Cody’s blog

Chippokes State Park
695 Chippokes Park Rd.
Surry, VA 23883

757-294-3728

November 5 – 11, 2024

After Powhatan State Park, we moved on to Chippokes State Park, after a short two-hour drive. My site was once again sloped and off level, both front-to-back and side-to-side. But it also had its advantages: it was at the top of the loop, and it was a wheelchair-accessible site, so there was a concrete pad beside it and a paved path to the bathhouse directly behind it. It also had a nice level tent pad, which however was of no use to me. (I brought my tent but never set it up — it was mostly too cold to stay outside in an unheated tent, and besides, I didn’t think Davey would fare well in a tent or being left alone in the van.)

The loop I stayed in was the A loop, which is most likely the older loop, with tent sites and uneven pads. The B loop had larger, more level paved sites, but there were no sites available in loop B when I reserved my spot. My brother and SIL originally had a site in B loop, but moved to loop A to be closer to me, and they also ended up in a very sloped site. The sites on the inside of the loop seemed to be the sloped ones, while the outside sites looked more level. I’ll remember that If I ever stay at Chippokes again!

We took a drive around the park in the afternoon, stopping at the Visitors Center, where there were dioramas of local wildlife along with the usual tee-shirts and other tourist items. Behind the Visitors Center was a path that led down to the beach along the bay, and were treated to some beautiful views.

Wednesday, we visited the plantation area of the park. Chippokes is the site of one of the oldest continuously farmed plantations in the country, which has been a working farm since 1619. The Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum preserves some of the original buildings and contains exhibits of farm machinery and household items used at the farm during its long history.

Then we had lunch at the Surry Seafood Company, a lovely restaurant located right on the water. There were a lot of boats docked at the small marina outside, with walkways that led up to the restaurant, so boaters could sail right up to the restaurant and enter from the water. I had a delicious salmon Caesar salad.

On Thursday we took the free ferry from Surry across the James River to historic Jamestown, home of the first permanent English settlement in the United States. We walked around the site, watched a short movie about the history of Jamestown at the Visitor Center, bought stuff in the gift shop, looked at displays, and ate a packed lunch on a bench outside. We could see the site of the original James Fort, but didn’t pay to go inside the fee area. Then we drove around the island loop, enjoying the scenery.

Finally, we visited the Jamestown Glasshouse, where glassblowers have been making glass items since 1607. We watched the artisans create stemmed glassware, one of many glass objects still made at the site. I bought a small brandy glass there. Then it was back across the river to our campground.

Friday was a quiet day at the campground. I spent most of the day in the van reading and playing games. After dinner, I went over to J&J’s site to hang around the camp fire for a while.

On Saturday, we returned to the Plantation site to tour the mansion, a two-story brick building with four rooms to a floor and a belvedere on top.

After we got back to camp, I spent the rest of the day getting the van in shape, first taking it to the dump station to empty the cassette and gray tank, re-doing the leveling blocks when I got back, figuring out how to open and close the little side windows that tended to get stuck when the van wasn’t level, and verifying that the propane tank valves were all in the correct positions and the propane tank was over half full.

Sunday was our last full day at Chippokes. It was another day at camp, raining heavily all day. The next day we packed up and headed on to the next park!

Powhatan State Park
4616 Powhatan State Park Rd
Powhatan, VA 23139

804-598-7148

October 31 – November 5, 2024

We arrived at Powhatan State Park, the third stop of our fall trip, at around 2:30 in the afternoon. I’d tried to get my propane tank checked and filled at the Tractor Supply near the previous campground, but they said they didn’t fill tanks that were attached to motor homes, and sent me to the RV place next door, who said they didn’t have any service appointments open that day. So I just went on my way. Stopped for gas but otherwise drove straight through to Powhatan, where I finally got to dump my tanks and settle into a nice level site. My site was next to my brother and sister-in-law’s trailer, but on the next section of the loop with a trees and a trail in between. So we were close but not in sight of each other.

On Friday, our first full day at the park, we drove around the campground to see what was there. The campground is located along the James River, and has many wooden slide launches where campers can slide canoes or kayaks into the river.

There is even one primitive campground — tents only, no electricity or running water available — with its own canoe launch so campers can canoe in and out of the campground. There is a parking lot at the entrance to the campground, and campers who drive to it must leave their vehicles there and pack their equipment and supplies into their sites. Despite its limitations, it was a very pretty campground and seemed like it would be a fun adventure if you were young and healthy!

On Saturday, we drove into Powhatan and had lunch at the County Seat Restaurant. I had a delicious seared ahi wrap.

Then we explored the town for a while. We visited a gift shop and a fancy grocery/deli where I bought some lovely cheese and crackers. I thought I was buying cheddar cheese, but when I got back to my van, I saw that the package said it was American cheese. Either way, it was very good. I put some in my dinner ramen and it was very tasty.

