Snow!

Virginia – Wednesday, March 6

It rained all night, and was still raining when I woke up. Knowing it was going to be kind of a wet, cold day, I planned to visit the Richmond National Battlefield for just a little walking, and go to the visitor center, as well as the Chimborazo Medical Museum – about one of the biggest Civil War hospitals. And there was the Maggie Walker House, a national historic site, which I was planning to visit too, so I had a nice indoor sort of day planned, and was happy I had done some extra walking earlier in the week. I called to make sure the places were still open, which they were. The rain began to turn to a sloppy wet snow, and I delayed leaving for a bit to see if that was going to mess things up. It was snowing pretty hard, but the roads weren’t bad – yet. I got to the Richmond Battlefield Visitor Center and it was in a really cool old building that had started out as a flour mill, and then turned into a building where lots of the cannons were made for the Civil War. But the ranger told me they were closing in about 10 minutes due to the weather. I was disappointed, but certainly understood. I’m used to driving in snow, but it doesn’t happen a lot down here, and kind of messes things up when it does snow!

The beginning of a canal walk through Richmond was right near the visitor center, and I knew Tula had to get out, so we went on a short mile and a quarter walk along the canal, which would have been a pretty walk on a nice day, but this was a soggy, cold, slushy, windy walk, and I had to cut it short – I was worried about Tula’s paws getting too cold, and the snow was so heavy it soaked through my raincoat. I didn’t want to wrestle with an umbrella in the wind like some people were trying to do. So we ended the canal walk, and then I got out one more time in the historic part of downtown Richmond, but then that was it – too unpleasant to be outside!

And I didn’t make a donation today in this sloppy weather, so I’ll double up in the next couple of days.

I decided to head southeast a bit, so I’ll be close to the “historic triangle” area of Virginia to see some of that tomorrow when things clear up – hopefully. It started out as a very snowy drive, and there were several cars that had spun off the road. It was actually pretty, despite the slow go! As I got farther southeast, the snow gradually began to turn over to rain, and everything was just a soggy mess. I checked into my motel earlier than usual, and decided to tackle the laundry which was overdue. That took a while, and then it was nice to just heat up some soup on a rainy evening. I think this was the worst weather day so far in my journey.