Journeys with Jackson

  Our trip is drawing to a close. The last must see on this adventure was a visit to New River Gorge National Park. We have made numerous trips to West Virginia’s “wild and wonderful” mountains but this was the first opportunity we’ve had to visit the river gorge area. We camped at Babcock State Park so we’d be close enough to do day trips into the national park. Since neither of us are kayakers, rafters or climbers we decided to concentrate on hikes in the Grandview section of the park. The view certainly didn’t disappoint. We loved the untouched beauty of this place.  This was Jackson’s first extended trip and he gets high marks for his “go with the flow” attitude. We feel blessed to have the little dude!

  Growing up, when summer came and school was out, there were two trips my family always made. We had a small pop up trailer we pulled to the lake to camp and later in the summer we traveled for a proper vacation at the ocean. The beaches we visited varied from Virginia Beach to Myrtle Beach and even Daytona. The camping trips were always to an Army Corps of Engineers Park near our home. I think my brother always preferred the trips to the ocean. The camping trips, at the lake, were my favorite. When Mark and I met in college and decided to get married I didn’t want a big wedding but I wanted a meaningful ceremony. I decided marrying on my parents 25th wedding anniversary, using the same pastor who married them and reserving a shelter at the lake, where we’d made so many memories, would be the best fit. My parents pulled the little pop up camper to the lake. I stepped out of it in my wedding dress and my dad walked me down the makeshift aisle. It was a happy day. That was forty yea...

  When Mark and I plan these trips we try to be considerate of each other’s likes and dislikes in regard to activities and events. We share so many common interests that’s not difficult to do. Over the years, one area of interest I might have missed, without the influence of my traveling partner, are National Battlefields. These preserved sites are educational, dog friendly and almost always lightly attended. And as absurd as it sounds they are so often tranquil and peaceful; the complete contradiction of what the area must have been like during battle. Today, in its natural but hallowed state, it is quite impactful. On this trip we managed to visit two major Civil War battlefields- Manassas and Petersburg. The battle at Manassas, or Bull Run, was the site where Union and Confederate troops clashed for the first time on July 21, 1861. The heavy fighting there swept away any notion of a quick war. Four years later, the battle at Petersburg- the longest siege in American warfare- ult...

  In 2009, all three of our children were in college and Mark and I became empty nesters. We decided the best course of action at the time was to abandon the nest. I was 47 and he was 49. We left Tennessee and bought half a row house in downtown Washington, DC, where we lived until the end of 2016, when Mark retired. We’ve often referred to those years as “the greatest years”. That’s not to say that the two decades we spent in the rural south raising a family weren’t great years….they were. But there was something magical about being a couple again, once the kids were on their own, and reinventing ourselves in a new place. We made some amazing memories. We haven’t been back to DC in eight years. We always hesitated to return knowing that as time goes by places and things change but mostly you change. We didn’t want to alter or diminish the memories we made there so many years ago.  But today we are camping outside the metro area, at Pohick Bay Regional Park, and decided to rev...