Sunday we traveled in the other direction, where we visited the Hilltop Distillery, a family-owned distillery making whiskey, vodka, moonshine, and other spirits. We had a lovely time there, chatting with the owner. My brother and his wife tasted various of their offerings and bought a bottle of “Gooch Hooch” berry-flavored moonshine. I had a half-strength whiskey sour, which tasted like no other whiskey sour I’d ever drunk — it was maple whiskey mixed with lemon juice and cinnamon and was very strange, but interesting. The owner looked very disapproving when asked to make it very weak on the whiskey, but he obliged me anyway.

Monday was a lazy day at the campground. J&J went into town to get propane, and I drove to the dump station to empty the cassette and gray tank, but otherwise I just hung out at the van. I made kimchi fried rice for dinner, which was yummy but poor Davey complained the whole time I was cooking. I’d turned on the fan to keep the smoke alarm from going off, and clanked the pan a bit, and I think the noise freaked him out. Probably he was remembering other times I’d tried to fry or saute things on the stove and the smoke alarm went off. Oh well, I enjoyed my dinner, and Davey calmed down enough to eat his dinner later.

Tuesday we packed up and headed for the next park.

Cunningham Falls State Park
6709 Cunningham Falls Park Rd
Thurmont, MD 21788

301-271-7574

October 27 – 31, 2024

Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland was a bit of a challenge. The park has two campgrounds located several miles apart: the William Houck Area and the Manor Area, each with its own address, so campers are instructed to make sure to use the right address for their campground when finding directions. We were staying at the Manor Area, which was the only one staying open through the end of October. However, the William Houck Area is the only one with a dump station, which was closed when we were there. We were told by the park ranger that the dump station might still be usable after the campground closed (it wasn’t) or that we could use the dump station at the Gambrill State Park 20 minutes away. We were hoping to dump our tanks on arrival, since our previous campground had also not had a dump station, but we’d only been there one night so we decided to just wait till the next campground.

Also, while the park had water available, the signs indicating the water stations were pretty hard to spot. But I managed to locate one and fill my water tank.

Then I finally got to my site, which was the most sloped site I’d ever had the misfortune to camp in. After much messing with my leveling blocks, I finally got the front tires under three blocks each, but the van was still so unlevel I could hardly get the sliding door open, and I felt like I was going to fall over every time I stood up in the van.

My brother and SIL had their own issues — their site was more level, but the roads in the campground were narrow and the sites at sharp angles, and there were trees and boulders on the side of the road, making maneuvering a large trailer into the site quite a feat. I was again very glad I’d traded my truck and trailer for a camper van.

Despite our issues getting in and set up, it was a pretty park with lots of trees and nice sites with good privacy. The bathhouse was in the middle of the loop, with a path to it from behind J&J’s site, so I could just go across the road and through their site to get to it.

On Monday, our first full day at the park, we mostly took it easy. We did go for a drive to look around at the other area of the park — the campground was closed, but we were able to see the lake and its beaches and find the trailhead for the Falls trail.

On Tuesday we visited the Catoctin Iron Furnace, which operated during the Revolution and afterwards until 1903, producing iron for munitions and household goods.

Behind the furnace is a trail which the ironworkers, many of them slaves, used to walk from their quarters to the furnace. Following the trail, we came to a clearing where we could see the houses from behind. Most are private homes now, although many are still the original buildings. The Museum of the Ironworker is in one of the buildings, but it was closed the day we were there.

Near the furnace, we also visited the ruins of the Ironmaster’s Mansion. All that was left were the foundations and a few partial walls.

In the afternoon, we drove around the town of Thurmont, stopped at a grocery store, and had a delicious dinner of Mexican food at Los Amigos.

On Wednesday, we drove back to the Falls Trailhead and hiked out to see the Cunningham Falls. Since it had been a dry season, we weren’t surprised to see that the falls were fairly small at the time, but still pretty.

Our final stop of the day was the Roddy Road Covered Bridge in nearby Frederick. There was a pretty little park next to the entrance to the bridge, with swings and paths and restrooms. We walked around there for a while after driving across the bridge and back.

Thursday was Halloween, and also our day to pack up and head out for the next campground. I stopped at the Tractor Supply in Frederick to see if I could get my propane tank filled and valves checked, but they sent me to the RV place next door, who said they couldn’t check my propane tank that day, so I just traveled on.

All in all, we saw some cool sights and enjoyed our stay at Cunningham Falls, but felt that we’d have enjoyed it more if we’d been able to stay at the other campground, which was closer to the beaches and trails, and earlier in the year when the campground wasn’t about to close!