Blue Ridge Tunnel adventures, near Waynesboro, Va.

As part of our anniversary day (50 years together) we decided on a leisurely drive to Waynesboro, about 30 miles away, to explore what we’d heard about the Blue Ridge Tunnel there. It was known to be a fairly long hike for a pair of 70+ year olds, but my husband especially hoped he would be up for it. He loves history, and over the years we’ve done a lot of hiking but not so much in recent years.

(Now, there are a lot of things—a LOT of things named in this area as “Blue Ridge.” That’s because we all love the mountainy scenery that goes along the east side of the Massanutten Range and the Shenandoah National Park with its magnificent Skyline Drive, which spreads for 105 miles. We often go for rides and walks in that park, but never tried the Blue Ridge Tunnel. And don’t get mixed up with the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs from Virginia down to Cherokee, North Carolina.)

The tunnel is located near Rockfish Gap in central Virginia, near Afton and Waynesboro. (A side memory here: we spent our first night as a married couple at a motel on Afton Mountain, and had our first supper at Burger King in Waynesboro, which I have teased my husband about, now and then. I mean, who eats at BK on the evening they were married?)

The Blue Ridge Tunnel was constructed between 1850 and 1858 in Nelson County, Va., at the southern edge of Skyline Drive. The Tunnel passes beneath Rockfish Gap, providing nearly a mile long passage through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I was fascinated to have my education corrected regarding why it was called the Crozet Tunnel. I always assumed that Crozet was simply the name of a nearby town, but I found out now that it was named for Colonel Claudius Crozet, a French born civil engineer who directed the construction of the tunnel.  I read somewhere that workers earned a dollar a day. I was also somewhat surprised (but shouldn’t have been) when signposts indicated the numerous enslaved workers who helped work on the tunnel, and I assume they were also paid.

When you enter, you get rained on (unless it is very dry, I would guess) and the mud floor of the tunnel was somewhat slippery at places. Our dog enjoyed the hike but I think she was VERY glad to get out of the tunnel, which took about 45 minutes each way for us oldies to rest and navigate. It was quite dark, cool, and damp, and our only mistake was not bringing a flashlight—but of course Siri helped by turning on the flashlights of our phones. We met numerous walkers, including a troop of young children, probably enjoying an adventure out of school, which was either out, already, or would be soon.

We finished up our day by visiting the lovely German restaurant named Edelweiss near Greenville, Va.  It of course made me hum the music, Edelweiss from Sound of Music, which my three-year-old granddaughter has already been taught to sing. Which I love. A guitarist and accordion player helped end our lovely longish day at the restaurant. We recalled the German restaurant we visited in Germany back in 2002 when our daughter studied for a semester in Belgium.

However, a downward spiral fell was when I accidentally left my pocketbook in a restroom in a store where we were looking at some chairs. We drove away from that store, and later I realized my purse was not in the car or the trunk, so we hurried back to the store, just a mile or two away. I crossed my fingers and prayed all the way back to that restroom.

My heart surged when I saw my purse sitting in that restroom (the store didn’t have any other customers at that point). I breathed a great sigh of relief.

But Don’t Do That Again, Melodie!

Overall, a good, happy day, celebrating (again) our 50^th anniversary. So thankful in many ways.

Did you ever do something that was pretty dumb?