Started this morning with a beautiful sunny, 65* in the state park. We’re excited for this next adventure! We’ll be camping with our friends Janet & Frank who live in Pennsylvania who we met last year during our first Huddle with “Less Junk More Journey”! (Full timers Nathan & Marissa, who we’ve watched on you-tube for years)! “We found our one, Nathan”!
As we headed out of the park, 2 deer ran across the road to say goodbye! We don’t like taking the major roads unless we have to, this way we see more of this beautiful country we live in. Lots of hay fields, corn fields, rolled hay fields, pastures with lots of cows throughout these back country roads. Just before entering Shenandoah, we stocked up at a Walmart.
1:45 – 73* we entered Shenandoah National Park at the Thornton Gap Entrance Station. What a magnificent drive up to our campground. Got to Matthew’s Arm CG at 1:55 & it’s 70*! Our friends are set up with their Class C on site B119 and we are on site B122. The most uneven sites… we were all the way up on our Anderson Blocks! The tongue jack was as low as it gets! Never in our 43 years camping have we experienced this! (Picture to follow) The rest of the afternoon we visited with our friends & walked the campground. About 6pm we started dinner. We grilled chicken, 🍗🥗 made a big salad bar, Janet turned on their generator to make 4 baked potatoes 🥔 and for dessert…. Mixed berries 🍓🍒🍉🫐 with a fruit topping! 😋 Sat around the campfire till it got too cold to sit out..about 10:30 pm. Traveled 129 miles today!
Thursday, Day 25, 5/25/2023 7:30am 40*🥶🥶🥶. Coffee, tea, showered & dressed and loaded in the truck at 9am! The 4 of us are ready for an adventurous day. Lots of chipmunks 🐿️, squirrels & deer 🦌 running across the road this morning.
1st stop.. The Apple House in Linden, Va. Frank & Janet have been going to this restaurant for over 40 years and suggested we give it a try. OMG homemade apple butter doughnuts & big chunk apple fritters on the counter, how can I even order! Tim & I shared a big breakfast…eggs, 🍳huge stack of pancakes, 🥞home fries, sausage, toast & sourdough biscuits, and an egg sandwich! Down side they were a Pepsi place (Janet loves Pepsi like I like my Diet Coke)!🥤Lets not forget my to-go order….🤷🏻♀️ yes those apple fritters & apple butter doughnuts had to come home with me, 😱🤣
Now it’s our turn and we’re taking our friends to our favorite places to explore….A National Park. Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park. Another first for us….the NP visitor center was in a small strip store front. As we walked in, our mouths dropped for it looked like a regular visitor center with all the displays etc inside. The Ranger was amazing, took us around all the displays and explained to us about the battle then started a movie that had a visual display/map of the battle in front of us. Really 😎 coolest display we’ve ever seen. Then down the road a bit to see the Belle Grove Plantation. We toured the grounds, garden and the plantation. Then drove some of the Battlefield driving tour.
🌞 What a beautiful day to be outside adventuring! A bit windy….and chilly but none the less with friends out in Gods country. Next stop… 7-11 for Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi! (Have a hard time typing that P word) 🫢🤣
Stopped at the North Entrance sign for pictures, then to the visitor center. We toured all the exhibits, watch the movies,talked with the ranger and even bought a magnet along with getting our passport book stamped! Now off to stop at a few of the many overlooks….Signal Knob Overlook-2085 ft, Jenkins Gap Overlook – 2355 ft, Hogwallow Flats Overlook – 2685 ft, & Gravel Springs Gap – 2655 ft. Our campground – Matthew’s Arm CG is 2750 ft.
