5.29.22: Charlottesville, Virginia

Choose your own adventure! Read the words first or scroll for photos.

The Wooly Lam, Ruckersville, Virginia

The Blue Moon Diner

Heartwood Used Books

UVA Memorial to Enslaved Laborers

The Rotunda at UVA

A section of the Berlin Wall at UVA

RIP(ieces) Robert E. Lee Statue

Heather Heyer Way

The Love Butt in IX Art Park

Monticello

Another chance to read the words.

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Main Street of Yesteryear

I mentioned in the post about Dinosaur Land that we had a few rainy days on our recent road trip. We stayed the third night in Virginia, just west of the Shenandoah National Park. While scrambling to find indoor destinations, I found a museum of parade floats that looked just strange enough to add to our list, and it wasn't too far off our route.

The museum is part of Shenandoah Caverns, and we arrived before the parade float museum was supposed to open, so we had some time to kill in the gift shop. Luckily, in addition to the gift shop, there's an exhibit of antique department store window displays from the 40s and 50s occupying the entire second floor.

The former owner of Shenandoah Caverns, Earl Hargrove, Jr., also owned a decorating corporation that has, beginning with President Truman in 1949, decorated for every Presidential Inaugural since. The parade float museum includes floats from Inaugurals, the Tournament of Roses and other celebrations, but he was also a collector of holiday window displays, which are displayed in an exhibit called Main Street of Yesteryear.

The displays vary widely in style and theme, but they all animate in some way (triggered by sensors on the floor). One of the displays (for Easter, I think) featured a talent show, with an organ-grinding poodle, a raccoon balancing a disco ball on his nose, creepy swinging bunnies and a judge that looks like he would be right at home in Halloweentown. 

My favorite display was Circus on Parade, the oldest in the exhibit. The handcrafted figures have such wonderful detail and are still vibrant and beautiful after all of these years. Holiday window displays are always one of my favorite parts about this time of year in the city, and I'm so glad that someone like Earl Hargrove Jr. was passionate enough to save these works of art. It turns out that the parade float museum was closed for the season (never trust Google hours), but Main Street of Yesteryear (and the squished penny I got in the gift shop) was definitely worth the stop.

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Shenandoah Caverns
261 Caverns Road,
Quicksburg, VA 22847

Main Street of Yesteryear is free, and can be viewed without caverns admission
March 15-June 15: 9 AM-5 PM
June 16-Labor Day: 9 AM-6 PM
Labor Day-Oct 31: 9 AM-5 PM
Nov 1-March 15: 9 AM-4 PM

Muffler Man: Homer

The third day of our recent road trip was a long one. It was getting dark and our route was taking us through some pretty scary, winding mountain roads in western Virginia. There were a few more stops on my list, but I especially hate driving in the dark so I had to make a Sophie's Choice and decide which of the three remaining spots was worth a stop. It's probably not surprising that I chose a Muffler Man, and Homer became our last stop of the day—and the last official Muffler Man of the trip.

Homer resides in Bedford, Virginia, outside of the Bedford Mini Golf & Batting Zone. It was closed by the time we arrived—their sign said "open when dry and 50 degrees or by appt"—but luckily Homer is right out front and easily accessible. Bedford Mini Golf held a contest to name their Muffler Man, and Homer—a baseball reference, I assume—was the winner.

Homer was made by a local artist, Mark Cline, and he stands 14-feet tall. He has a baseball in one hand, a golf club in the other and stands on a base surrounded by tiny baseball bats. He's wearing a baseball hat, of course, and a Bedford button-up shirt. His socks and shoes are a little strange—is he supposed to be in a full baseball uniform?—but overall the paint job looks fresh. This was the first sports-themed Muffler Man that I've seen, but I feel like it's the perfect place for one of these manly giants.  

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Bedford Mini Golf & Batting Zone
958 Burks Hill Road
Bedford, VA 24523
Easily accessible even when closed

Dinosaur Land

We were lucky to have really lovely weather for the first two days of our recent road trip, but the last two days were grey and intermittently rainy. I had planned most of our stops in advance, knowing that we might not be able to hit them all and I tried to account for the possibility of unplanned stops. On the fourth day, we drove through some heavy, steady rain and I scrambled to find indoor things for us to do. I decided to swap the outdoor Dinosaur Land with an indoor parade float museum, but we arrived at Shenandoah caverns only to discover that the museum had already closed for the season (thanks for nothing, Google hours!). It was still raining, but I decided that we should at least give Dinosaur Land a chance, and it ended up being one of my very favorite stops of the entire trip (I will probably say that about every stop, but this one is in the top five for sure). 

Dinosaur Land, located near Winchester, Virginia has been in operation (and in the same family) since the early '60s. It's not my first dinosaur park—we went to Dinosaur World in Cave City, KY—but I can't imagine there being a better one still in existence. Most everything about Dinosaur World feels stuck in the '60s, and that is the very best compliment I can pay to any roadside attraction.

It was still raining when we arrived, but the "prehistoric forest" offered some protection, and the pine needle-lined paths were far less soggy than I expected. Unfortunately we weren't the only visitors, but as much as I firmly believe that other people's children ruin everything, I'm always happy to see attractions like this making money. 

Dinosaur Land feels as if it might be in someone's backyard, and I'm fairly certain that at least some of the family lives behind the gift shop. The experience is low-tech and self-guided—my favorite kind—and the artistry that went into the dinosaurs, hand painted signs and other creatures is apparent. It's clear that dinosaurs have been added throughout the years, and it's fascinating to watch how styles and features evolve over time.

Dinosaur Land has four T-Rexes, and none of them look remotely similar to one another—I overheard a little boy telling his dad while looking at the oldest one, "that doesn't look anything like a T-Rex." Although we'll probably never know which one is the most accurate, the oldest ones are definitely my favorite. You can spot them quite easily—they're textured like the walls of an Olive Garden—and I can't help but laugh when looking at their goofy expressions. 

When Joseph Geraci started Dinosaur Land next to his already existing gift shop, he borrowed heavily from other parks—his sign is a nearly exact copy of the Disneyland sign, and the large mouth entrance is a nod to Gatorland. The gift shop alone is worth a stop, and it's filled with dusty souvenirs that feel as if they haven't been updated (or sold) since the park first opened.

I was slightly more restrained than I was at South of the Border, but I did leave with a mug, t-shirt, two squished pennies, several postcards and a program book that was legitimately printed in the '70s—the cashier said they had five boxes in the back and "when they're gone, they're gone."

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Dinosaur Land
3848 Stonewall Jackson Highway
White Post, VA 22663

March 1st – Memorial Day: 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Memorial Day – Labor Day: 9:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Labor Day – December 31st: 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
October 1st – December 31st: Closed on Thursdays