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11 minute read

December 26, 2024, 10:03 AM

From December 18-20, Elyse and I took a trip down to Virginia, staying in the Staunton area.  This was the usual one of these trips, where we go down, do stuff, and then see my parents.  This time, we went down via US 29 and back via I-81.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t as big of a photography trip as I’d hoped, owing mostly to weather conditions.  But overall, we had a good time.

We started out with a side trip in Northern Virginia, stopping at a small Polish grocery store in Vienna that Elyse had previously identified.  Nice place.  Then we continued, stopping at an antique mall in Culpeper.  That began as a restroom stop for Elyse, but as it would turn out, they had a big area with model train stuff, which Elyse spent some time looking at.  She ended up getting a small model railcar from there.  I found two things interesting.  First, they had a vintage exit sign in the back:

I had only seen an exit sign like this once before, on an upper level at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.  I suspected that the building wasn’t old enough to have this style of sign, and all of the other exit signs were modern, so why it’s there is something of a mystery.

I also enjoyed these two vintage soda bottles:

I first became acquainted with the Grapette and Orangette sodas when I worked at Walmart, after the Sam’s Choice Grape and Sam’s Choice Orange sodas suddenly became Sam’s Choice Grapette and Sam’s Choice Orangette.  Soon thereafter, an issue of Wal-Mart World had an article about the change, and how the two brands have a history that predates Walmart, but due to various corporate acquisitions and divestments, the formula and the name were under separate ownership.  Once they were able to get the name back with the formula, the two sodas, previously marketed under the Sam’s Choice name, got their original names back.  If this sounds familiar, it’s worth noting that I largely wrote the Wikipedia article about Grapette, so I know a little something about this brand’s history.  So for that, it was neat to see a vintage bottle from the time before Walmart got its hands on things.

From there, we headed down to Charlottesville, where Elyse wanted to visit two toy stores in the downtown area: Shenanigans and Alakazam.  Those were fun.  We only had a few minutes at Shenanigans due to our arrival close to closing, while Elyse was able to spend more time at Alakazam while I did other things on the Downtown Mall.  I ended up finding my way to the Omni, where we stayed for a week in 1992 when we were looking for a house prior to our move to Virginia.  The Omni is a charming combination of vintage and modern, with some things still vintage to the building’s original construction, while some things had clearly been updated over the years.  The idea was to hit the restroom while I was there, and then also see if there was anything interesting as far as toilets or elevators went for Elyse.  The elevators had been modernized relatively recently, so nothing too exciting there, while the urinals in the men’s room were an Eljer model:

Additionally, the fire alarms were Edwards Genesis LEDs:

These use LED strobe technology licensed from Wheelock, making these more or less Wheelock LED Exceders in Edwards clothing.  That was my first time seeing the Edwards model in the field, though I already have one in my collection.

Then after we finished up at our respective places, we got dinner at Christian’s Pizza, which is a by-the-slice pizza place that had all kinds of interesting toppings on pizza, some conventional, and some less conventional.  The pizza also wasn’t greasy, which I greatly appreciated.

Finishing up in Charlottesville, we went to Waynesboro, where we visited the Walmart where I used to work.  I am very appreciative that the store has been remodeled several times since I worked there, because it no longer reminds me of the place that I used to work.  It feels just like any other Walmart store, especially since only a handful of people from my time there still work there.  One thing that I noticed is that the restrooms were pretty bad.  They still sported the design that they had been remodeled to in the fall of 2006, while I still worked there, and the men’s room, at least, smelled pretty nasty (glad to see that nothing has changed).

Center aisle through the clothing.

Lego aisle in the toy department.  Elyse and I were both amused that the cases, ostensibly for security purposes, were just left open.  It was a refreshing feeling of “the hell with it” from my ex-store.

From there, we headed to Staunton and got settled in our hotel.

The next day, we had a full schedule planned.  We had breakfast at Cranberry’s, as we often do, and then we went over to Sunspots Studios, which specializes in glassblowing.  They had a lot of neat pieces, and you can also watch the products being made in their workshop, and even blow your own glass (the idea’s being that it’s your own breath captured inside the piece that you ultimately buy).

