16 replies on “Saturday’s drive.”

  1. Oy. You’ll be driving in the rain, looks like. Not much to not-be-missed, particularly in the realm of food — but those are beautiful roads. Goshen Pass is the main attraction there. Have fun!

  3. We’ll have beautiful weather in the Valley on Saturday, rain rolls in late, possibly freezing.

    I would skip Covington and have brunch in old-town Staunton. Do the Rt.42 section to Goshen and stay on Rt.39 to Rt.220 where you go north. At Monterrey you come back east on Rt.250 to either the Bullpasture River valley (rt.654), or the Cowpasture River valley (rt.614) and drive north up the headwaters of the James.

    If you go with the Cowpasture River you can play Find-the-Divide where the James River drainage meets the Potomac drainage (South Fork Potomac). At Sugar Grove (U.S. Naval sat.farm)go right and start looking for the road up the mountain to the right. It becomes WV. rt 628 at some point you’ll start seeing signs for Reddish Knob. This is a great road-accessible overlook (4,400 ft) with spectacular views of the Shenandoah Valley, Massanutten Mtn., and your entire days drive, including the City of Harrisonburg, home of Virginia’s youngest Democratic Mayor – Kai Degner!

    Take Rt.954 back down the mountain and onto Rt.257 into Dayton and Harrisonburg. If the weather is holding out, stay on Rt. 33 into Albemarle County. If you are a meat eater, check out Hank’s Smoke House in McGaheysville (9 miles east of Hburg) for dinner (good brews, fine wine selection, bar-b-que).

    Happy New Year y’all!

  5. That is such beautiful country. The only stops should be to take pictures.

    If you haven’t stopped in downtown Staunton to see Bruce Elder’s classic car showroom, he opens it up Saturdays for visitors. Tell him I sent you, you may end up getting a personal tour of his amazing collection.

  6. Not much in Covington, lunch-wise. I usually hit the Subway next to the courthouse.

    Monterey is beautiful… little known fact — Highland County has the highest mean elevation of any county in the U.S. east of the Mississippi.

    Have fun.

  8. I actually did! The trip was engineered in part with that in mind. Both my wife and I were able to check off Allegheny, Bath, and Highland Counties, as well as Covington. (I actually checked them off the list when we got home. :) I’m pleased to say that I broke the 100 mark, with 102 in all. That leaves 31 (or possibly 32, since I can’t remember if I’ve been to Falls Church).

    Though there are some scattered municipalities around the state that I haven’t been to yet (like the scrum of small, skinny counties along the Chesapeake), the great majority are in SWVA—Lee, Scott, Wise, Norton, Dickenson, Galax, Buchanan, Russell, Bland, Patrick, Wythe, Carroll… I’ll be able to check off a whole mess of ’em in the span of a long weekend, hopefully come spring.

  14. Looks like you missed one of the best parts of Highland county. Right up there in the point is a huge area left over from the last ice age, with forests more like Canada including spruce and fir. They’ve even got animals too that seem out of place in Virginia like fishers, and snowshoe hares. It’s like stepping into a forest straight out of Hansel and Gretel.

  16. I’m sorry I didn’t see this post sooner, as I would have recommended Cucci’s Restaurant as a suitable lunch establishment in Covington.

    Honest to God, there’s an item on their menu called the “Sloppy Cucci” which is basically just their (unoriginal) take on the Sloppy Joe.

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