Virginia

Year of First Visit – 1998

Point of Entry – I-81 near Bristol

Many of my memories of Virginia start include heavy traffic.  Most trips in and out of Virginia, and there have been many, involve severe traffic in the Northern Virginia DC suburbs continuing down I-95 past Fredericksburg.

Trying to write about Virginia memories is a lot like trying to negotiate that traffic.  I have so many memories coming at me from so many different directions that they jam up when I try to put some order to them.

Like driving Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and going deep into Luray Caverns.  Or spending a couple of Spring Break days in Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown.  Or a stress-relieving day trip to Washington's Birthplace and another one at his Mt. Vernon estate.

Plus spending five years on staff at summer youth camp followed by another eight years of dropping kids off and picking them up a week later.

And what about the chance I had in July of 2001 to spend time in the control tower at Dulles or riding the subway to take a friend to National Airport on September 10 of that same year?

Then there's the VA in Delmarva walking through the fence from Maryland on Assateague and the wildlife refuge on Chincoteague or the cool drive on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.

Plus there were so many church meetings (including training, staff meetings, conferences, business meetings, reunions) in Springfield and Stafford and Hampton and Chester that I couldn't begin to sort them out.

Yes, memories of the commonwealth are thick.  Whether it's a vacation destination or that less-than-a-mile trip through the state on US-340 between Maryland and West Virginia, Virginia promises to jam up more memories on each trip.