Scouting Front Royal

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esterday we decided to experience a little bit of our new hometown. And we enjoyed our scouting expedition. I thought I’d share a little bit of it in pictorial fashion. Big surprise, eh?

Downtown Front Royal’s bandstand

We had to do some lawn work, so we didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time exploring the town. But we really wanted to check out the Front Royal market, which is held all summer long, every Saturday near the bandstand. Looking at the town’s upcoming events, it appears that this is a central location for many of the special events in the town as well.

This market is not nearly up to the level of the Lynchburg market that we loved so much, but it was still a lot of fun to walk among the vender’s tents and talk to the people. Front Royal people are quite friendly and we enjoyed getting the chance to just meet some of them and have a few conversations.

While we browsed the various vendor offerings, David played on an old train caboose that rests on train tracks on the side of the market area. It’s a beautiful old caboose that has been restored to pristine condition and is open for the community kids to play on. David had a blast. He worked the brakes and the couplers and explored the underside of the caboose, looking very carefully at the wheels and other mechanisms down there.

David playing on the caboose

We found a local Front Royal candle maker and had a good conversation with her. We told her that we had just moved from the headquarters of the Virginia Candle Company.

We saw a group of Confederate soldiers off to the side and as we left we saw them in formation. We’re not sure what they were preparing for, but apparently they were preparing for something that was scheduled to take place later in the day.

All-in-all, it was a short but fun adventure and we learned a little more about the town. We plan to do a bit more exploring tomorrow, since I will have Labor Day off from work. We plan to visit a few local shops and enjoy some of the gorgeous mountain scenery. We’re waiting for the leaves to change to hit Skyline Drive, the entrance being just a few miles from our house. And we plan on attending a few of the local upcoming events, beginning next Saturday with an air show at the local airport. It ought to be fun.

Oh, and we have found tremendously friendly wildlife here. A family of deer walks the neighborhood each evening. We’ve seen the the deer family cross the road right in front of our house. And they just stop and look at you if you talk to them. So they are obviously not afraid of the people in the neighborhood. They really like the apples under our apple tree, so after walking the neighborhood they head to our apple tree each evening and then, after eating their fill, they head back across the street in front of our house, browse through the neighbor’s bushes, and head out for the evening.

And this little guy above is posing for a picture on top of our front porch railing. I was calling him “Jiminy,” but Kim reminded me that Jiminy was a cricket, not a grasshopper. David says his name should be “Limity Snicket.”

What a great place!