BRRP: Half & Half

Sunday, 4 September

We spent half of today sightseeing in rural Manassas; a fun change of pace. We spent the other half of the day chilling at Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP); that was fun, too. If this is what we can expect of fulltiming — when those days get here — we’re in for a treat. Actually, we know it will be even better, because we’ll be exploring not just places we’re familiar with, but brand new horizons as well.

We were up early. It was still dark out; and looked even darker with the daytime shades covering the windows. We know that if we want to go exploring, we can’t dally long around the house — or the motorhome, as the case may be. No browsing the web; no checking emails; and definitely no reading blogs. With that in mind, we had a simple breakfast and prepared for a morning of sightseeing. Even without any dalliance, though, it was 8:00a by the time we made it out the door. The temp was comfortable, but rising with increased humidity. Overhead, a canopy of thick white clouds screened out the sunshine. The light was dull — too dull for good photography — but we didn’t let that deter us.

The drive from BRRP to Manassas National Battlefield Park was short, and soon we were strolling around one of the less-visited areas of the 5,073-acre (20.53 sq km) park. I’m going to do a separate post on this portion of our morning, but in the meantime …

The Groveton Confederate Cemetery was established in 1867,
two years after the end of the Civil War.

Since I’m not sharing any other photos from the battlefield in this post, here are a few from unexpected finds and encounters we had this morning.

Stonewall Memory Gardens

Stonewall Memory Gardens

Friendly horses pose for Mui.

Out for a Sunday morning ride.

A bit of color on a dull September day.

By 10:00a, the humidity was high enough to make strolling about uncomfortable. After a quick drive to the Manassas post office to drop off the Netflix DVD we watched last night, we returned to BRRP for an afternoon of doing absolutely nothing. (Except for a quick trip to a nearby pharmacy to pick up some Benadryl for the sudden-onset of itchy hands I developed while processing photos. I’ve had this happen before, and a dose of antihistamine quickly takes care of the problem. Already, the itch is all but gone.)

Before I end this post, here’s a bit of a coincidence that struck me as odd. I took the pictures after the rain passed through yesterday, but since that day’s post was already long, I thought I’d wait until today to post these.

The sites behind us are occupied by dark-colored Class A RVs ...

... The sites ahead of us are occupied by white fivers.

Dinner time is at hand — French bread pizza (frozen, I’m afraid; keeping it simple) and a big salad is on the menu. But first, I’m going to take advantage of the cooling temperature to go for a walk around the campground. The sky is overcast and the clouds look heavy with rain, but so far we’ve not had a drop of the liquid stuff forecasted for today. We’ll see how tomorrow’s weather shakes out.