The main thrust of the day, however, was to go a little bit south.  There had been a large wildfire in the Big Levels area of George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, and we were going to check it out and see as much as we could see, largely with the drone.  I tend to maintain a safe and respectful distance when photographing such things, and this would be no exception.  We had received news the day that we left that the fire had been fully contained, but “contained” doesn’t necessarily mean “put out”.  So we took a look.  This took us down Route 608 much further than Elyse had ever been, towards Greenville.  We saw a smoke plume as we approached Greenville School Road, but that turned out to be someone doing a small burn on their property, so we continued without stopping.  Ultimately, the wildfire turned out to be a bust for photography, but that’s good as far as everything else went, i.e. I was disappointed for my photography, but I wasn’t mad about it.  We continued until we got to Buena Vista, where I wanted to photograph the town by conventional means and with the drone.  As we were going into Buena Vista, I was telling Elyse that Buena Vista is home to 6002 happy citizens and three old grouches.  She didn’t understand the reference, and then when we turned onto US 501, we passed the sign, seen here in 2005:

Elyse’s reaction upon seeing the sign was, “So you weren’t just messing with me.”

I dropped Elyse off at a nearby Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and then I went out to photograph some stuff.  I had photographed in Buena Vista before, and used to go through Buena Vista all the time, but it had been a while.  I parked next to Parry McCluer Middle School, and put the drone up in the air to see what I could see.

I never realized before then how “lumpy” the mountains looked in Buena Vista, with a lot more gaps than you see elsewhere.

Parry McCluer Middle School.

I then returned to the Habitat store to scoop Elyse.  Not long after we got started, Elyse had to use the restroom, and so we stopped at a place called 501 Roadhouse.  I was going to wait in the car while Elyse used the restroom, but then she messaged me to tell me that I wanted to come in because this was a barbecue restaurant.  So that was that.  It was time to eat anyway, so barbecue it was.  They were awesome.  Definitely recommend them.  I had a good time with them about a mistake on their menu, too:

The lady working the counter laughed at it, too, because her mother was the one who made the menu, and she couldn’t wait to show it to her.

After that, we briefly hit up a Christmas market nearby, and then we made a quick stop at my friend Patrick’s old house from when he and his wife lived in Buena Vista.  He wanted to see how it looked now, so we got a photo:

Then we left Buena Vista and went over to Lexington.  On the way out, I spotted an amusing sign on a convenience store:

“Dear Facebook: Stop saying ‘people I may know’ – I do know them.  I don’t like them.”

A bit of truth there, I suppose.

After that, we briefly hit up a Goodwill store, where we saw a JMU jacket on the rack:

I looked at it sitting there, and couldn’t help but think that someone must have just graduated and was like, “The hell with this jacket.  I am done with college, and I am never wearing this again!”

After this, we went through downtown Lexington, and attempted to visit the shops and such.  Unfortunately, however, we soon learned that unless you’re a restaurant, Lexington rolls up the sidewalks pretty early.  So that was a bust.  We ended up visiting a Tractor Supply and then a Starbucks before going over to Walmart.  Elyse wanted to check out the Hot Wheels.  In the toy area, Elyse noticed liquid in one of the fire alarm strobes:

I posted the photo in a fire alarm group that I’m in on Facebook, and captioned it, “The real question is, who peed in the strobe?”

That was the end of our middle day.  Then on Friday, we had some very specific goals to accomplish.  First, Elyse wanted to go to Wright’s Dairy-Rite, so we did.  I hadn’t been there in about a decade, and Elyse had never been.  That was about as expected, and we saw someone that I used to go to church with while we were there.  We also inquired about the possibility of showing off some vintage buses during their annual car show, either Biscuit 2.0 or something from Commonwealth Coach, and we got an enthusiastic “yes” from the management.  Excellent.

We then went over to Waynesboro.  Elyse wanted to go to Tractor Supply, and while she did that, I flew around the immediate area with the drone.

