Day 8
Scooter and me bounced away from the Bearden B&B about 10:30. We had a great time visiting friends, with great food and drink. Janet and I drove Mopsy back into DC yesterday and had a fine Indian dinner with Janets great friend Margo. It wound up being a perfect time to stop as at rained for more than 24 hours straight and Scoot and me do not like the rain. Next stop is the Ridgefield Farm in Harpers Ferry, WV home of the James Dean Byrd Foundation First Annual Croquet fund raiser www.jamesdeanbyrdfoundation.org .. They needed another croquet set, so we decided to pull one along.
I pause for an apology. It just came to my attention that I have been using Cc: instead of Bc: on the address's of the email thereby broadcasting you email address's to the world. As some of you know this is one of the windmill's I charge from time to time. My only excuse is none and I will strive to do better in the future.
The roads had dried and the skies where clear. We headed off on the nice winding back roads of Virginia were there are beautiful rolling farms and all of them with a name at the end of the drive way. Most are probably gentleman farmers or horse farms.
Cruising down the road I came upon a couple fisherman. I stopped to visit and it was a great find. I met Josh and his dad, but the great find was Gerhard Hennes, 88. Gerhard is a "author, poet, speaker" it says on his card, but he forgot philosopher. He has written 3 books. He is from the Rhineland in Germany and his first book was about his time as a POW in the U.S.A. For all his "free life" he worked in relief work and had lived in over 83 countries but he considers the U.S.A. as the best place to live in the world. We had quite a long chat about things, while helped get his line untangled and unhooked. What an interesting person and I really wanted to spend more time with him, but I had to move. He invited me to stop by his house someday for a chat and I really hope to do that. I also plan to buy a couple of his books from him.
VA 231 took me to 522 which is a four lane highway with very little traffic. However, I still wanted the back roads, so I took a left to go into the town of Washington, Va. It is very small and it was not until I was down the road I remembered that the "Inn at Little Washington" was there. It was one of the topped rated restaurants in the country with prices to match. People would drive from all over to this little 3 block town to eat there.
The day was so beautiful and the ride so great I decided not to go back over to the main highway and just started meandering north as best I could. It was wonderful. Little more hilly and little more curvy than the earlier roads today and no signs. Not a one. Eventually the gas gage made me get serious and I decided the first person I saw I would ask directions. Being the lunch hour, it was quite a while before I found someone. Judy Foster and her two kids where in the yard when I stopped. She was very friendly and told me just to go on down to the first stop sign, turn left and then keep on going to Front Royal and you would be back on the main road. It had started to cloud up and I asked if she thought it was going to rain. She said the weather man thought so, but she did not. She was right.
There is a lot going on in Front Royal. The Nation Zoo has a large facility there and US Customs trains their dogs there. I wonder if they teach the dogs to pick up trash.
I rolled into old town Fort Royal and found Wynn's Restaurant, just the type of place I was looking for. The special Peggy told me was meatloaf or stuffed cabbage but I went for the grilled cheese. She and Heather and I discussed Front Royal and business. It was a pleasant stop.
Out of town we where stuck on a fairly busy 4 lane but the further we went the more the traffic thinned out. I see no need for a GPS in a car as I really enjoy maps, but due to limited space on the scooter, I have started thinking of a GPS for it. So, if any one knows of a good one, that must have ALL THE SIDE ROADS, and easy to use, please let me know.
The skies cleared a again and it was a beautiful afternoon. We found more wild flowers to play in. Also came across a big piece of land that had been but into conservancy and was being used for a steeple chase for horses. There was one horse on the course and one in the trailer. The one in the trailer was not happy about that.
There were many little side road stores. I will let you guess which state Luckys Bait and Sign shop is in.
lucky's bait and sign shope
Down the road I saw a hugh flag flying on the cross road and decided to go check it out. It was at a rental storage place. The question is, is it patriotism or commercialization? During this diversion I found myself about 10 miles from Paris but resisted the temptation to visit.
Once we crossed into West Virginia, Scoot made a hard left turn on Scooter Ln. looking for a relative. Unfortunately they had all been turned into singlewides.
I went into Charles Town WVa. to see the town and look for a map. There where many signs to Visitor Information and I found it with no problem The hours are 10 to 2 and closed for lunch. It was 2:15.
On the way out of town I stopped at the 7-11 for a cool drink and a map. There I met Diane, I think only the second person to recognize Scoot as a Vespa. She worked across the street at the horse racing track and was on a lunch break. She had grown up in the business, barn hand, jockey, trainer and now ran a tack shop on the track. Her desire is to sell and spend more time with the grandchildren but in this economy no one is buying.
About 3pm we rolled into Ridgefield Farm www.ridgefieldfarm.com We will be here for the next several days. It is a great place with lots of mechanical toys to play with not to mention all the fresh food.
