I woke up at 9 AM, but laid in bed checking emails and notifications while lovin’ on my kitty. I’d been away from him quite a bit lately and I felt bad for getting ready to leave him again. I finally kissed him goodbye around 11 AM, got breakfast at Robuks and then got my car washed down the street from there. I still had to wash all of the bug guts off from the last road trip…11 days prior.
I nibbled on my bagel sandwich from Einstein Bagel that I grabbed next door to Robeks and sipped on my smoothie for most of the drive over. The purpose of trip was to nab Rhode Island and DC’s high peaks while I finally check out The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Being a big Edgar Allan Poe fan, this has been a place I’ve wanted to visit for some time now. However, I didn’t know when I was going to do it exactly until I saw a post from the museum about their 100th anniversary of existence! Since they opened in 1922, they mentioned that people were encouraged to come in period clothing. I just so happened to have everything I needed to throw together a flapper style ensemble quickly. But since the event was taking place on a Thursday, it messed up my RI plans a bit because I needed to be back in town for a fire performance by Saturday. I could have made it work, but I didn’t want to force it.
This is an “Unhappy Hour” event that happens to fall on the 100th anniversary. The museum started doing cocktails in the Enchanted Garden back in April of 2008 called, Unhappy Hours. I was thrilled to be able to attend one finally.
I had been following the Poe Museum for some time on Facebook and on their e-mail list. On April 24th, 2021, The Poe Museum held a poetry contest in honer of poetry month. They were offering a free yearlong family membership to the museum for the best haiku. I won with my Masque of the Red Death inspired poem. If you have not read it then this might not makes sense to you. Read it…
The prince beckoned me
Meet me in the red chamber
All will be well there.
So, armed with free entry to the museum and the 100th anniversary Unhappy Hour event, I was determined to go! Since DC’s highest point was only 2 hours and 15 minutes away, at least that high point was going to happen as well. Yeah, yeah, I know Washington DC is not one of the states, but it acts like a state and is encompassed inside of the United States, so therefore I always planned on doing it as one of my state highest peaks. It’s a super easy one to get anyway! So, when I replanned out my trip to insure I was back by Saturday for my gig, 2 days before leaving, I decided that it was best to not try to do Rhode Island’s easy high point this time again. I had other things and people I wanted to connect with there and I felt like I would have been far too rushed. Rhode Island, once again, was put on the back burner for another time. It’s funny because I’ve done every high point on the east coast over to Minnesota and all all the states south of it to Louisiana except for little RI. What makes it funnier is that i’ve planned on doing this one many, many times now and even started driving there last fall, but had to go home because of a left behind debit card. Rhode Island has been the hardest high point for me to get to date and yet it is one of the smallest. Haha! RI might be jinxed for me. I’ve been doing my high pointing methodically in strips down the country and keep creeping towards the super hard ones out west.
Anyway, the 7 hour drive over to Small Country Campground in Louisa, Va was actually very pretty. I kept thinking I’d find a place to grab dinner close to my camp, but the closer I got to that area, I realized that car snacks and a gas station dinner was all I could hope for. I waited too long because I was trying to get to the campground before dark and I did…right before the sunset. Past the Pittsburgh area, there was not much other than pretty scenic small towns, farms, small poor towns and country roads. I was pleasantly surprised. A week and a half previously, on the trip with Patrick, we enjoyed passing by tons of cattle farms and seeing all the tiny newborn babies frolicking around or nuzzling up to mama. I enjoyed the same thing heading over to my campground. Spring was definitely in the air. I passed by a house in a small town in Virginia that used 2 used toilets as flower planters lining their driveway. Quaint.
The campground itself was cute and homey with friendly people. A guy and woman helped me find my home for the night because it was a bit confusing. I was very happy to be there before dark.
Once I had my hammock set up in my car all cozy, I took my sleeping pill at 9PM and ate “dinner”. It was chilly, around 36 degrees, but dark and very quiet. Ahhh… I fell asleep excited to finally check out The Poe Museum the following day and to attend the hundredth anniversary of it in Richmond Virginia.
