On Thursday we left North Carolina and headed into Virginia. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop with the iconic Virginia slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers.” (It’s hard for me to believe that this 1969 campaign wasn’t referencing the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, but a quick on-line investigation wasn’t conclusive. If anyone has good sources on this, I’m interested in learning more about it.)
We stopped in the early afternoon at Hungry Mother State Park; it came recommended as a family-friendly spot not far from the highway. It’s a great park with trails, swimming, boating, and lots of other fun activities. Definitely aimed at families, there are plenty of things intended specifically for kids. We loved, for example, a nature scavenger hunt brochure that had Griffin and Maggie hunting for mushrooms, wildflowers, and other features of the region. We had nothing but positive interactions with park staff and a super-friendly ranger.
Two down-sides for us, that don’t reflect on the park at all:
- Hot and humid—it was tough getting to sleep with all of us in a steamy tent together. We ended up taking off the rain fly even though there was a decent chance of rain. Even so, the tent was uncomfortable. So between the thunderstorm in Illinois and the heat in Virginia, we’ve not done well with sleep while camping yet.
- Aggressive wasps—Sarah was stung on Friday morning outside the tent. Then Maggie and I were both stung (Maggie twice!) crossing a bridge by the lake. In a totally bizarre turn of events, Griffin was stung in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday—this is more stings in 24 hours than I’ve dealt with in my entire life. Fortunately, none of us have allergies to stings yet.
