No sunrise photos for this morning. The rain has finally arrived. The trees at the campground were shrouded in gray mist, the valley and mountains beyond being completely obscured. You wouldn’t know what lies beyond the campground’s treetops had you not seen the view previously.
They have been calling for rain the last few days, which was a cause of much consternation for the bikers and their trail planning. But, each day the weather folks kept pushing the rain back a day. How much rain we will actually get is still up in the air.
It is Memorial Day, and my thoughts as usual jump to my grandfather, who served in The Great War, survived a poisoning and the plague of their day, the Spanish influenza. The transportation ship carrying him to England was full of sick and wounded soldiers. So, he took to sleeping in a life boat to stay away from the passengers with the deadly cough. This may have helped him survive it, but who knows.
A thought also goes to the uncles I knew who served in WWII and later ones stationed in Guam, and last but not least, the many soldiers of the Terry family and their wives notable related lines who came to the new world in the early 1600s, serving in all the NE wars that founded the nation, including the Revolution.
Now today’s morning musing are completed, I will get back to following my blogging pattern for this trip (always a day behind) and regale you of yesterday’s events.
As usual, I am always the first one to rise in the morning. Usually somewhere between 4:30-5:30 am.
I open the front window blind and assess the morning conditions, plop myself down on my perch overlooking the center green, look at mail and start composing the blog.
There are a couple of kids out there early today, a bit before 7:00. While they have their tools of play in hand they are so quiet no one would know they are there at all. They leave a bit later, maybe for breakfast. A few mins later another kid arrives, this one kicking a soccer ball from the top of the green while holding a small football. He aims his soccer ball for the bike jump and over it goes and he runs to catch up with it. Success again and he continues working the ball down the hill to the play set. One of the bigger kids appears and joins him at the play set. They have a little chat and now they are quietly playing catch with that. After breakfast, many more kids gather around the play set and some people are getting an early start on the trails. The neighbors’ chairs appear on the green and a new day of adventures has begun.
Paul and Bob decided they would take the day off from riding today. When we visited here the last time, we took a drive through the countryside to view the lay of the land. We headed for city of Staunton (pronounced Stanton) knowing nothing at all about it other than it was in about a 1/2 way between camp and Charlottesville VA.
We were both impressed with the city and hoped to get back to it, so today is that day.
Before we left, Bob stopped by after visiting The Lodge and informed us that he and a few of the ladies decided to take what promised to be an easy ride after all. Which turned out to be a “short” 13 mile, with only 1,500 ft. of climbing for today’s adventure. I guess he can call that an easy ride in mountain bike terms.
While all the roads to Staunton from here are country roads, some are moreso than others. So of course, we had to take some of those smaller ones instead. While it did lengthen the projected 30 minute trip to an hour or so, it was so worth the delay. Some of the locations/views, roadways/landmarks from the previous trip to the city had stayed with us and we recognized them as they came to view, some old houses, farms with amazing vistas, or impressively steep grassy hill. Also on this trip were newly built houses, tucked into the hilltops. Sadly apparent is the need for all that predicted rainfall called for but not delivered. The farmers ponds were very low, with cows needing to scramble down steep banks to get to their water source. and in some cases the ponds were totally dried up.
The first thing you notice driving into town is the 214 acre Gypsy Hill Park. It’s more of a community hub than a park. There’s something for everyone with a bandstand, playgrounds, fitness circuit, ball fields and courts, skate area, dog park, community pool, fishing, golf, picnic sites, recycling depot, gardening, and even a managed duck pond and mini train loop.
In 1889, town councilperson Williams Tams had the vision to create the original 85 acre park. “Whereas the people of our city have now no pleasure resort and those who live in small houses without yards are without use of a cool and shady place to spend a few hours on close and sultry evenings…” Another early influence was architect TJ Collins who designed many of the city’s historic buildings and churches in around the turn of the 20th century.
As you proceed through town, it’s apparent there’s something different going on here, a vision grown across many generations that’s rarely encountered in Smalltown USA.
In 1971, the city started protecting their special inventory of buildings and that helped contain later development projects. The city now has six individual historic districts listed with the National Register of Historic Places.
We parked for free in a parking garage that did not look like a parking garage. The design of the building integrated with the architecture of that part of town down by the railroad station. It further integrated itself at street level with a one-room museum dedicated to the Statler Brothers, famous Stauntonites (Stauntonarians?, Stauntoneers?, Stauntonians?).
Built in 2000, it’s a clear indication of the continuing connection from the town’s historical and architectural heritage to current development.
The architecture is an eclectic assemblage. There’s a four-story timber frame and stucco next door to art deco theater. And a beaux arts style bank next to a bank that had a modern facade placed over its historic bones. The steep hills within the town have an interesting mix of greek revival, federal, shingle, and craftsman style homes.
Another thing that distinguishes this town from others is that they have retained their government buildings –court house, city hall– in the center of town. Compare that with Newark’s relocated City Hall and Elkton’s complete removal of the county offices to the Delaware border. The town center, consisting of 4 hilly blocks, is still thriving with a tremendous diversity of commerce and shops and art galleries with few vacancies, operating alongside the government buildings and associated services (lawyers, accountants).
More today if we make another trip to Staunton today. There were a few bakery and brewpubs that were of special interest, but yet unvisited.
UPDATE: We did return to Staunton for another visit and dragged Bob along with us. Unfortunately, most of the places we wanted to visit were closed because of the holiday. So we had lunch and took some more photos.
******* Addendum ********
This will be the last post for this trip, as we are heading home tomorrow bright and early. So for now and until next time, That’s All Folks!!
I love all the pictures and the history you provided. Now I want to visit this place!
These posts were all a delight to read. Thanks for sharing your adventures!