Last weekend I took my second trip to James River State Park. My first trip was business related so I was hoping I could do more this time. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the weather was going to cooperate when I checked online Friday morning. The best laid plans…
I packed up my gear, which included a laptop and flat screen monitor. I love nature, but sometimes I have to watch videos at night. I find this to be the best setup if you do want to watch videos at our cabins. Since a lot of our parks are in the mountains, it will be hard for you to pick up television signals. If you bring a laptop, then you most likely have a DVD player. Hooking the laptop to a monitor allows the whole family to enjoy. Luckily, our parks and their surrounding areas have so much to do that we only messed with this setup after it got dark.
With all the essentials packed, I headed out the door to embark upon my journey. James River State Park is roughly two hours from my house and I’m not a fan of car trips. Fortunately, I cannot describe how quickly this car trip went for me. The entire trip down route 60 was absolutely stunning. Trees along the way varied in color from yellow, orange, to red. There were rolling farmlands and plenty of scenic places that begged to have their picture taken.
I arrived at the park around 4:45 which was too late to visit my friends in the office. I decided to head straight to the cabin to begin unpacking. I had rented cabin 14 because of the stunning view from the back porch (I also stayed in cabin 14 on my first trip to James River). Since we arrived so late on Friday, we decided to go ahead and cook dinner so we could rest up for Saturday and have a little bit of family time together.
I took this trip with my parents and my brother. The last time we all took a trip together was about twelve years ago, so this was a welcome change. My father cooked some chicken on the cabin’s gas grill (most state park cabins have pedestal grills) while my mom worked on the potatoes, peas, and shells and cheese. My brother and I tinkered with the electronics we brought so we could watch Land of the Lost after dinner. The meal was excellent. Virginia State Park’s cabins provide you with dishes and silverware, so this was one less thing we needed to pack.
After dinner, we sat down as a family and watched the movie. My brother had brought some cards and board games for when things got a little slow. After the movie was over, we played Uno and then went to bed to rest up for an eventful day on Saturday.
Part two of this trip will be coming soon.