Back at the CG we packed up the truck and some of our gear for tomorrow is moving day and it will be too cold to do it then! We took a walk before dinner …which we grilled Impossible burgers, baked beans and fruit & salad and apple cider doughnuts! 😋 Talked around the roaring campfire till the cold chased us inside. Traveled 88 miles today
Shenandoah National Park extends along the Blue Ridge Mountains in the U.S. state of Virginia for 105 miles. It was established in 1935. The Skyline Drive runs its length, and a vast network of trails includes a section of the long-distance Appalachian Trail. Then it joins the Blue Ridge Parkway, which goes 469 miles to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park is long and narrow, with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, and the rolling hills of the Va Piedmont to the east. Almost 40% of the park’s land—79,579 acres is wilderness and is protected. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet. Mostly forested, the park features wetlands, waterfalls and rocky peaks like Hawksbill and Old Rag mountains, vistas & beautiful wildflowers.🪻Close to 500 trails to hike! Shenandoah is home to many bird species, plus deer 🦌& fawn, squirrels, chipmunks 🐿️ groundhogs and the elusive black bear. 🐻 Lots of beautiful butterflies too.🦋 Some of the rocks exposed in the park date to over one billion years in age, making them among the oldest in Virginia.
Matthews Arm Campground- Secluded in the thick trees and rolling hills of the Shenandoah National Park, there are no hookups here so be prepared! 165 sites in the 3 loops here. Since this is Bear Country there are bear lockers on the sites.
The Apple House Restaurant & Gift Shop open in 1963, began in the small community of Linden, Virginia. It remains family run. Near the entrance of the park and skyline. They carry a large variety of VIRGINIA products including peanuts, hams, jellies, apple butter, and Alpenglow Sparkling Cider – made in Linden! Also only Virginia wines, over 200 hot sauces, as well as lots of rubs, BBQ sauces, and seasonings…and a local favorite – SLAP YA’ MAMA! And delicious jellies, jams, pickles, preserves, and a selection of No Sugar Added products!But famous for BBQ & Apple Butter Donuts!
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park – October 19, 1864, in the foggy dawn, Confederate soldiers crossed Cedar Creek and the North Fork of the Shenandoah River to surprise sleeping Union soldiers. Fighting raged as the Confederates chased the Union soldiers north. By late morning, Confederate General Jubal Early thought he had won. but Union General Philip Sheridan was racing south from Winchester, determined to rally his stunned troops. By sunset, in an epic reversal of fortune, Early was defeated. Over 8600 Union & Confederate men were killed, wounded or captured that day in one of the bloodiest battles in the Shenandoah Valley. The Union victory at Cedar Creek helped ensure Abraham Lincoln’s re-election as President of the US 3 weeks later. Within 6 months the Civil War was over.
The History of Belle Grove begins with the German immigration into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. In 1732, Jost Hite with his business partner Robert McKay and 16 families, journeyed to the northern Valley to settle on 140,000 acres obtained in two land grants. Isaac Hite Jr, grandson of Jost Hite attended William and Mary College and served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. In 1783, his father gave him and his bride Nelly Conway Madison, sister of a future President of the United States, the 483 acres on which Belle Grove Manor House was later built. In 1794, construction began, and was completed in 1797. The grand mansion was built with limestone quarried on the property and faced the Valley Pike to display the owners social and financial status. Isaac and Nelly Hite had three children and two lived to adulthood.
Belle Grove was occupied by Union or Confederate troops throughout the Civil War. At the time of the Battle of Cedar Creek, Union Gen. Sheridan was using the Manor House as his headquarters and many of his 31,600 troops were camped on the property. The grounds include historic apple orchard, a beautiful garden we got to walk through and the slave cemetery.
Belle Grove, one of the outstanding historic mansions of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, shows evidence of the cultures that came to the Valley with the early settlers. It also identifies with ideas that were shaping architecture at the time. Like other period houses built in the Valley, the design shows Thomas Jefferson’s influence from the Tidewater and Piedmont areas, and also Classical Revival elements, an architectural innovation of the day. The interior is distinguished by fine woodwork in a transitional style ranging from Georgian to Federal periods. Outlasting weather, war, family triumphs and tragedies, Belle Grove testifies to the persistence and courage of those who strove to excel, and who built their homes to make a lasting mark on future generations.
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