The Two Hundred and Twenty Seventh...

Number Two Hundred and Twenty Seven:

CAMPING PART 3

Baine's Books and Coffee, Ice Latte, Scone

The third day of camping. Lisa and I are usually pretty quick camp breakers. We wake early, cook breakfast and have coffee, then get the tent down. Now, if the Park has more to do that we are looking forward to, Kiptopeke for example has a beach, we would do it. James River State Park has plenty to do, but we were feeling another adventure. We looked at our gazetteer and saw the town of Appomattox. Yes, that Appomattox, where Lee surrendered to Grant and basically ended the Civil War. We weren't necessarily interested in the Civil War aspect (well, I was, but I knew Lisa would not be), but to visit the small town would be nice. We threw the invite to Ceci, who declined; the boys wanted to get home (to Xbox) and she said there was nothing much in Appomattox. I hadn't been in years, but I knew that small towns these days most always had their "Art" communities and Antique stores.

Row of bride & grooms at one of the shops in Appomattox

Well, there really wasn't much in Appomattox. A nice town for sure, and the swell coffee shop / bookstore / hipster joint for my Napstache was fine, but we didn't linger there long. After one antiques mall and a latte, we headed to Farmville, a bigger town, it has a college, and lunch. One thing I am a fan of when coming to a town you don't know much about, is hitting the Visitor's Center and asking the locals where to go. The lady there had a few suggestions, the last being this place called Charley's Waterfront Cafe, which is directly across from the ultimate in old white people furniture shopping: Green Front Furniture. We weren't much for furniture shopping, although they DID have an awesome selection of bizarre outdoor statues, but we were interested in lunch.

We also noticed ANOTHER state park, one that wasn't in our VA State Park Passport Program book checklist, High Bridge Trail State Park. It is a 20 or so mile railroad embankment that they converted to a multi-use trail that sprawls through the town and beyond. After lunch, we walked on it a bit. Very cool and a strange juxtaposition of having a State Park and art gallery main street next to each other.

Art and hiking.

After the walk we were home-bound to empty the car of our camping gear, shower, and rest up before our friend Melissa's 40th Birthday Party! A long, exhilarating day!

The Two Hundred and Twenty Sixth...

Number Two Hundred and Twenty Six:

CAMPING PART 2

James River State Park, Lunch, Ham Sandwich

The next day after breakfast, we went to the Canoe Livery, rented some inner tubes and took to the James on a two mile float. It was extremely relaxing, I hadn't gone tubing in years, the kids loved it and we did too. There weren't a lot of rapids necessarily, but some decent enough ripples to work you up. The halfway point was a giant boulder coming up out of the river, with an island like sandbar on the opposite side. There was already a group of people on the island, so we went for the rock. We found a nice sized snake skin there, then a few of us wanted to try and cross the river to the island after the break. All but two made it after some goofy-ass paddling to get over. The two left were Ceci and one of her boys who meandered around the other side of the bank and apparently came across a big ass snake while doing so. That set Ceci's mojo off a bit.

Anyway, we finished floating down, the trip taking about 2-3 hours after goofing off at the halfway, and then the stoner-like Livery guy came and picked us up to take us back. As he drove us around the park back to the Livery, he told us about the three sets of small graveyards that were around the park. He pointed to two on the way, but said he couldn't remember where the third one was located. They were from the previous owners of the land. We had lunch back at the campsite, Ceci insisting on cooking for the boys while Lisa and I very low keyly made ham sammies. Ceci really wanted the exchange student, Francois, to be involved in a Napstache, so we did the one here. The kid probably had no idea what this whole 365 Project is about, but he certainly understood the humor of putting a napkin on your face to look like a moustache!

The afternoon was spent with the kids continuing to play in the River, while Lisa and I went looking for showers to take. Later in the evening, after dinner, Ceci, Lisa & I went to hike the "money shot" hike that they advertise for the place; the Tye River overlook. It was a nice energetic walk uphill to view. The overlook was very pretty, a place where two rivers meet:

Tye River Overlook

But as you can tell, the time of day was a little off for peak enjoyment. The sun was directly on us, like a magnifying glass to ants, very hot and we didn't linger there long. As we were heading back, nearing the car which was parked near the visitor's center, we found the third graveyard! All of us were curious as to how old the graves were, so we headed up the embankment to check it out. It was the Dixon family plot, with the oldest grave being from the Victorian era, the newest was 2009! We paid our respects among the yucca and shade then headed back to camp. A good solid day at a State Park!

Yucca and Dixon Graves

The Two Hundred and Twenty Fifth...

Number Two Hundred and Twenty Five:

CAMPING PART 1

James River State Park, Hot Dogs

Okay, I know I am backlogged on Napstaches. They have been done, one a day, I just need to blog them, over today and tomorrow (real day of this post is Saturday), I will catch up the days missed. Here is the first in the camping voyage.

We arrived at JRSP in the early afternoon, in time to set up camp on one of the largest campsites I have ever seen in State Parks. We took two spots in the primitive section on the river, "primitive" meaning we basically shared an executive port-o-let with the rest of the people in the area --yuck. Sweet spot though, beautiful view as Lisa and I ate hot dogs, while our friend Ceci, who brought her two boys and the French foreign exchange student, had the fancier tacos.

After we ate, the boys stayed behind missing their X-Box while we took a nice hike where I did the above stache with the trail map. Then we had this view:

Good first night!