Ashland, Virginia

We are spending a week in Ashland which is just north of Richmond, Virginia.  We probably won't have time for sightseeing because we have several things we have to do before we head to Charleston, SC for the FROG rally.

One of those things is finishing the frogs I volunteered to make for each rig at the rally--25!

We arrived at Americamps RV Park on December 2.  That night we walked around the park to see the lights.  We also saw Santa! He rode in a train engine pulled by a truck.  Great way to get into the holiday spirit.  This is a nice campground.  They have garbage pickup at your site, free waffle breakfast every day, and on Thursday nights they have free dinner (it was tacos the week we were there).

The next day was John's birthday.  We celebrated by grilling some ribeye steaks.  It was delicious.

A few days later we went to see the holiday lights at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.  It was just voted the fourth "Best Botanical Garden" in the nation by USA Today.  This year's theme for the light display was Naturally Ever After: Stories in Lights.

We arrived at the gardens just before nightfall but the lights were still pretty.

The Conservatory

Close-up of the flowers on the tree

A quilt made with lights

A marshmallow warming station

Lights reflecting on a pond

The Giving Tree

Charlotte's Web

Jack and the Beanstalk

Light maze

After one time around the gardens, we decided to stop and have dinner at one of their restaurants.  We had a wonderful roasted red pepper and crab soup.  With warm soup in our stomachs, we walked around the gardens a second time.

Mmmmm!

Just about all finished with our "chores." We still need to mail our Christmas cards but I did make Christmas pillow envelopes.

The day before we were scheduled to leave for Charleston it snowed!  The night before we saw family pictures of snow in San Antonio and on Saturday we saw family pictures of snow in Baltimore!  The whole Baird family had snow!  We had about 3" from Friday to Saturday morning.  A second band of snow was expected around 10 am so after breakfast we got on the road.  No snow on the way to our overnight stop in Wade, NC, just drippy rain .  Here are some snow pictures...

Had to sweep the snow off the slides so they'd close

Before heading out we stopped at the RV park's Rally Room for a free waffle breakfast.  It was delicious.  Shout out to our new friends Wayne and Linda from Pennsylvania.  They were on their way to Arizona for the winter.  Hope we meet up with you somewhere next year!

Here are some pictures of snow in Richmond...

Now we're ready for the Festival of Lights and RV rally on Sunday!