Visit a different world nearby
So the writing is on the wall and in your bank statements: Times are tough.
So scrimping is in. Start a recession veggies garden, says friend Art Hart. Michelle Obama did. Go on a dessert-free diet. Cancel that long trip. And then just sit there? Of course not. Beyond visiting the library or obsessing on wild Web sites, get out and take a Discover Stafford break.
I recently did just that.
Enjoying one of those rare, free afternoons from my busy retirement pace, I motored north on U.S. 1, past that really big new hotel under construction and the slowly awakening fancy home development, Hills at Aquia. Then I leaned rightward (as you’d expect) at the Peace Cross and onto developing Telegraph Road. Still a countrified version of Mountain View road, it’s lots more twisty.
Whereupon the new Heim middle school that grandson Jason attends loomed very large. But my destination was far more exotic: The Wilds of Widewater.
(Note to my non-Virginia friends: That part of Stafford County is where George Brent and family landed from Maryland and established the first Catholic settlement in Virginia. It's where, on nearby Aquia Creek, Abraham Lincoln visited aboard ship, and off, with his generals figuring out how to get to Fredericksburg and whip Stonewall Jackson's Confederate troops. They didn't, until much later and elsewhere.)I had ventured there before, but not in a long time. Has development ruined it? Not by a long shot. Even the spacious new Patawomeck county park has plenty of uncrowded room as I pass by. I’ll go nearly 10 miles off U.S. 1 on Widewater Road plus Arkendale and then to the very end at Brent’s Point, where the Potomac flows past Aquia Creek.
The last time I drove out there, the trees must have been in full leaf, because this time I enjoyed seeing through them the lovely stretches of Aquia Creek, and before that the Potomac River. They soon will again be concealed by the dense greenery
Generally the overall scene looks a bit forgotten. I thought perhaps there might be signs somewhere touting the proposed VRE rail station pretty close to where Widewater Road takes a sharp right at the railroad track to become Arkendale Road. But no. Also, there’s no sign locating that 1,100 acre state park to be. Nowhere, I’d guess until the state gets back into the black, budget-wise, after paying some $6 million for the tract three years ago.
On my return trip towards U.S. 1, a small deer sauntered across the road. It was one of the few signs of life I saw. Passing cars were a novelty. It’s that remote out yonder.
There still being a few daylight hours left, I turned left at the old store across from the fire house and onto Decatur Road. Backwoodsy for sure. It has the look of rural20West Virginia (check out Hoot Owl Road) except when you pass the entrance of the new winery and the old Oak Grove Baptist Church. It’s not easy to stay on the route, given its intersections with other winding lanes, virtually unmarked except for Hovnanian’s for-sale signs pointing the wa y to the broad pavement of its newish Aquia Overlook. That‘s another ultra-pricey development oddly at the very end of funky Decatur Road, some three winding miles off Widewater Road.
Tooling along past the new mansions, I passed two strollers walking their dogs. They (the strollers) looked familiar. Sure enough it was friends Debbie and Phil Ramsey, Aquia Harbour residents. At first I wondered how they had ventured so far from home. Then it dawned on me that the far southeastern end of Aquia Harbour is just a short walk from Aquia Overlook’s boundary.
Some trip advice: Returning to U.S. 1 from Widewater via Telegraph Road, you have a choice. When you come to the fork in the road, take it, as Yogi Berra once said. That is, turn right off Widewater Road, not left towards the Peace Cross. That intersection is a bear to get out of. The right turn lands you shortly at the red light on U.S. 1, at Boswell’s Corner. Simple.
I later learned something else in musing over a Stafford map. It seems that Quantico Marine Corps base is a far piece up U.S. 1, at least the entrance. But it’s just over a mile from the north end of Aquia Harbour to the base’s border, alongside the north side of Widewater Road for a short stretch.
Thus can reality play tricks on perception, I am once again reminded. Still, the isolated Widewater community is a far piece from Aquia Harbour, both in mileag e and in community environment.
Out of that nice afternoon’s diversion in driving around in a less traveled part of Stafford County, I gained a greater appreciation of the county’s diversity and its large helping of unspoiled scenery. We’re getting paved over? No way.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com".