April 28th:
I woke up at 7:55 AM I was out of the campground by 9:30 AM and I actually slept! I guess I do sleep and travel better on my own. This was a big difference from the last trip I just took with my ex-boyfriend… maybe he was just the wrong person. I had a good nights sleep although it was a bit cold. Nothing a little pee-break-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-the-car-running-to-warm-up-the-car-couldn’t-fix. I enjoyed actually seeing the beautiful drive leaving through the woods on the way out of the campground. I didn’t see much on the drive in because I was focused on finding my spot.
By 10:30, I found a great breakfast in Richmond. First Watch is one of my favorite places that I rarely get to because they are only open till 2:30pm. Haha! Unless, I try hard with heavy sedatives, as an insomniac I’m not normally up and moving in the mornings (and sometimes not even the early afternoon) especially not as early as I was going this day! I was happy that I got a great night’s sleep and was already on my way. I started my breakfast with a mimosa and then got the “elevated egg” sandwich which is eggs, cheese, avocado, mayo, arugula and normally bacon, but none of that for this vegetarian. It came with a side of potatoes. It was a perfect way to start my fun day ahead.
After eating, I had a planned stop to Shockoe Hill Cemetery just 6 minutes away from the Poe Museum. It was one of Edgar’s favorite places for a stroll. Poe’s foster father John Allan, his last wife Louisa Allan, their 3 sons, his first wife Frances Valentine Allan (Poe’s foster mother), Poe’s boyhood friend Robert Craig Stanard and wife (which I saw, but did not photograph), the grave of Robert Stanard’s mother (Poe’s childhood crush, inspiration for the poem, “To Helen”, and a source of comfort) and the grave of Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton, Poe’s first and last fiancée. I guess his Aunt Anne Moore Valentine (the unmarried sister of Poe’s foster mother Frances is buried there as well, but I did not see that one.
It took me a bit of time to find the right cemetery since there are several in the area. When I did find Shockoe, the entrance did not seem fit for a car and I thought I would have to park somewhere and walk. However, my buddy Jeff Jerome, curator emeritus of the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore called me and mentioned that it was ok to drive in and guided me to the graves of note. I was so happy for the help because even with his help, it took me some time to find the graves I really wanted to see. I found out a day before that he and another Poe friend, Sherri Poe would be coming from Baltimore for the event and I was super excited to see them again! The last time I saw them was in Baltimore for Poe Fest back in 2019. They gave my good friend Mel Grosvenor and I a personal tour of some Poe sites in between event festivities and The Black Cat Ball. I met Mel through Jeff’s Facebook group, “Edgar Allan Poe: Evermore” because of our mutual love of Poe and she continues to be a great friend that just so happens to live in Ohio although 3 hours away. We run “Ohio Poe Fans” Facebook group together and it’s been a blast meeting other Poe nerds though this group and others. I first met Jeff in Baltimore for an Edgar Allan Poe “Birthday Bash”. I traveled there alone and I wrote to him beforehand for help in finding a safe hotel to stay at because I’m always leary of traveling alone to big cities. I got an amazing and creepy catacomb tour at The Westminster Hall and Burying Grounds where Poe is buried with his wife Virginia and his mother-in-law Maria Clemm. Before I digress any further on how all of us Poe fans our intertwined, let me get back to my trip…
So, Jeff told me that they were doing other stuff in the area and that they would meet up with me later which gave me plenty of time to go slowly though all of the Poe museum amazing artifacts which there are lots of! I was happy that I had so much time before the Unhappy Hour event to check it out and see all the exhibits before a huge crowd of people got there. Before I went in, i got a keychain and a Poe Museum Pen. I was dying to pick up one of their Poe beer steins, but I was sad to see they had none left at that time. Ahhh i guess i should have gotten it online…”Noooo, I’ll wait to buy it in person!” I said. Ugh!
The museum is amazing. Here are some of my favorite things… I despise display cases (even though I get the need for them) because they make it hard to take decent photographs with the glares, reflections and such. Nevertheless, get ready for a massive photo dump…
My favorite things that I saw were Poe’s wooden trunk and his walking stick with his name engraved on the end in metal. That’s the kind of stuff I’d have on display in my living room. Just really cool looking items. They have a couple of Poe busts that I loved, his pocket watch, and the key to the trunk that was found in his pocket after he died. I guess his personal items were the things I gravitated towards the most even though I did love seeing receipts and letters with his beautiful handwriting on it. It’s all great! They have such a great collection!
