Madison to Harrisonburg to Winchester VA

We are staying in Madison, Va. at the Madison Vines RV resort.  A nice enough place.  Lots of recent upgrades.  Talked a bit with the staff who informed us that the park was purchased a couple years ago from an older couple who had kind of let it go.  A common enough story too.  Youngish people purchase the campground, poor their capital and energy into it for a few years, but inevitably, they get older, their capitol runs dry as does their energy and probably to some degree their interest.  Anyway, park was purchased and is in the midst of a renovation.   Good for the park.  It fits her well.  The new bath and laundry houses, cabin homes, paved roadways, fresh gravel and mulch, new electrical infrastructure, game room, event room, camp store.  The staff told us that the guy who bought the place does this with campgrounds.  Finds some older parks, buys them, fixes them up and sells them.  As long as the market allows, its a good deal for everyone.  

Lets take a ride today.  Sun was shinning, day was bright, nothing on the agenda, really.  just another day in retirement paradise.    We are just to the east of the lovey Shenandoah Valley, so come on.  Make a plan and hit the road.  Our rough plan was drive east, enter the valley, drive up the valley and find a couple nice cities/towns to support with a little Christmas shopping.

This year, we are intentional about shopping locally and not on-line!  No Amazon, no Walmart.  Just some smaller local businesses, who survive most years based on their Christmas season sales.  We may pay a little more, but its the principle.

We got up and hit the road about 9 am.  Our first objective was Harrisonburg, then onto Winchester.  We were going to go as far north as Shepardstown, but the day started running out on us.  We did some Christmas shopping in Harrisonburg, a nice mid sized town of 50,000 in Virginia.  Walked around a bit and supported a couple little shops.  Drove up to Winchester, drove around a bit until we found the historic little downtown street with shops that was decorated for the Christmas season.  Very cute.  

Shopped at a couple stores and had lunch, a very good lunch I should add at   then headed back to Madison.  We have an old lab named Jazzy.  Shes in her 14th year and has trouble with alot of up and down out of the truck, so she stayed home.  8 hrs is about as long as we want to make her wait to get outside to pee ;)

 

 

 

I found this statue near the downtown shopping area in Winchester.  Winchester is about 25,000 people.

If you happened to read any of my other posts, you know I am a civil war enthusiast.  So I had to capture this fella.  The inscription said something like "honoring all the Virginia boys who fought for the south".

We passed about ten  "civil war trails" signs as we drove around yesterday.  A reminder that Virginia saw more battle than any other state during the civil war.  

We actually saw a sign driving on I 81 that provided a local radio station that we listened to that discussed the battle of New Market.  A smaller scale battle that involved the all black 54th Massachusetts.  They assaulted a confederate strong hold in May of 64 and lost a lot of men.  A brave battle by brave men on both sides. 

And, back at the campground in time to light up a nice camp fire to round out the day.

Cheers.