2 - Maiden Voyage - Poconos, West Virginia, Virginia
Pocono Sweet Spot
MAIDEN VOYAGE
Just another mossy fern Pocono forest
We’ve been on the road only a few weeks and we’re already blown away by how many creative, inspiring, kind and helpful people there are in the world living in service to something grand. And…how much beauty exists…everywhere. Here are a few highlights from the journey…
Hurricane Elsa was in full swing as we departed our Westport cocoon in early July, and some say rain is good luck, so we took it as an auspicious sign. The general idea was to check out small towns and some intentional communities in the North Carolina mountains where we’d been poking around the past few years and see what beckoned along the way. Our first stop was the Pocono Mountains…
The Poconos
Wait! Lest you think that the Pocono Mountains offers only heart-shaped beds and champagne-flute shaped bathtubs in Mafia-run casinos, you’d only be partially correct. I admit bias since this is my hometown stomping ground, but the Pocono Mountains in Northeast PA is also chock-full of wild rhododendron forests, spring fed streams & waterfalls, 150 lakes, 2400 miles of mountains, stellar trout fishing, wild blueberries and hundreds of miles of hiking trails.
My sister, Marie Kelly, also happens to have a lake house in the Poconos which made it an easy & fun first stop with Serenity Rose…We pulled in with our ‘house”, plugged her in and sat down to a deliciously prepared meal. RV travel is fun!
The Kellys and their fabulous hospitality
Some random trivia about Pennsylvania/Poconos–
The name Pennsylvania is a combination of William Penn’s name (the English Quaker was granted a charter for over 45000 square miles by King Charles II in 1681) with “sylvan” for “woodland”, although of course the original people, Iroquois, Delaware, Shawnee, Susquehannock, Munsee and Lenape knew it by other names.
Gifford Pinchot lived in the Poconos and is generally regarded as the “father” of American conservation because of his unrelenting concern and advocacy for the protection of the American forests. He also created the US Forest Service.
There’s a big Polish population in the Poconos – partly remains from the huge migration of Poles to work in the local coal mines in the early 20th century but also from a new immigration wave today. This means the weekend Pocono Farmers Market is a great mix of Amish farmers speaking their Amish/Germanic dialect, conversing with thickly accented Polish women bargaining for overflowing baskets of cucumbers to pickle up.
The Seven Tubs Nature Area and Ricketts Glen State Park are both sweet mossy forests along streams with rushing waterfalls. Both have some of the most beautiful hiking anywhere, and can easily be called “magical” without hyperbole. If you find yourself in the Poconos they are worth a visit!
We stayed a few days in the Poconos, visiting with family & friends, soaking up the kayaking, hiking, lake swimming, blueberry picking and my sister’s delicious cooking while continuing to figure out Serenity Rose’s “systems”…. We were starting to get really comfortable in this idyllic scene, a little too comfortable… it was time to mosey on down the road to…..
Wadle’s Dairy Farm, Shippensburg PA
Wadel’s Amish Raw Milk Dairy Farm
This was our first experience with HARVEST HOSTS – the “free” airbnb for RVers where farms and wineries offer a place to stay for the night, usually without electric or water hookups (aka “boon-docking”), in exchange for guests purchasing something from their farm store. It is such a great way to avoid campground ambiance and to meet the locals. And often, a super way to get freshly picked organic food. We arrived at this sweet Amish raw-milk dairy farm right before an amazing sunset over the Appalachian mountains, greeted by a 4 year old chasing his sheep.
