Chris, Service Dog Charlie and I were all excited about seeing the autumn beauty in its full bloom by taking a drive down Skyline Drive from Front Royal to Luray, Va. A bucket list item, Chris told me. We started out early on a Saturday morning and it wasn’t long before the bucket list turned into back up list—the kind that cries out for a Plan B. Traffic was backed up for at least five miles from the entrance to the Skyline Drive. We were stalled in bumper to bumper traffic. After sitting for about a half an hour we finally made it to an intersection where a policeman was directing traffic. I rolled down the window and asked if all the traffic was backed up because of people wanting to get on the Skyline Drive.
“Yes sir, it is,” he replied. So we did a U-turn and headed back. Stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch and discussed Plan B. All this was OK with Service Dog Charlie—he likes tortilla chips under the table. We decided on this nice place in Virginia’s horse country that we had driven by several times. It’s called Millwood. Accessed off of Route 50, winding through some backroads with beautiful farms, we arrived. Millwood is a step back into time. Centered around the Burwell-Morgan Mill, the village has a general store, a blacksmith shop, a church, and some sort of building that may at one time been a storefront that has piles, and I mean piles, of antiques, but nobody to take your money if you wanted to buy.
The mill dates back to 1785 when Lt Col Nathaniel Burwell and Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, both heroes of the Revolutionary War built the waterwheel-powered mill along Spout Run. Today, it is still grinding away with volunteers producing grits, pancake powder and corn meal. Some of the artifacts are familiar, like a 19th Century cider press made in, yes, Springfield Ohio, and a millwright’s bench, circa 1820, similar to the one handed down in my family. Our bench is likely from the 1600s. The Locke Store, named Locke and Co. that ran the store from the early 20th Century, was built in 1836 by James Clarke to serve the bustling community that became a trade center prior to the Civil War.
The store today is a fusion between the old-time general store we would have seen growing up in the 40s and 50s and a modern twist of wine and special foods of today’s generation. To a gourmet like Chris, the store was a great place to explore. There are the old refrigerated display cases and the counters. But instead of slabs of bacon and bags of foodstuffs, one can enjoy deli sandwiches, locally-made foods, and the huge selection of wine and craft beer. At the end of the day, we both agreed that we had a wonderful day. Plan A didn’t work out, but God had a better Plan B in mind for us.
