July 6
Roanoke to Middletown started on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have had so much of the picturesque and scenic that I can’t wait to get back to Newark.
We left the Parkway to go to Lexington Virginia. On the way south on I-81, I had seen a sign that said Lexington was the home town of Stonewall Jackson. Why, next to the shrine at Guinea Station, Jackson’s home would have to be the Sedona, Arizona, of Stonewall Jackson mysticism. I had to go there.
The man at the Lexington visitors center didn’t say Jackson was born there, but his house was a couple of blocks up the street. He lived there from 1851 until he joined the Confederate Army in 1861.
He was a professor of philosophy and of artillery at Virginia Military Institute, which is in Lexington. I guess mastering both those subjects make anyone extremely persuasive.
We discovered that Washington and Lee University is also in Lexington. After he was paroled, or pardoned, or whatever, after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was named president of Washington University. He held that job until 1869, when he had a stroke and died of pneumonia a few days later.
He could fight the U.S. Army for four years and come out all right, but four years of college kids made his head blow up. They added Lee’s name to the university after he died.
There is a marble cenotaph in the Lee Chapel on the university campus. It reminded me of the ones we saw in St. Paul’s in London. This one showed Lee during his insurrection years, sleeping in his Confederate uniform on the battlefield next to his saber. He appears serene. Perhaps he is dreaming of carnage. Generals may do that.
I have read recently, probably on a website somewhere, a quote attributed to Lee. It was advice to the young men of the university. In those days, only men attended universities. It was about hewing to the just and the right, and also avoiding spirituous liquors. No wonder he was belligerent. Lee needed to lighten up.
I think he is buried not under the monument but in the crypt of the chapel. The Lee Chapel is on the campus of the university. There is also a Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal (what else?) Church next to the campus but apparently independent of the school. This is the church Lee used to attend.
We also saw the monument to Stonewall Jackson at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington.
We drove up U.S. Route 11, which in Virginia at least, is called the Lee-Jackson Highway. We drove through Staunton, past the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. Wilson was born there, and right near his house is a sign for the Stonewall Jackson Conference Center.
I think we also passed a Stonewall Motel and maybe Stonewall Motors used cars. Today’s photo is Joanna visits Stonewall.
That’s his house in Lexington behind her.
Everybody is lovely and charming down here, but just a little bit crazy when it comes to the Civil War. That and the hiking trails in the woods are the region’s main tourist attractions. Admit it now: When was the last time you said, I have to go visit the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
But battlefields and bullets, acting out Daniel Boone, standing on the mountaintop and making wisecracks, getting rescued from the heat--now, that’s what travel is all about.
And the cult of Stonewall Jackson? That is funny and well worth a drive of a few hundred miles.
A little way south of Strasburg, there is a covered bridge not far from the highway. We had to be careful when we got out to explore it because it’s still in use. When we were walking inside, we had to stand by the wall from time to time to let a car go by. It’s very dark in there and, coming out of the sunlight the drivers couldn’t see us.
If I had a pumpkin for a head (well, the "if" is debatable), I could have performed some real mischief.
Another cool thing about this bridge, aside from the novelty of its being covered, is the approach. You pull off the highway onto what must have been the drive to the big house on a long-gone plantation. The road runs straight between two large fields that extend all the way from Route 11 to the bridge. They may be several acres each.The road is lined with huge hardwoods. It looks like something from “Gone With the Wind.” But that’s appropriate because, although it’s Virginia and not Georgia, the same wind blew this place away, too.
We also stopped in New Market. I'd been there before. I may have stayed in a motel near the town during one of my previous raids into Rebel territory. There was a battle of New Market. Of course, that's not a big distinction in this neighborhood.There was a battle of almost every town along Route 11 in Virginia. Confederate soldiers, a sign says, used signal flags on top of one of the buildings in the town.
There's a log house, too. I thought it was a reproduction but apparently it's original.
One thing I noticed is that the Manor Memorial United Methodist Church sits right next to the Smith Creek Regular Baptist Church. Do the United Methodists get along with the Regular Baptists? Do they even speak to each other on Sunday mornings? If I walked between the two buildings would they fall on top of me?
The Wayside Inn in Middletown was started in 1797. It serves Virginia wines, including a cabernet franc that was only available by the bottle. It’s a little bit sharp, but very tasty. Joanna finished a glass of it.
The inn claims the peanut soup is made according to a recipe that dates to the founding of the hotel. The spoonbread is like cornbread mixed with eggs. The lamb shank, as advertised, fell off the bone.
No room for dessert. I finished off the wine in the room and fell asleep.