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church.  I didn’t recognize this church when I spotted it nearby, and when I looked into it, the building was only built a few years ago.  Not a bad looking church, if kind of generic.

Bottles, which is a bar of some sort.  This building has been three different things over the years under the same ownership.  It started out as Orbital Grill, which was a burger joint that failed pretty quickly, and the owner blamed the customers for his failure.  Then it became a Moe’s Southwest Grill, which lasted a few years before closing.  Now it’s Bottles, and we’ll see how well it goes.  All I know is that you won’t find me there, because the owner is a real asshole on social media, and I don’t want to support that.

Zeus Digital Theaters, an independent movie theater.  I never realized that they had solar panels on the roof until I flew over it.

Big Lots shopping center in Waynesboro.  Big Lots’ longtime location was in the space at the left end of the shopping center (where Harbor Freight is now) before relocating to the former Kmart space a few years ago.  I figured that with Big Lots’ going out of business companywide, I might as well get a final shot of it, because it won’t be there next time.

HVAC unit on the roof of the Amazon delivery hub, housed in Kmart’s final Waynesboro location.

Tractor Supply.

From there, our paths would briefly diverge.  I dropped Elyse off in downtown Waynesboro, while I headed up the mountain for a very specific photo subject: Route F182.  Most people who are familiar with I-64 over the mountain will probably recognize F182 as that inclined bridge that goes over the road.  I went up F182 itself and across the bridge, and stopped in a turnaround just past the bridge.  Then from there, whirlybirds away.

View of F182 facing the eastbound direction.

View of F182 facing the westbound direction.

And if anyone ever wondered what F182 actually looks like on top of the bridge, here it is.

Let’s admit: the most interesting thing about Route F182 is the bridge with its somewhat steep incline.  Otherwise, F182, also known as Royal Orchard Drive, is pretty boring.  It goes from US 250 up a steep incline, across the bridge, and then the state-maintained portion ends at a turnaround just after the bridge.  The road continues on as a private drive for about 1.3 miles, leading to a place called Scott Castle (further information here and here).  This seems worth investigating on a future trip.

Returning to Waynesboro, I parked like a rebel:

Such a rebel, I am.  I admit, though, that the only reason I parked backwards was because the only available street parking was on the eastbound side, I was pointed westbound, and would be continuing westbound leaving downtown.  In other words, it seemed somewhat pointless to flip the car around twice.

Once I got settled, I went in search for Elyse.  First, I went into Luke’s Hobbies, but Elyse had already been and gone from there.  Then I went over to the P. Buckley Moss Gallery, which Elyse had mentioned wanting to go to.  I checked that place out a bit while I was in there, as I had wanted to go there for some time.  I wonder what the gallery’s future is, though, now that Moss is no longer with us.  After looking around the gallery, I called Elyse, only to find out that she was at the South River Fly Shop, a little fishing store a few spots down the hill from the Moss gallery.  They seemed like a neat place, and we should check them out more thoroughly on a future visit, but there was no time for that on this trip, as we wanted to go to Sharp Shopper before seeing my parents, and going to see my parents had a hard deadline of 5:00.

Sharp Shopper was as expected, and this was a full shopping visit for us.  We don’t normally do a full shop while traveling, but we were there, Sharp Shopper was there, and we needed to do a Sharp Shopper run anyway.  So rather than doing a separate run out to Winchester to hit up that location, it made enough sense just to do it.  So we had the HR-V pretty much full to the gills with trip stuff plus copious amounts of food to bring home.

The visit to my parents was pretty straightforward.  We arrived, and then we went out in Mom’s car to a Thai place in Staunton, which seems to be the only restaurant in that former Golden Corral building to have any sort of staying power there.  And I’m glad that they do, because the place is awesome.

Then after visiting with the parents, we headed home.  All in all, not a bad trip, though I admit that cloudy skies made for less photography than I might have wanted.

Categories: Family, Fire alarms, Friends, Roads, Staunton, Travel, Virginia, Waynesboro