Our final weekend in Asheville was pretty quiet, and we departed early on Monday for our next stop. After six full weeks in North Carolina, we crossed the border into Virginia to start our journey back north. We stopped in Roanoke, VA and our primary destination there was “Black Dog Salvage”…if you’ve ever seen the show “Salvage Dawgs” on DIY network, this is their workshop and retail store. Mark has been a fan of the show for many years (it ran for 11 seasons but has sadly ended its run) – if you’ve never seen it, they go to buildings that are going to be torn down or renovated and salvage whatever they possibly can – from doors and windows to architectural components. So, in their shop they sell those salvaged items, along with beautiful pieces they create from salvaged materials. We had hoped for a celebrity sighting of Mike or Robert, but neither was around. We had fun walking through and admiring their work – some gorgeous pieces of furniture. Mark really enjoyed seeing all the tables and woodworking pieces.

From there, we headed to Mill Mountain…atop the mountain sits The Roanoke Star, the world’s largest manmade star. The star measures 88.5 feet high and weighs about 10,000 lbs. It was erected in 1949 to symbolize the progressive spirit of Roanoke, known as the star city of the south. Apparently they light it up at night, and I’m guessing it looks pretty cool, since you can see it from pretty much anywhere in the Roanoke Valley (it sits about 1000 feet above the city). There’s a nice overlook there where you can see for miles across the Valley and to the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountains.

And then we continued North to the town of Natural Bridge, VA – our destination for the next two nights. It’s a really hilly campground with lots of trees, and it’s definitely the quietest campground we’ve stayed at this trip because it’s literally in the middle of nowhere. There’s no highway noise, no trains, no ducks or geese (like there were in Asheville/Swannanoa)…just peace and quiet!

Tuesday afternoon, we drove a few miles to Natural Bridge State Park. The highlight of the park, as you probably guessed, is a Natural Bridge. There’s some really interesting history, as it is believed that George Washington was there in 1750 to survey the area, and carved his initials in the wall of the bridge. In 1774, Thomas Jefferson purchased land that included Natural Bridge from King George III, calling it “the most sublime of nature’s works”. The arch is massive, measuring 215 feet high and 90 feet wide. It was carved by Cedar Creek, a small tributary of the James River. Amazing! U.S. Route 11 runs on top of the bridge.

We did a 2-mile hike that took us through the Natural Bridge and out to 30-ft tall Lace Falls. It was a beautiful hike, bordering Cedar Creek, and with a few spots to enjoy along the way, including a cave, lost river, and a re-creation of a Monacan Village (the Natural Bridge was a sacred site of the Native American Monacan tribe).

From the state park, we headed East a short distance to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had hoped to drive some of it in North Carolina, but there were several closures due to rock slides and winter maintenance, so it would have been incredibly challenging to get anywhere! But, in VA, the road was open, so we went to several overlooks to enjoy the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It seems like our travel days have mostly been forecast for rain, so we’ve gotten really good at packing things up the prior evening, to minimize how much has to be done in the rain…and once again, this came into play…the forecast for Wednesday was rain. All day. So, there was very little to do in the morning, especially because we decided not to hook up the car initially since we had a stop planned about 45 minutes from the campground where driving the RV with the car would be tricky (narrow streets, small parking lots). From the campground, we drove separately, heading North to Staunton, VA. We stopped at a WalMart (we like their parking lots…usually huge with lots of room to maneuver!) and left RoVer there, and continued our drive into town to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum.

The first interesting thing we learned is that, while spelled Staunton, the town is pronounced Stanton. We toured the Manse where Wilson was born in 1856; his father was a Presbyterian minister and, as we learned on the tour, a Manse is specifically the house occupied by the minister of a Presbyterian church! It was an interesting contrast to see the simplicity of the lower level, which was only used by the family and the servants, vs. the more elegant upper levels where many social and church gatherings would occur. Also, the rear of the home was more stately and elegant than the front, since that’s what the people in the town below would see as they looked up the hill to the house. While he was born there, Wilson only lived in Staunton for a short time as his father moved to another church in Georgia for many of his early years, but the town obviously adores their most famous son. While we know him as Woodrow Wilson, his first name was actually Thomas and he was “Tommy” growing up.

The museum had an interesting exhibit about a WWI bunker – since Wilson’s 2^nd term was basically consumed by WWI – and there was info on his role in the Treaty of Versailles and his desire to create The League of Nations. He was unsuccessful during his lifetime, but the United Nations ultimately filled that role. I think this info summarized Wilson’s presidency best…when he entered office in 1913, Britain was the dominant world power. When he left office eight years later, the US had taken over that role. Wilson had served as President of Princeton University and Governor of New Jersey before his two terms as president, so there were artifacts from all of those times in his life. Perhaps most impressive was the original 1919 Pierce-Arrow Presidential limousine that Wilson used during and after his presidency (fun fact, it was manufactured in Buffalo, NY). Overall, another interesting Presidential museum…we’ve been to a few now, and have many more on our list.

We continued back to WalMart, waited for a break in the rain, and got the car hitched up so we could finish our journey into Maryland. Of course, we hit the DC beltway around rush hour and traffic was heavy…so we added about 45 minutes to our timing and arrived at our campground in College Park, MD after 5pm. This is our final campground of our trip…four nights here and then it’s time to head towards home! We stayed at this campground last April, on our very first RoVer adventure…it’s really the only option anywhere near Washington DC.

After dinner, I had to run a couple errands, and needed to gas up Plum. LOVE getting gas in Maryland right now – the Governor instituted a 30-day gas tax holiday, so I only paid $3.54 a gallon at the nearby Costco. What a difference from the $4.19-$4.29 we were paying in NC a few days ago. But, still higher than what we were paying when this trip started (around $3.50). We will definitely fill up RoVer before we cross the border into PA on Sunday!