, it was OK and the portions were generous.  I made the mistake of trying to eat all of mine.  Then I found that I absolutely had no room left for the pie.  I thought about taking one with me but I knew my hotel room didn't have a fridge.  Sadly I left my pie behind.  I had to settle for some cookies and a massive cinnamon roll.  We all have to make sacrifices at times.

Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant

After eating our fill, we took a short drive around Staunton.  They have some really fun artwork that's well-known in these parts.  I love to find unusual pieces and these are some of my favorites.

Water Spout

This is actually a Chesapeake and Ohio Railway water column but in this setting works perfectly as a water spout.

Giant Watering Can

 

Giant Flower Pots

We left the hills of Staunton and headed to the mountains.  It's impossible to explain the feeling you get when get a glimpse of that first mountain!

Onward to West Virginia!
Sharon

Virginia Oddities

Another beautiful Sunday!  This makes two in a row for us.  It was 71 degrees and sunny today.  Just lovely!  We decided to take a Sunday drive to the Rockahock Campgrounds today.  They are having a Christian concert there on April 25-26 and we wanted to check out the place ahead of time.  It was a pretty nice campground right on the Chickahominy River.  Sidewalk Prophets are going to be playing on April 25 and I've been wanting to see them for a long time.  They are one of my very favorite contemporary Christian bands.  I'm really looking forward to this concert.

After looking around the campground we decided to cruise the local area to see what else we could find.  My GPS told me there was a BBQ restaurant right down the road.  Once again the GPS did me wrong.  The BBQ place turned out to be a gas station!  I'm thinking we won't be eating there.  This is why we try to check out locations ahead of time.  I need to know how far away the food is at all times! (only slightly exaggerating!)  You don't want to let me get too hungry or it's kind of reminiscent of a Snickers commercial!

I've been wanting to take some photos and this warm weather is right up my alley.  I love to do photography but I'm not die-hard enough to brave the cold weather.  It's just not in me.  We didn't have to go very far before I found some worthy subjects.  I love odd things or things in odd places.  So we were driving down the road and I spotted this tiger.  I was so excited you would have thought it was a real tiger!  Of course we had to pull over and take pics!  It wasn't till I got home and really looked at it that I realized I wasn't at an Exxon station.  I never even noticed that it was a BP!  Hmmm...that's odd.

Exxon tiger

Right down the road I found another fabulous statue.  Again I didn't notice till later that the statue is of an injured horse.  Unusual.

I was very happy to have found these statues.  This is just the kind of unusual stuff that gets me excited.  But then I found something else that piques my interest...an antique store.  Love them!  This was right down the street from the horse and I just couldn't resist stopping.

It was a nice shop with nice people.  I found some nice blue mason jars for $6 which is a steal for the big ones.  I'm sure I'll be going there again.  I took this photo because I loved the signage.  All in all it was a wonderful day!

But now there's a winter storm warning for tomorrow morning.  Blah!  They're calling for 26 degrees, ice and 4-6 inches of snow!  Can you believe it?  I, for one, can not.

Sharon