Great Escape: The Middle of Nowhere

Recently, I was truly in need of a great escape.

But I wasn’t sure where to go. The weather was beautiful, so I considered hitting the beach. Then I thought about having to drive over the Bay Bridge to get there, so that wasn’t going to happen.

I enlisted a friend of mine to go with me, and we decided to go to Winchester, VA, with its quaint old town and, well, it’s in the middle of nowhere—just where I wanted to be.

We got our stuff together, loaded the dog into the car and headed out on the Beltway toward Rte. 66. Traffic was kind of a bear on Saturday afternoon, but once we hopped onto Rte. 50, it was smooth sailing.

You can find some great hotel prices—we stayed at a Super 8 that was dog friendly—and crash. Or you can head to the old town pedestrian mall on Loudoun Street and people watch.

We grabbed a seat on the patio at a brewpub and the waitress brought Toby a dog bowl full or cool water. Sitting on the brick walkway under a canopy of trees with a summer breeze blowing through my hair was the perfect de-stressor.

There’s lots of things you can do there, and there are festivals throughout the year. We just hung out at the hotel in the cool air conditioning and read novels and catching up on our favorite websites. Toby sprawled out over my bed and enjoyed the adventure right along with us.

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