As I mentioned yesterday, we are camping with family at the Natural Bridge / Lexington KOA.  We let Marilyn sleep until 8 AM, and then got up, got dressed, and started moving around the coach.  Ron and Mary came over around 8:30 – 8:45 AM, Panera Bagel Pack in tow, and we had breakfast in the coach.  Based on the weather forecast, which was overcast for today and a bit sunnier for tomorrow, we decided to go to Lexington, Virginia about 10 miles north of our campground.

As is true of much of the United States, I did not know anything about Lexington.  That turned out to be a bit surprising to me as there are three universities there, and it has a strong connection to the Civil War.  It is full of old, but well preserved/restored architecture, and has become the center of an active artist community.  All of these things combined to give it a very nice look and feel.

Our first stop was at the visitor center where we picked up some maps and got some tips from the staff.  From there we headed towards Main Street, stopping at the home of Stonewall Jackson.  We didn’t tour the inside ($) but the yard was open for an apple cider event.  A trio (banjo, fiddle, and guitar) was performing, and a hand-cranked apple press was in operation.  We walked the rear garden and got to taste some freshly pressed, unpasteurized apple juice.

While we were at the Stonewall Jackson house, we started hearing loud truck horns.  At first I thought they were emergency vehicles on their way somewhere, but we quickly found out that there was a truck parade going down Main Street.  We walked the short distance to the corner and stood there watching tractor after tractor go by.  Most of the rigs were tricked out, polished up, and looking good.  Owning/driving a highway bus doesn’t automatically make you a gear head, but it does tend to heighten you awareness and appreciation of large tractor-trailers.

We walked a little farther up the street to the campus of Washington and Lee University, where Robert E. Lee and many other members of his family are buried in the Robert E. Lee Memorial Chapel.  The founding of the university pre-dates the American Revolution and most of the buildings feature simple, pre-revolutionary era, architecture; red brick with white trim.  It was a very attractive campus, and the house that Robert E. Lee lived in when he was president of the university is still there.

From WLU we walked back to South Main Street to Nikko’s Restaurant, which Linda found on HappyCow.net as a “vegetarian friendly.”  She had a vegan sandwich and I had a portabella mushroom sandwich.  Both were very good.

 

 

After Nikko’s we walked a little farther south to the Jackson Cemetery, where Stonewall Jackson and a number of his family members are interred.  We then walked back to the car and drove to the campus of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), a public 4-year undergraduate college offering a military style education.  Here we visited the Stonewall Jackson museum, which included an excellent collection of firearms ranging from pre-revolutionary era to the present day.

We finished up our time in Lexington with a short drive through the ante-bellum house district and then found the local Kroger supermarket.  Linda and Mary picked up a few things for upcoming dinners and some candy for the kids back at the KOA as they are doing “trick-or-treat” from 6:30 – 7:30 PM this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We gathered in our coach for a while and Ron surprised us with gifts he had made and brought along.  He has become quite expert at making Native American flutes, and had made one for Marilyn, Linda, and me.  He had also made a small harp for Marilyn.  All of them use pentatonic scales, so almost anything you play sounds good, and harmonizes well with what others are playing.

 

Ron and Mary fixed dinner this evening.  They pan-fried vegetables for veggie fajitas, and had black beans, rice, refried beans, salsa, and guacamole, along with chips and a nice green salad.  They also had sour cream and chicken strips for the non-vegans.  We gathered at their Aliner trailer and had dinner on the picnic table.  The trick-or-treaters came around as we were eating and we enjoyed seeing their costumes and giving them the small candy items we had purchased earlier.

After dinner, Mary and Marilyn did the dishes while Ron got a nice campfire going using scraps from his woodworking shop.  Kiln dried hardwood makes a nice fire and we sat around it for a few hours talking about whatever and listen to the screams of joy from the “spooky trail” the campground had set up for the kids.  Sometime around 8 PM music suddenly started up.  It was far enough away to not be obnoxious, but loud enough we could hear it clearly.  It took us a few minutes to figure out that it was a live band and not someone’s entertainment system.  The band wrapped up around 11 PM and so did we.