We made it out the door only about 45 minutes behind schedule! The first part of the drive was uneventful and easy - no traffic and the license plate game helped pass the time. With just one quick pit stop, we made our way to Winchester, VA. It’s a cute little town, rich with Civil War history, and apples...lots of apples. In fact, the World’s Largest Apple resides here on the lawn of a women’s clothing boutique!
The 2nd Apple (I’m pretty sure that’s how they refer to it, is less than half a block away) features some Civil War heroes important to the area. We had intentions of having lunch at the Snow White Grill, but they have since closed the doors to the actual eat-in counter and only offer window service now. It was blazing hot, so we skipped it and opted for Brewbaker’s instead.
Brewbaker’s is a Winchester institution, starting out as the White Palace in 1910 and later becoming an assortment of restaurants and dining rooms over the years. Nothing special inside, but the food was good and it served a good enough purpose to get us fed before we headed to the intended destination in Winchester, the home of Patsy Cline.
The house is a small two story, two room home on a quiet residential street on the outer edge of town. It’s still very much a residential neighborhood, nestled between houses. Since the house is not museum-quality climate controlled, much of the original Cline collection is actually housed in Nashville at the Patsy Cline museum, but the trust that manages everything did a wonderful job at recreating the living quarters as close to the way they would have been while she lived there. The docents were really great and knew so much about her and her family - it was clear that they really appreciated her legacy to both Winchester and to music in general.
There were a few “originals” in the home including her mother’s iron and ironing board, some fantastic shoes, and her 8th grade civics textbook!
We left the Kent Street home and headed to Dinosaur Land. This is a kooky little relic outside of Winchester that houses dozens of dinosaur statues. It’s a self-guided tour that took us maybe 20 minutes or so, but the kids thought it was great and honestly, we did too. There are cacti and octopuses and really enormous preying mantis - all just hanging out on the side of a busy road. The gift shop is a hodge podge of dinosaur toys, odds and ends, t-shirts and a startling large collection of Confederate flag gifts...
Onward to our last destination of the day - Staunton, VA. We started down 81 again, but realized that the Skyline Drive was literally on our way, so we hopped off and made our to the first junction in Shenandoah National Park. The views were breathtaking, and the drive was a little terrifying at times, but it was well worth the detour. We made it about 30 miles before we headed back towards 81 and finished up in Staunton.
On recommendation from Retro Roadmap Queen Mod Betty (our pal Beth Lennon), we went back in time to have dinner at Wright’s Dairy-Rite, a genuine 50s carhop drive-in. This place has been family owned since 1952 and they have kept it’s original charm with some key updates like credit cards :) The food was excellent and the kids got a real kick out of the car hop experience. The weather was beautiful so sitting in the car with the windows down was just right.
We finally made our way to the Holiday Inn in Staunton. The kids got a little pool time in before we all crashed for the night. Unfortunately, Cillian is coming down with a cold - hopefully it’s a quick one.
Her mother’s notes on Patsy’s size
Sketches from dresses made by Hildie Hensley
The family iron and ironing board!
These shoes were so fantastic - purchased at Thom McCann!
Fionnuala ain’t afraid of no giant Preying Mantis
