Mountain Laurel... Smelled so fragrant

 

Trip Day 20, Thursday, May 13,2021  Last Day at KOA Fredericksburg. VA

In telling you about this place (KOA) I don’t think I mentioned how peaceful and how remote it was. It is in the middle of a forest. At the entrance there is a steep hill coming from the west and if you are going more than 20 miles an hour you would go right past it even if you saw the signs.  KOA does have two signs indicating how much further it is just for that purpose.  “KOA 2 miles”, “KOA 1/2 mile”, “KOA 1/4mile”. And on US 1 ( Jefferson Davis Highway) where you turn into their access road, (Highway 607), there is a sign that says  “KOA turn NOW”.I missed that the first time.

A tunnelof 140 feet high Oaks.

But today was a good day both for birding and handling the GPS, We let the “lady” do the talking and she did OK, even with a turn around, she got back on track quickly. One must be specific when entering data, however, as I wanted a park by the name of Lorelei Park, but did not designate that it was not a street . GPS did and I didn’t see that error. The turn was into the street of the same name, and not the park, but we rerouted as we had gone by the entrance and we had seen it.

We did get to five  birding areas today and came home with 25 species and a few new ones.

A Pond with the name of “Ruffin’s Pond” was a vast area in the middle of industrial acreage. It was  good run as long as we were alert for trucks coming up behind us as we poked along looking for birds and listening for bird.sounds.  a CLIFF SWALLOW AND A LESSER YELLOWLEGS, were there among others. There were some neat little “pull ins” that we used to observe and watch. Then next door was a sports complex that we were unable to find the entrance . It was vast and could have been miles away. 

Wild roses abound along withy the Laurel.

 

Heading east on US 17 were two other sites, one was even past the house we stopped at the first evening when we got off the US 1 route. ( On US 17). We found two entrances to Pettigrew WMA (Wildlife Management Area) and made good use of that for a lunch stop  out in the WMA watching the birds.

Heading back to town as it was now 2:00 PM and the temperature was nearing 70 with the sun shining, we headed for Lorelei Park and the sun was just too much for the birds as they didn’t show. Birding in the afternoon  is never the best time of day to find birds.
 

Being a historical area there are many markers like this by the hundreds.

I never did find out why these fields of last year's wheat were still standing?

 

Supper was one of our favorites on the road and that is tomato basil soup, and toasted cheese (havarti) sandwiches.

It was a good day and Ruth vacuumed after supper and I took down all the “accessories” and put loose items  into the truck for tomorrow’s getaway.

We don’t know what it will bring and at worst we will wait out the gasoline shortage in some parking lot. At best we will find gasoline as needed.

See you in Martinsville VA next!

This was the National Wildlife Refuge that had closed all roads  so no auto touring. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          It is on the Potomac River Estuary

We did have to travel on this highway. We have to remember we are south of the Mason Dixon line.