Pigs, Strawberries, and Peanuts

We had been waiting for a monthly site to open up at the campground where Nicolas lives, and while we were in Charlottesville, we got the call that one was available.  We had paid for a week there, so we planned our move for last Thursday.  That worked out well, as we had quite a bit of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday was a beautiful day.

We had a peaceful drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains,

and then through the peanut fields as we got closer to Suffolk.

I’ve never seen peanut plants before – I had to google it to confirm that’s what they were!

We arrived at Davis Lakes RV Park, and got set up in the monthly loop,

just two sites away from Nicolas!

Nicolas was on 24-hour duty on Thursday, so we didn’t see him until he got home on Friday afternoon, but we did visit with a few of the other residents that we know from last fall.

He was off on Saturday, so we took a drive up to the historic town of Smithfield to check out their Farmers Market and the shops in town. 

Pigs are the theme in town –

that makes sense since it’s the home of Smithfield Meats, well known for ham and bacon!

The Farmers Market was small, but nice, and there were several cute gift shops in town,

along with some antique Shops and a few restaurants, including the Smithfield Cafe.  We had a big breakfast at home, so we skipped the restaurants on this trip. 

Smithfield is a historic town, with many remaining historic buildings and homes.

Many were colonial in style,

and Victorian, too.

This one was really interesting, with its round room on a post, and the round chimney.

The flowering trees and the gardens were beautiful – Spring is in full bloom here!

I had seen on Facebook that there were several U-pick strawberry farms in the Hampton Roads area, and one of them was in Smithfield, so when we had walked through all of downtown, we set out to find some strawberries.

Just a few minutes from downtown, we found the farm, and the strawberries were very plentiful!

I love when the strawberries plants are in these weed barrier fabric covered rows – it’s so much easier for picking!

We got to work (at least Nick and I did; Tom was just eating), and before long we had a full bucket of yummy, beautiful strawberries!  They are so sweet!

After picking berries, we took back roads back to Highway 460 and the little town of Wakefield – the peanut capital!

We had passed through here on our way to the campground on Thursday, and it looked interesting.  We stopped first at the Wakefield Peanut Shop,

and picked up a few goodies . . . but not a giant bag of peanuts!

We were ready for lunch then, so we tried the buffet at the Virginia Diner.

It’s been a roadside cafe since 1929, offering ham & biscuits, soups, and fried chicken to travelers.  The menu is more extensive now, but still very good!

Back at the campground after our early dinner, we got a few little projects done at Nicolas’ camper and I started his laundry, before we went to church at 5pm.  Nicolas was scheduled for 24-hour duty again on Sunday, so he stayed home Saturday night, and we all watched the new Jumanji movie (we’ve seen it already, but it’s a good one).

We had a full moon this weekend, and we were out walking Casey as it rose over the motorhome.  It’s nice to be here for a while, hanging out with Nick!