CAPON BRIDGE, WEST VIRGINIA
VALKRYIE SPRINGS FARM -Since we were brand new to Harvest Hosts, and don’t have a plan, we just started looking at what farms seemed appealing, and this led to…Capon Bridge, West Virginia, close to the Virginia State line. We figured there was NO WAY that we would ever consider living in West Virginia and were just on our way through to spice up the journey, but we were surprised and delighted by the incredible beauty of this land, the super friendly people in this progressive hamlet and arrived at the dramatic Valkyrie Springs Herbal Farm with a hugely warm welcome from the Freys. We learned they moved to there from the DC area a few years ago, choosing Capon Bridge because of the hippie community that migrated there from DC in the 70s still homesteading 2 generations later with their grandchildren. We talked about what we’re looking for in a place to live and they enthusiastically said – You found it here! They told us about their community efforts to be designated a black-sky area, their herbal and art groups, their community meeting place where art & music & gatherings happened. We were intrigued. So much so, that next, we moved down the road 30 miles to…
Camping in the Valkyrie Springs Farm meadow
POWDER KEG FARM – Where we met Ginny and Brian who have created a truly beautiful organic market garden on their 300 mountain-top acres, serving 100 families in the area. The sunrise and sunsets were spectacular and their enthusiasm, hard work and the beauty they live with inspired us – we miss the land we owned in Vermont for many years and seeing what Ginny & Brian are doing (being the same age as us) sparked our knowing that we are meant to be living on the land now and sharing it in some way with others. We picked blackberries and helped weed the lettuce house and worked alongside Brian’s 87 year old mother who was spryly gathering rainbow chard for the CSA boxes. Ginny is all about creating community on their farm, warmly welcoming us and a few other RVers and inviting us to come back later in the month on our way back. Ginny and Brian’s story is a great one - check it out here… PowderKeg Farms
Farmer Gini at Powder Keg Farms, West Virginia
powder keg farm work morning
SHENANDOAH RIVER STATE PARK, FRONT ROYAL VIRGINIA – West Virginia led to Virginia where Diane got some solo time in Serenity Rose as Dave scooted back to Boston for an oncology appointment. After a few days of panic (can I really manage this rig on my own??), empowerment set in..why, yes, I can. As a crazy coincidence - friend, healer and fellow LTV Serenity owner Karen Semmelman with husband Bernie also happened to be there on their way north as we headed south and it was great to rendezvous and dine with them.
We camped along the river which is a beautiful gentle, slow- flowing river with super fertile agricultural areas on either side. There’s not a lot of agreement about where the name comes from… some say a Native American Indian chief, others say from Algonquian “schin-han-do-wi” the literal translation thought to be “great plains” or “beautiful daughter of the stars”. Either way, she is a sweet, lovely river.
Front Royal, VA is the closest town, boasting a Beer Museum and looking a bit like a movie-set. It’s also the start of the dramatic SkyLine Drive - a National Scenic Byway that runs 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains starting in the north of the Shenandoah. A friend suggested we visit the grounds and gardens of SRF Greenfield, an ashram/retreat center, where we were literally assaulted by hordes of butterflies. Pure magic!
Shenandoah River State Park (web pic)
Skyline Drive - (web pic)
FLOYD, VA
Floyd Virginia has come up a bunch of times from various sources as a place “you should check out”, offering a groovy, music-loving, organic-farm, creative arty scene with a community of down-to-earth people. We arrived at the Rocky Knob Campground which was vintage 1960s in all the good ways– as people were gathering for Floyd Fest – a long-running music festival in a nearby farm field. Rocky Knob is on the Blue Ridge Parkway with one gorgeous valley and mountain view after another. The farmers market was happening when we arrived and Theresa from Peace and Harmony Farm immediately waved us over and started chatting. She and her husband had moved there from Charlotte a few years ago, to grow their own food and she was selling her products and herbs at the market. Zesty and full of life, she told us how much they loved living there and then introduced us to the local baker who also happens to be Earl White as in the Earl White String Band – Earl is a master old-time fiddler of 40 years and he was talking to us about how he moved to Floyd a few years ago from Santa Cruz, CA, started baking bread - his bakery is legendary with great reason. Big Indian Bread. Sometimes there are signs…..all this within an hour of arriving in town seemed like maybe this was one.
The next morning we hiked the Rocky Knob trail – a combination of cowpastures, quartz-filled meadows and mossy forests, and almost all of it with 360 degree views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Floyd seems intriguing. A quick search for yoga brought up the magical Anahata Center outside of town. But it was Friday and we had an appointment Saturday morning south of Asheville at EarthHaven Eco-Village, so we loaded Serenity Rose up and pointed her south to see what the Smokey Mountains might hold for us.
breakfast at rocky knob
We weren’t aware of what would be a almost eerie synchronicity with the folks at Anahata a week or two later - more on this in the next installment along with EcoVillages, intentional community and Smokey Mountain magic!
Someone wise who’s name I can’t remember once said, “Nature must be so disappointed if we are not absolutely dazzled by Her at least 10 times each day.” May we all take the time and remember to be dazzled every day by this truly beautiful world!
As always, we love hearing from you and the magic in your life and any suggestions for where we might explore next!
