Almost Heaven - Western Virginia

My husband and I visited the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA today. If you have never traveled to the Valley you are missing one of the great beauty spots of the nation. Every morning I thank God for the gift of living in this natural paradise.

We may not have the fanciest restaurants, skyscrapers or the highest mountains in the country. What we do have are the rolling hills and farmlands dotted with cattle stretching out to the Appalachians on the east and the Alleghenys to the west, hiking trails through hardwood and conifer forests, the blue ridge shimmering in the mist, the winding bends of the Shenandoah River meandering between grassy banks or flowing over rocky outcrops, the pink and white mountain laurel in the Spring and the scarlet maples in the Fall. What a wonderland for landscape painters and nature lovers.

The Museum tells the story of the land and the people with exhibits and interactive computer screens. You can watch a grandfather teach his grandson how to hand-harvest the wheat or see a group admiring the earliest mechanical reapers that let one or two men do the work of fifteen or twenty. You can see topographical maps that show the famous Seven Bends of the Shenandoah River and let you trace the route of the Old Valley Pike travelled by Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry.

There is a room filled with miniatures to delight the little girl who loves doll houses and life size replicas of the Valley farm kitchens. You can listen to the stories of real Valley people and watch a film about Sheridan's burning of the Valley as winter was coming on. Until May the museum is featuring an exhibit of the amazing maps made by self-taught surveyor and map-maker Jedediah Hotchkiss, who provided General Jackson such accurate maps that "old Jack" attributed much of his battlefield success to them. In fact Hotchkiss drew maps so accurate using simple calculations that they rival the most sophisticated satellite maps of today.

Yes, the museum and the Valley are worth a visit and Valley people are among the friendliest you'll meet. So y'all come - Virginia is for lovers of God's green earth and one of the prettiest places in Virginia is here in the Shenandoah Valley.