2009-05-13 R2R2RnR

Dateline, Lake Anna State Park
Spotsylvania, VA
Lat 38.100812
Long 77.795046

Okay, that last post may have been a wee bit optimistic, in terms of the damage being undone. It would perhaps have been more accurate to say the Damage was Masked. It is now undone.

"R2R2RnR" in the above heading means "Return to Richmond to Repair and Restock", which I did last week at the very capable hands of my trusty friends at RV Services of VA. The very talented Charlie took the time to straighten out the tweaked bumper and craft a little patch for the broken plastic on the corner. The end result is shown above and you'd barely be able to tell it was ever a problem.

He also replaced all three roof vents, which had become old and brittle (something I can relate to). And the capable Doug had a look at my refrigerator check light and discovered it needed cleaning. (The mechanical bits, not the fridge.)

While they did their magic, I visited my favorite store - Trader Joe's - and restocked the food supplies. I also swapped out the Winter clothes, putting them into deep storage for the Summer, which kicked in overnight last week.

As an added bonus, I arrived back in town in time to celebrate Mother's Day (and her birthday) with my Mom.

Yesterday, Shelby and I decided we needed a little adventure and set out for Lake Anna State Park. This location was chosen for two reasons. First, it's close to Richmond and easy to get to. Secondly, and more importantly, it's three miles from the Lake Anna Winery, where the Virginia Renaissance Festival opens this weekend.

I will produce several more separate blog entries on the Winery and Festival, but wanted to provide a little background on the Lake Anna State Park.

First off, it's beautiful. The whole campground is surrounded by lush green forests without a lick of light pollution. Last night, there were only three campers in the whole campground and it was just amazingly quiet and beautiful. You could practically count the satellites and space junk. Also the stars.

From their Web site:

"The land in Lake Anna State Park used to be known as "Gold Hill" and contained the Goodwin Gold Mine. Gold was first discovered in 1829 with mining reaching its peak in the 1880s. In 1971 Lake Anna was created to serve as a water coolant for Dominion Power’s nuclear plant. In 1972 work began on the acquisition and development of a water-oriented state park. Lake Anna State Park opened in 1983."

So it's not a very old park as it turns out and offers many recreational activities, including hiking and boating.

But it's the fishing I am anxious to check out, having heard that the lake is filled with the very tasty Blinky fish, shown here being served to Mr. Burns.

It's making me a little homesick for Dana Point, CA being within ten miles of a Nuclear Reactor. I wonder if I still have the Potassium Iodide tablets the nice folks who ran the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and Beach Grill thoughtfully provided to all of us in the immediate area to take in the event of an "event". There is something disconcerting about a Nuclear facility providing pills (unsolicited) to area residents should things go wonky.

So for those of you playing along from home, our course has kind of backtracked but we still plan to head West from here, after the Festival.