Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

We walked through Stephens City, Middletown, and Strasburg, Virginia. This was another 15-mile day with fine weather – mostly cloudy with the temperature starting at 63 degrees and ending at 75 degrees F.

Stephens City ends the clutter of Winchester. Once out of Stephens, you are in rural Virginia. I liked that. Stephens City has old houses that are about to fall down, and then older houses that have been renovated. The town was founded in 1758 – that makes it 18 years older than America. I don’t comprehend such. There are a bunch of townhouses at the south end of town – rats, they are not safe from those things even out here.

Most of the businesses in Stephens City were called Newtown this and Newtown that. I read a few of the historical markers along the road. Towards the end of the Civil War there was a lot of local trouble in the area. Several Union officers were ordered to burn the town. Some residents saved their houses by proclaiming loyalty to the Union. Several residents saved their houses by proclaiming that they would hang Union POWs in retaliation. The Union officers spared the town. I imagine there was some bad blood among the residents who used differing tactics to save their houses. The name change in the town probably came from the resulting discussions after the (official) cease of hostilities.

The find of the day is a two-screen drive-in theater south of Stephens City. Here’s a photo. The sign out front reads “CLOSED,” but I think that only means closed for the season. The place is in operating condition and immaculate. This is great. A drive-in theater next to a town that is … forget the math, a town that is really old.

The best town of the day was Middletown. Lord Fairfax Community College is on the north end of town. I thought that would be it for Middletown (boring), but I was wrong. The town is almost as big as Stephens City, and it doesn’t have any townhouses! It does have the Wayside Inn (1797 – ha, not even as old as America). This Inn claims to be the oldest operating Motor Hotel in America. That claim is probably true. I put a photo of the Wayside Inn on the Wikipedia page for Middletown.

South of Middletown is a huge house called “Monte Vista” (1883). That is not even in the same century as 1776, but still quite an impressive place.

The biggest disappointment of the day was Strasburg. I am not sure why it was disappointing. Perhaps because I had cramps while walking through town (too much dairy in my coffee at breakfast. I will have to watch that one). Really, the town wasn’t impressive for some reason.

The toughest part of the day was the climb out of Strasburg. South of town was a fork of the Shenandoah River. This is great bottom land full of crops. I really enjoyed walking past the fields and listening to tunes on my iPod. Then I hit the hill. I walked up hill for 20 minutes. Checking the terrain maps on Google, I estimate I climbed 400 feet. I was tired.

Here is a quick display of our progress so far from Reston to about Toms Brook: