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The Great Smokey Mountains would have been cool, but it was not the experience we were hoping, but on this day my wife had a sure winner in Natural Bridge, Virginia. We left the KOA RV Park bright and early in the morning making our first stop of the day, a breakfast one at First Watch restaurant in Christiansburg, Virginia. With full stomachs we made the drive to Natural Bridge and stopped to do some cave exploring at the Caverns at Natural Bridge.
We have never done any underground cave exploring, but after this trip we will probably do a whole lot more of it. It’s just so fascinating. Before our 3pm tour started we did some hiking with the dog in the woods around the place. The kids found what was the natural opening for the cave we were going to explore. It was gated off for safety as the person who commercialized the cave in the 70’s fell, breaking both of his legs along with some other bones.
The kids thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the entire experience. Once that ended I chatted it up with Larry who managed the place and he told us where to go to see the actual natural bridge for which the town was named after.
Daylight was not our friend, as we pulled into the lot to see the Natural Bridge with our own eyes. After some walking, we saw it. It was pretty beautiful. Naturally I got the drone out to capture as much it as possible from a different vantage point, and yes I was extremely popular with the other tourists who were there.
The whole family hiked the trails, exploring the beauty of the area. We took lots of pictures, breathed in lots of fresh air, and left Natural Bridge starving! Our stomachs took is to the town of Lexington Virginia down the street from Washington and Lee university, which was the first school to ever write me a college letter, for, get this… basketball!
For dinner we at this really cool place called the Brew Ridge Tap. Everything on the menu was on waffles, there was live music, and we were part of John’s sunrise birthday. No, I have no idea who John was but I’m sure he was over the moon happy the Watkins family was there. It was the perfect place to end our evening.
Thankfully everyone slept like babies and little did we know, it was going to be our last night sleeping in the RV.
LeRoy J. Watkins III 