Lexington and House Mountain

During the cold, dark days of winter, I began daydreaming of Spring. By the third installment of Snowpocalypse, I had all I could take of snow, winter, ice, and days without sunshine. It was during that time that I mentioned to Doug that I'd like to visit Lexington in the Spring. I've driven through Lexington from time to time on my way down from Philly; yet, I never stopped to check the town out. It always looked so charming but I never had time.

A few weeks ago Doug suggested we fulfill my winter daydreams and visit Lexington the Saturday after his birthday...so we did! Our plan was to stop at Edelweiss for lunch. Edelweiss is a German restaurant just outside of Staunton. From there we would head to Lexington and visit Stonewall Jackson's house and tour the town a bit. We also wanted to do some geocaching so Doug found a cache called " The Big House". **Foreshadowing**

So we embarked on our trek to Lexington but made a pit stop in Waynesboro. Waynesboro is apparently the "Town That Time Forgot". We needed to find a CVS to buy some Zyrtek but stumbled across Peebles, Roses, and Ben Franklin (the store, not the founding father). Odd. After scoring our drugs, we headed on down to Edelweiss for some Deutch cooking. I thought it was mediocre but since it was my first time trying German, I had nothing to which I could compare. Doug didn't seem thrilled with it either and he is a connoisseur of German cuisine so I defer to his expertise. The bread was yum-yum though! Oddly, they said they don't actually make it but buy it elsewhere. Hmmmm.

After we ate our brats and schnitzels, we finally arrived in Lexington. It was incredibly windy that day. As we made our way to Stonewall's house, I felt certain we would blow away. We bought our tickets to enter ($8 a person, which seems steep if you ask me) and were told that we had about 15 minutes to blow before the next tour. We walked around the garden for a few minutes, browsed the Confederate trinkets in the gift shop, and finally settled into our chairs as we waited for the tour to begin. Some weird dude named Peter came in and informed us that we would wait a few minutes for others to arrive but we would most likely receive a private tour (for $8 bucks a person, I should hope so!). We spent the next few minutes admiring the many stages of beard growth that Stonewall toyed with throughout his life (pictures were on the wall) before Peter finally emerged, once again, to inform us that we would be having a private tour. It should be noted that Peter was an odd fellow. He made NO eye contact and that annoyed both Doug and I. I think it's disrespectful. He also had an aire of superiority about him, which annoyed me because...well...I'm Rhonda and I'm kind of a big deal. Apparently, no one informed No Eye Contact Peter (NECP from this point on) of this vitally important info.

NECP took us around the house and gave us an informative, if not slightly dry, tour. He also plugged his acting escapades at every turn. Supposedly he had a role in the Civil War flick "Gods and Generals". Good for him; although, he acted as if he had a major starring role yet I can't find his name on IMDB. All I can say is:  Extra City: population Peter.

After our "private tour" ended, we strolled around the streets a bit in search of the cemetery but we never found it. By this time, the call of the 'cache had begun and we were eager to hunt down our first cache of the weekend.  This is where the story gets truly interesting....

The description of the cache stated that we would embark upon a three mile hike on a logging trail. What it failed to mention was the near vertical climb towards the end of the trail. Also, though I knew there was a mountain near Lexington called House Mountain, I never put that and the name of the cache "The Big House" together. Oopsie. Nonetheless, the hike wasn't too bad for the first two miles. It was a steady incline but not a hard hike. The worst part was the wind. It seemed to kick up even more as the afternoon passed.

I felt pretty happy when we reached "The Saddle" because, according to our GPSs, we didn't have too much farther to go. The Saddle is a term used to describe the small valley between Little House and Big House. I felt like we were definitely close to the top until I looked up and saw a huge mountain looming in front of us. Once my mind took in the height up to the summit and the distance given on the GPS, I realized we were about to get our arses kicked. The only way to make it to the top in such a short amount of distance meant we had to head straight up without switchbacks. Yikes!

With evening approaching, we knew we had to kick it into high gear so we took off, determined to make it to the top and find this cache. Doug the Army grunt took off at a pretty fast clip and though I did a pretty good job of staying close, I couldn't exactly match his pace. I had a hard time and was breathing hard but it comforted me to see him stopping along the way too. The worst part was that he would stop to catch his breath but the moment I caught up, he took off! This left me in a constant state of trying to decide which was best: catch up with him or catch up on breathing! It was a toss up and eventually my lungs decided for me.

Once we reached the top, I realized all the pain and misery was worth it though. The views were incredible! We could literally see half the Shenandoah Valley. The wind had blown all the haze and pollution out of the valley and I'm pretty sure we saw England at one point! ;) We took a few pictures but didn't play around with our usual jumping bean silly biz because evening was approaching quickly and it was getting very chilly. We knew we had a long three miles going back so we had to get busy if we wanted to find the cache and get back to the truck.

We followed our GPSs to the coordinates but couldn't find the cache. We spent a good 20 minutes looking and even fanned out a bit in case the sats were off but no luck. After walking around, stumbling over rocks, and reading the clues, we realized that the cache couldn't be there. Our guess is that college students muggled it. :( Disappointing.

We hauled tail down the mountain and decided to refuel at Macado's. It was funny to see all the little VMI boys in their whites. They look like little kids playing dress up. I guess I am getting old!

Overall we had a really good time but I'm not sure I'm going to allow Doug to pick out the caches anymore! haha.

Great Falls, Virginia

Doug told me about Great Falls a long time ago. I've been really interested in seeing it based on photos I saw on Google; however, I always doubted it's impressiveness given it's proximity to D.C. Boy, was I wrong!

Doug and I were heading back to Charlottesville after visiting Heidi in the D.C. burbs. Suddenly, in typical Doug fashion, he said, " Ya know what? We're going to do something!" and he consulted his GPS for directions to Great Falls. ( I love this about him! Spontaneity is the spice of life!)

A few twists and turns later, and we were at Great Falls National Park. The park was very crowded and I found this surprising since it was only 11:30 on a Sunday. Doug explained that it's the back yard of D.C. Makes sense.

As we walked towards the falls, we had a good laugh because I could smell something very lovely (probably Honeysuckle) but just as I said, " Wow, what smells so awesome?" we turned our head to see the most disgusting "port-o-john". Ha! I laughed and laughed! Once I stopped laughing I could hear the roar of the falls! We hurried past families and down the trail to the Potomac. The view did not disappoint! Though the river looked low, the falls/rapids were impressive. As soon as I saw it, I started thinking about white water kayaking. My first impression was that these rapids were easily class 5 or 6 rapids. I later googled to check and I was right! I used to own a white water kayak and have paddled class two and three rapids. There is NO way I'd ever paddle Great Falls. The drops, the waves, and the hazards looked spectacular but also terrifying! Kudos to those brave souls who do it (and apparently, there are plenty who do!).

Once we took in the beauty of the river, we decided it was time for our ritual jumping bean/cheek kissing photo shoot. The jumping bean photo was difficult to master this time around and it took several attempts to get a few good ones.  

Overall, it was a very enjoyable little jaunt. I am very happy we went. Although, I am a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get a stamp for my NPS passport. Another time, perhaps.

For more info on Great Falls, check out http://www.nps.gov/grfa/index.htm

Travel Blog

I've decided that this space feels wasted and it's time to use it for something. I think the best use for this blog is to share my adventures/travels with the world. I will start with Great Falls, VA.