November 6-9, 2017 Orange to Goochland, Virginia

Went on tour of the area. Cool wooden gothic church and fall colors.

Nice barn in a colorful valley. Montpelier- home of James Madison our 4th president.  

A barn at Montpelier.  John bonding with Lai Lai at Ray and Joan's. 

We left on Tues and drove through the rain to Powhatan State Park near Goochland, Virginia. Goochland is named after Sir James Gooch one of the early governors of Virginia. Here is the bus in our campsite. We are going to just relax and veg after so many weeks of lots of driving and our busy social life. It is still raining.

We went for a nice 3 mile hike today. Lovely. It is only in the low 40's, cloudy and rainy. Some fungus, mushrooms and honeysuckle blooms. 

An abandoned cabin and the historic James River. The first English permanent  English settlement in America was at Jamestown was at the mouth of the river. The river was a major shipping route later. 

This is a canoe put in. They call it a car top boat slide. They have a canoe in campground- which is about 1/4 mile from a parking lot. The sign says 'This is a primitive  campground designed for canoe-in campers who are prepared for the primitive environment. Amenities include: 12 x 12 pad, 16 x 16 pad, picnic table, lantern hanger, fire ring. NO ELECTRICITY, NO WATER.' My idea of a primitive campground is to find a flat spot in the woods. . .

The colors are lovely. A seed head on a vine, and the inside of the seed head, more fungus. 

We hiked 4 miles today. The weather is picking up, it was in the high 40's and no rain. The colors are still lovely. This sculpture represents Chief Powhatan the paramount chief of the Tsenacommacah Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time the english settlers landed in Jamestown in 1607. He is also the father of Pocahontas.  A sprouting mushroom  and beautiful colors.

 

The remains of a cabin and a small stream in the woods.

Yellow poplar, reflections over leaves, sassafras tree leaf, a some maples in the act of turning. This evening we went to the local brewery Fine Creek Mill Brewery. The have an old mill building that is an event hall, a bunch of cabins you can rent and a farmhouse restaurant brewery. John with his Game Winner IPA and we had dinner.

I am calling this basket done. It is 8.5 inches x 3-4 inches. It is made of glycerinated  ponderosa pine needles, white flat polyester thread and an abalone shell. The top of the basket is shaped like the shell.