I met Chris Semtner, the curator, early on in one of the Poe houses. The Poe Museum is laid out in three houses that showcase different areas of his life/death. The “Early Years” (Where I first met Chris), The “Career” house, and The “Death” house. I couldn’t tell if he recognized me from my on-line presence and comments on his, video, posts and such, but I definitely recognized him. Once I told him my name he seemed to know who I was and proceeded to show off new donated items that were not even cataloged yet. Eee! He was so nice to show me some fun new things one-on-one when they were busy getting set-up. During the Covid lockdown when most people were not traveling, Chris started showing off items in the Poe Museum in videos that he called, The Curator’s Crypt. I love those videos and have probably seen every one. His knowledge and stories are amazing and are not complete without his dry sense of humor. They are very well done and an interesting thing to check out or sure. He told me the garden that Elmira and Poe used to hang out at as kids was nearby as well as Poe’s mom’s grave, and Elmira Shelton house. Ugh! I would have loved to have gone to all of these places, but I had a date with the DC high point and then had to get back home. Next time…
Once I saw every item there, I did something that I had been dying to do for some time. I sat in the grass in the sun for a bit petting Edgar and Pluto in the “Enchanted Garden”, the resident felines that were born at the museum and never left. They just happen to be all black as well with a beautiful healthy sheen that glows when in the sun. The sun, however, was is not in a good location for photos but I tried to take a few anyway, but mostly zenned out with them for a moment. I was in the zone bonding with the babies…talking to them and petting them unknowing that I was being watched. When I eventually looked up I saw a woman looking at me. Many of the people that were looking through the museum before the event all seemed to congregate in the Enchanted Garden at once. She smiled and told me that she was watching my “blissful zenned out moment with the kitties” and that she though it was beautiful how I bonded with them so quickly. Awwww! She said that she didn’t want to say anything then and interrupt the beautiful moment and that she just wanted to watch. That made me grin like Cheshire Cat style! I was beaming at her observations, but then I realized “Oh my God she probably heard me talking to the cats too” Ha! No take-backs on complements!
When the kitties decided that they had enough and moved in to go nap in peace, I got up and casually followed them haha! Come on! They are sooo sweet! But I didn’t pursue them long and I laughed as they evaded all the eager hands wanting to touch the infamous kitties as they carelessly walked out of site.
After I had loitered around long enough, I left to go find the good ramen place, Grace Noodle, that Chris told me about that one could walk to up the street. I wandered around a little bit to see what else was in the area and chatted some more with the lady that saw me with the kitties (sadly, I never got her name), but I ended up going to the ramen place because it was close. I sent a message to Jeff and Sherri to see where they were at that time. Turns out that they were about 5 minutes away and were coming to meet me. Yay! While I was waiting for their arrival, I got a virtual call my some of my EverWalk ladies which included Mel! Perfect timing! So, when Jeff and Sherri walked in the door, we all got to chat a bit which was so cool to have them there with me at the time. The chat was kept short because we wanted to eat and Poe out with our bad selves. Thanks to Jeff for picking up the tab. That was a very nice gesture. Also, my strawberry smoothie and veggie ramen was so good, I can’t stand it!
Then we all walked back to the museum together. It was about 5pm. The unhappy hour starts at 6, but Jeff and Sherri wanted to go inside and say hi to everyone and the doors were still open even though they close at five. Upon seeing the volunteers and staff all dressed up already, I ran to change in my car real quick. Sherri and Jeff went back to the hotel to get ready while I supermaned it up in the car.
Once I looked like a throw back to the 20’s, We mingled around with the volunteers and Poe peeps as the band set-up. The the crew got everything transformed to party mode which included the kitties being taken upstairs to their cage because the festivities with all the people and music is too much for them. However later in the evening, I was given permission to go up there and visit and love on them again.
They started letting people in right at 6 and it filled up quick and there was a line around the building of people eagerly awaiting their wrist bands and pamphlets. I was so happy I took my time to look at the exhibits alone before all of that. There were a few people here and there, but not many.
