No Oceans on Eleven

The drive from Washington to Winchester on Route 50 is an attractive one, as you go through Middleburg (OK it was very hot, I had a small lunch and I did stop for a delicious strawberry ice cream cone), which has its own attractions and Upperville (now you see it, now you don't), and by an incredible number of large estates (and you know there are many more that you do not see).

For a city of about 25,000, Winchester offers a lot. I already posted about Little Me at Shenandoah University, where there is a lot of construction going on, including a new student center and a new business school. Historically, you can visit an office which George Washington, the surveyor, used, as well as headquarters of Generals Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson. There is a museum devoted to the Civil War in the 1840 court house (now replaced), perhaps the most attractive library I have seen (built in 1912 and restored most recently in 2000), and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, a new museum and landscaped grounds devoted to the history and culture of the region which apparently is well worth seeing. There are also a significant number of large, distinctive older houses, well maintained.

Driving south on Highway 11, the country is beautiful and you get near (not exactly to) Front Royal, where I had lunch, and which appears to have less interest to the traveler, although Shenandoah Caverns nearby must be worth exploring. Continuing the drive south on 11, you go through Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, Harrisonburg (home of James Madison U), Verona and Staunton (home of Woodrow Wilson, another town filled with historic interest). Then you pass close to Lynchburg (VMI and the Jerry Falwell world), and finally get to Roanoke, where I am now, a city of 250,000, where I have never been (and which I guess sitting here, I will never need to come again). I will use this morning to explore, before going about 150 more miles down the road to the Tennessee border.