Day 8, Middletown to Home
July 7
Went exploring the Wayside this morning. Some of the structure is original, and like all old places, more was tacked on later. If you’re tall, you’ll have to duck now and then for low beams. The inn opened in the year that Washington died, and there are prints of him and a few of Martha, too, all over the place. Also portraits of unidentified people. Some may be originals, but I really wouldn’t know.
The inn is easy to find. It sits right on the Lee-Jackson Highway, which follows Main Street in Middletown. Out front there is a historical marker that says Stonewall Jackson succeeded in some kind of maneuver that forced a Union general to divide his army.
That was in May 1862. Stonewall Jackson didn’t have long to go after that.
Got back home around 4:30 Saturday, after a drive of about 1,800 miles, but aromas and the lights and the colors were fantastic. There was also Cabela's, sitting on a bluff over Route 78, so we had to stop there and look at firearms and stuffed animals. Who the hell shoots prairie dogs? They're cute.
I was thinking about buying a .22 short, but decided to keep my life simple and bought a switchblade instead.
I am back in New Jersey, so dinner was chicken cacciatore with bread from Calandra’s bakery.
The cat is happy.
Be well, all.
Harry
That’s his house in Lexington behind her.
Everybody is lovely and charming down here, but just a little bit crazy when it comes to the Civil War. That and the hiking trails in the woods are the region’s main tourist attractions. Admit it now: When was the last time you said, I have to go visit the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
But battlefields and bullets, acting out Daniel Boone, standing on the mountaintop and making wisecracks, getting rescued from the heat--now, that’s what travel is all about.
And the cult of Stonewall Jackson? That is funny and well worth a drive of a few hundred miles.
A little way south of Strasburg, there is a covered bridge not far from the highway. We had to be careful when we got out to explore it because it’s still in use. When we were walking inside, we had to stand by the wall from time to time to let a car go by. It’s very dark in there and, coming out of the sunlight the drivers couldn’t see us.
If I had a pumpkin for a head (well, the "if" is debatable), I could have performed some real mischief.
Another cool thing about this bridge, aside from the novelty of its being covered, is the approach. You pull off the highway onto what must have been the drive to the big house on a long-gone plantation. The road runs straight between two large fields that extend all the way from Route 11 to the bridge. They may be several acres each.The road is lined with huge hardwoods. It looks like something from “Gone With the Wind.” But that’s appropriate because, although it’s Virginia and not Georgia, the same wind blew this place away, too.
We also stopped in New Market. I'd been there before. I may have stayed in a motel near the town during one of my previous raids into Rebel territory. There was a battle of New Market. Of course, that's not a big distinction in this neighborhood.There was a battle of almost every town along Route 11 in Virginia. Confederate soldiers, a sign says, used signal flags on top of one of the buildings in the town.
There's a log house, too. I thought it was a reproduction but apparently it's original.
One thing I noticed is that the Manor Memorial United Methodist Church sits right next to the Smith Creek Regular Baptist Church. Do the United Methodists get along with the Regular Baptists? Do they even speak to each other on Sunday mornings? If I walked between the two buildings would they fall on top of me?
The Wayside Inn in Middletown was started in 1797. It serves Virginia wines, including a cabernet franc that was only available by the bottle. It’s a little bit sharp, but very tasty. Joanna finished a glass of it.
The inn claims the peanut soup is made according to a recipe that dates to the founding of the hotel. The spoonbread is like cornbread mixed with eggs. The lamb shank, as advertised, fell off the bone.
No room for dessert. I finished off the wine in the room and fell asleep.
Day 8, Middletown to Home
July 7
Went exploring the Wayside this morning. Some of the structure is original, and like all old places, more was tacked on later. If you’re tall, you’ll have to duck now and then for low beams. The inn opened in the year that Washington died, and there are prints of him and a few of Martha, too, all over the place. Also portraits of unidentified people. Some may be originals, but I really wouldn’t know.
The inn is easy to find. It sits right on the Lee-Jackson Highway, which follows Main Street in Middletown. Out front there is a historical marker that says Stonewall Jackson succeeded in some kind of maneuver that forced a Union general to divide his army.
That was in May 1862. Stonewall Jackson didn’t have long to go after that.
Got back home around 4:30 Saturday, after a drive of about 1,800 miles, but aromas and the lights and the colors were fantastic. There was also Cabela's, sitting on a bluff over Route 78, so we had to stop there and look at firearms and stuffed animals. Who the hell shoots prairie dogs? They're cute.
I was thinking about buying a .22 short, but decided to keep my life simple and bought a switchblade instead.
I am back in New Jersey, so dinner was chicken cacciatore with bread from Calandra’s bakery.
The cat is happy.
Be well, all.
Harry
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