The costumes were amazing, the band was fun and the people were friends. I knew or at least knew of many of the people affiliated with the Poe Museum because of the contact I’ve had with various employees in a variety of Facebook groups and their page itself. The first person I saw was Dean Knight setting up chairs in the Enchanted Garden. We had just become Facebook friends the day before even though I have watched his Poe performances on videos for a while now. He’s got a great voice for poetry readings. Then there was my encounter with Chris in the “Early Years” room that I mentioned. And last, but not least, I ran into Debbie Tuttle Phillips when we came back from dinner in the “Poe’s Career” room. She recognized me immediately and we squealed and hugged! We both agreed it was great to meet the person behind the profile photo finally! She does amazing performances as Poe’s mom with a great outfit.
I saw a few others that I recognized in the Poe community in some fashion, but I never had any or much interaction with and I don’t know their names. I’m sorry! Please don’t bury me under the floorboards! I’m bad with remembering names unless I’ve had multiple interactions with someone. It was like all the cool Poe peeps converged at this one event! Well, all except for our buddy Mel and a few others including Levi Lionel Leland, an independent Poe scholar from Rhode Island which ironically I was supposed to be heading to see on this trip, but it will have to wait for another time to try try again. My good friend Mel was in New Mexico at the time, but she would’ve loved to have been there!
While wandering around during the event, I went back into the “Poe’s Career” house and Dean grabbed me right away and asked if I wanted to see the Curators Crypt that Chris was doing right then. Umm…yes. He yelled up to Chris that he’s letting one more up as he removed the rope off of the staircase for me to ascend up. Then, minutes later, I hear him talking to someone else and he yells that he’s letting another one up. It was an older awesomely dressed man and I don’t recall his name. Then I heard Jeff and Sherri come in and, of course, he let them up too. That was seven people total in this not very big space including the 2 ladies that were already up there with Chris. Ha ha! Chris showed us some sweet new donations!! Ones that haven’t been cataloged yet and some of what he was showing me earlier. Really cool time.
A band called The Embalmers were there playing their surf rock music. They sounded good, but my favorite part about them was the fact that they had a dude dressed up as Anubis dancing out front the entire time. I loved him and went to give him a high five while passing and got pulled into a dance with him. Ha! They are fun and seem to be a staple at the Unhappy Hour events and not just special for the 100th anniversary one.
Everything was great, but one of my favorite moments of the night was during the trivia contest. People were able to get into groups up to 3-4 and since Sherri and I were standing next to each other at this time, we banded together. We were trying to find Jeff because we thought we needed him to ensure our win, but we couldn’t find him in time. It was just the 2 of us when the other groups had more. The lady made sure that we did not use our phones and was walking around checking people’s honesty.
So, she starts rattling off the questions and our pen does not work. Ahhh! So, we were franticly trying to ask for a new one, because my Poe Museum pen was not writing on the slick paper! So, I grabbed a mini sharpie that I just happened to find in my purse while she’s rapid firing through the questions. Ahhh! They were up to question 3 or 4 by the time we got a pen to work. Sherri quickly wrote down the answers to the first questions that we memorized while still trying to listen for the next question at the same time, but we missed one. One strike already out of 20! Ahhh! But, Sherri and I were a great team. The questions I didn’t know the answers to, she knew and visa versa. One of the questions was, “What month did Ulalume take place in?” She thought it might be December, but I knew with total certainty that it was October. I have made 4 Poe poems into YouTube videos with my dad reciting them and my photography illustrating them and we thought about doing that poem at some point. The only reason we haven’t yet is because of the length and my dad didn’t know if he could get all the way though it without messing it up haha! Anyway, I like to have October as a deadline for releasing my videos and I thought it was very fitting to do Ulalume because it takes place in October! Boom!