So scrimping is in. Start a recession veggies garden, says friend Art Hart. Michelle Obama did. Go on a dessert-free diet. Cancel that long trip. And then just sit there? Of course not. Beyond visiting the library or obsessing on wild Web sites, get out and take a Discover Stafford break.
I recently did just that.
Enjoying one of those rare, free afternoons from my busy retirement pace, I motored north on U.S. 1, past that really big new hotel under construction and the slowly awakening fancy home development, Hills at Aquia. Then I leaned rightward (as you’d expect) at the Peace Cross and onto developing Telegraph Road. Still a countrified version of Mountain View road, it’s lots more twisty.
Whereupon the new Heim middle school that grandson Jason attends loomed very large. But my destination was far more exotic: The Wilds of Widewater.
(Note to my non-Virginia friends: That part of Stafford County is where George Brent and family landed from Maryland and established the first Catholic settlement in Virginia. It's where, on nearby Aquia Creek, Abraham Lincoln visited aboard ship, and off, with his generals figuring out how to get to Fredericksburg and whip Stonewall Jackson's Confederate troops. They didn't, until much later and elsewhere.)I had ventured there before, but not in a long time. Has development ruined it? Not by a long shot. Even the spacious new Patawomeck county park has plenty of uncrowded room as I pass by. I’ll go nearly 10 miles off U.S. 1 on Widewater Road plus Arkendale and then to the very end at Brent’s Point, where the Potomac flows past Aquia Creek.
The last time I drove out there, the trees must have been in full leaf, because this time I enjoyed seeing through them the lovely stretches of Aquia Creek, and before that the Potomac River. They soon will again be concealed by the dense greenery
Generally the overall scene looks a bit forgotten. I thought perhaps there might be signs somewhere touting the proposed VRE rail station pretty close to where Widewater Road takes a sharp right at the railroad track to become Arkendale Road. But no. Also, there’s no sign locating that 1,100 acre state park to be. Nowhere, I’d guess until the state gets back into the black, budget-wise, after paying some $6 million for the tract three years ago.
On my return trip towards U.S. 1, a small deer sauntered across the road. It was one of the few signs of life I saw. Passing cars were a novelty. It’s that remote out yonder.
There still being a few daylight hours left, I turned left at the old store across from the fire house and onto Decatur Road. Backwoodsy for sure. It has the look of rural20West Virginia (check out Hoot Owl Road) except when you pass the entrance of the new winery and the old Oak Grove Baptist Church. It’s not easy to stay on the route, given its intersections with other winding lanes, virtually unmarked except for Hovnanian’s for-sale signs pointing the wa y to the broad pavement of its newish Aquia Overlook. That‘s another ultra-pricey development oddly at the very end of funky Decatur Road, some three winding miles off Widewater Road.
Tooling along past the new mansions, I passed two strollers walking their dogs. They (the strollers) looked familiar. Sure enough it was friends Debbie and Phil Ramsey, Aquia Harbour residents. At first I wondered how they had ventured so far from home. Then it dawned on me that the far southeastern end of Aquia Harbour is just a short walk from Aquia Overlook’s boundary.
Some trip advice: Returning to U.S. 1 from Widewater via Telegraph Road, you have a choice. When you come to the fork in the road, take it, as Yogi Berra once said. That is, turn right off Widewater Road, not left towards the Peace Cross. That intersection is a bear to get out of. The right turn lands you shortly at the red light on U.S. 1, at Boswell’s Corner. Simple.
I later learned something else in musing over a Stafford map. It seems that Quantico Marine Corps base is a far piece up U.S. 1, at least the entrance. But it’s just over a mile from the north end of Aquia Harbour to the base’s border, alongside the north side of Widewater Road for a short stretch.
Thus can reality play tricks on perception, I am once again reminded. Still, the isolated Widewater community is a far piece from Aquia Harbour, both in mileag e and in community environment.
Out of that nice afternoon’s diversion in driving around in a less traveled part of Stafford County, I gained a greater appreciation of the county’s diversity and its large helping of unspoiled scenery. We’re getting paved over? No way.
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at info@staffordcountysun.com".
posted by Ben Blankenship at
1:00 PM