So, there we are starting off at a disadvantage, but still rocking hard. We ended up only getting 3 wrong which included the one we didn’t get to answer in the beginning. I thought we were done for, but we actually tied with,I think, 3 other groups. Then there was the 3 question tie breaker questions. Ohh shit! So, we all gather close to the announcer and await the questions that we knew would be harder. I honestly do not remember what the first 2 were, but we knew the answers. The final question was, “What are the Masque of the Red Death room colors?”. I turned to Sherri and said, “Oh, we got this!” I knew that Poe used purple and violet both which always stood out to me as strange because they are both purple. I remembered that fact always and then between the 2 of us we figured out the rest. I honestly was not confident that white was one, but Sherri thought it was, so without any better guesses, she wrote that down. I was sure that we had it! The announcer checked our answers and confirmed that we got them ALL right! We cheered like kids. Woooo! We were the queens of the nerds! Hahahaha! That felt great and it was so much fun! Also in case you ever find yourself in a very specific match of Poe themed trivia, the answer is: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black / red.
Sherri and I went to the office to find out that we won a year long membership to the museum! So, I won a membership from my haiku that brought me there just before it expired just to win another one for the following year from trivia. So good. I didn’t win the costume contest, but the ones who won were really great! The group contest winners were 3 young men wearing pageboy hats and suits. Cute. They stood out and looked great.
The Unhappy Hour events go from 6-9, but I was there from 5-9. It was great to see everyone, but it seemed to go so quick. Once again, I was whisked upstairs by the lovely staff ladies to say my goodbyes to the black beauty kitties right before leaving. I loved that! Then we all hugged each other goodbye and Sherri and Jeff walked me to my car. Jeff told me sternly to be “very safe while driving” back to my campground. More hugs. Then I Cinderelled back into my normal clothes quickly in my car, plugged in Prince William Forest Park into my GPS and drove on…
I was an hour and a half away from my campsite, but I had to go through cops, tons of construction and a major accident Oh my! Oh city joys, how I adore them. I had enough city time and was looking forward to going into the woods. I was tired since I was already in my hammock by that time the night before. It was well after midnight before I got my hammock set up and settled. I knew my brain would wake me up early, so that sucked, but I could do nothing about sitting still on the highway because of the accident. It took me a long time to find my camp spot also. It was a 5 mile drive into the dark woods and then I was booked to be at “Loop A” the closest one to the shower house. I must have passed it on my first loop around, but found it on my second pass. I was glad that I had my super high powered light with a magnet. I just popped it on my roof, so I could see better off to the side while looking for my number. Darkness, deer and my home for the night.
I think I had the park entirely to myself… At least the A loop, I did…
April 29th:
When I woke up at 7 AM, it was 39°. It was supposed to have gotten down to 37° at some point in the night. I turned on the car after my morning woodland pee next to it. I was alone. I warmed up, but the heater seemed to take forever to get warm enough. Then I crawled back in my hammock hoping to sleep a bit more. I didn’t fall asleep until around 2 AM! Then once I set my hammock up and got comfortable I heard all the noises. It was extremely quiet in regards to human noises, but not wildlife!
I was finally almost back to sleep when I heard a tapping on my window. What the… I popped up and opened the door by my hammock while still cocooned in it. A park ranger peaked in and said I was parked on the dirt instead of the driveway part of the campsite. First of all, I didn’t know I was supposed to park in a designated spot and second I couldn’t see anything. I was like, “Dude it was so dark, I’m happy I found my site let alone park in the ‘right spot’.” What’s the big deal about me parking on the dirt anyway? Is that something I seriously need to be woken up for? That’s one bored park ranger. This was a state park however with more rules and such. I’m just used to staying mostly at little mom and pop campsites, which sometimes is little more than like camping in someone’s backyard. Like seriously, a place I camped at in Wisconsin before was legit called, Backyard Campground. As long as a shower is included, I don’t care much about anything else except for maybe noise.
I took the gorgeous scenic drive out of the park around 10:30. I was moving a little slow into the shower. Five hours of sleep is not horrible , but its not the greatest either.
About a half hour away I came to the Quantico National Cemetery which I almost forgot I wanted to check out. I saw the signs when I was driving in late the night before. A lifetime ago I wanted to work for the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI based out of Quantico, Virginia, so it was cool to see the cemetery at least. I kind of wanted to go see the actual unit, but I doubted that they give tours haha, so I was just happy with seeing the cemetery.
I was about an hour away from Washington DC’s highest peak, Fort Reno. DC is just full of people like little ants frantic everywhere and the noise pollution is insane! There were sirens nonstop. Literally non-stop. Why would ANYONE want to live in an area like that?! Oh, and tour busses were all over the roads. Most people were wearing masks even walking alone down the street or in the “park“ even though that’s not a “requirement” anymore. Absolutely crazy, indeed. Little cookie cutter ants moving in routine without much thought, it seemed. That’s not a world I have any desire to live in. Just passing through people…out of my way…
So, I inadvertently passed by all the touristy monuments that I thought I’d avoid. No, I did not stop. I’m sure parking is a nightmare anyway and all the crowds of people was just not something I wanted to deal with just to see some kinda cool buildings. I saw the Washington Monument while driving right past it. As well as the Jefferson one. I saw the Lincoln Memorial from the highway and I saw some other monuments, but I couldn’t tell you the names. I checked them out while driving very slowly past them thanks to the horrendous traffic and that was good enough for this gal. I just missed the National Cherry Blossom Festival which would have made everything look prettier, so that sucked, but I didn’t care much about all of the monuments without the added element of gorgeous blossoms.
So, I was really worried about being able to even find this high point based on what I have read on-line, but it was not really that bad or maybe I just got lucky or maybe it was all the research I did and memorized what the photos of the area looked like. Regardless, I’m pretty sure this is the only high point that you can take a subway to, if you want. Hahaha! I, at first parked completely on the other side of the hill and walked up. but I saw the back way was much more secluded and closer. Also, there were a couple of homeless tents in front left of the park by the sign. But it was less than the homeless tent camp colony I passed near The National Mall (where all the touristy monuments are).
I’ll give details on how to find it if driving… Fort Reno Park is across the street from Alice Deal Middle School @ 3815 Fort Drive NW. Plug that address into your GPS because it did not come up for me when I tried using the name. Park along the road. With the school to your back, you walk up a pathway that leads to a kiosk on the left that says the High Point. Then you go up the small grassy hill behind it, and you will see the kiosk marking the highest point and then the benchmark is behind that a few feet.
It is .05 on the trail to the first kiosk and then .02 mile from the kiosk the second one that is a few feet away from the benchmark and then .08 miles all the way back to my car where I was parked. Easy Peezy!
My plan was to bring my neighbors big American house flag up there to wave in a photo, but I didn’t know how that would be taken. I did it anyway haha! So, there I am walking up the hill with the flag waving in the wind behind me. I thought since Civil War fortifications were at that very spot, it was appropriate. My neighbor Bobbie was messaging me while up there taking photos and was thrilled that her flag was there! She’s a big history buff and hopes to take her family to DC to do all of the tours that I avoided like the plague. Ha! I told her that since the high point is so close that she’d have to come see where her flag traveled too when they make it over. I talked to her while I sat in the grass on the hill enjoying the breeze a bit. She excitedly said, “My flag made history today!” So cute.
Trying to leave the High Point was slow. I was catching every red light and it was a sea of cars even once I got on the expressway. I was only going 25 MPH for a little bit. This is one of the reasons why I hate big cities. First It was school traffic plus big city traffic then rush-hour traffic plus Friday night traffic. The traffic jams followed me until Maryland. Then I was finally able to stop and eat something more than car snacks. I got a Chipotle bowl and a smoothie next door to sip on for the long drive home.
I got home at 11:20pm. I took everything inside and gave my kitty, Gingi some outside time. While he was playing, I had to clean out my car a bit because I had a fire dancing gig between 2 and 4 PM in Cleveland the very next day. I had a pile of fire show things (including props, a large speaker, fuel, and safety bag) that had to go in my car, so the road trip mess had to go.
I’m happy to have had another successful trip. I didn’t kill any wildlife on the road, I got there and back safely, and I did what I set out to do. All while having fun!
I did 929 miles though 4 states and one District of Colombia haha. I stayed at 2 campgrounds and did one high point and one amazing event…solo.
I went on a week and a half road trip then came home for a couple of days. Unpacked/ repacked then went to stay at my exes for three days to be in a parade. Then came home for a day and unpacked/repacked again to go on this road trip. Then I came home to unpack and repack my car for my fire performing gig the following afternoon. Then I unpacked my car a final time and now I’m staying put for a little while…
Whew…
