Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Tag: Virginia

  • Silver Line Extension

    The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened its eleven mile Silver Line extension on November 15, 2022. I couldn’t be there on opening day but I still wanted to check out the new stations while they were relatively “new.” So I checked in with my frequent travel buddy, my older kid, and we aligned our…

  • From Skyline to Valley

    A family friend had a big round-number birthday recently and we drove down to Central Virginia for the celebration. Meanwhile, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to add to my various travel lists so I wondered how might I combine the two. I thought about county counting but I finished Virginia several years ago.…

  • Backroads Accomack

    I’d not spent much time in Accomack County, Virginia before. Well, one time a few years ago I did enjoy a long weekend in Chincoteague at the northern end of the county. I’ve also driven down busy U.S. Route 13 a few time on the way to other places. But the bicycle race “Le Tour…

  • Le Tour De Shore

    It seemed like a good idea last January when a friend mentioned Le Tour De Shore to me. He wanted to try a long distance bicycle ride and what better place to try that a place almost completely devoid of hills? There’s almost nothing but flat out on the Delmarva Peninsula. So he convinced me…

  • Little Loudoun Loop

    I traveled an hour west of Washington, DC for a Loudoun Wine Adventure back in 2012. In the time since then, beverage tourism has only increased in this Northern Virginia county. Now visitors can select from about 50 vineyards, 35 breweries, and a smattering of distilleries, cideries, and meaderies within this single jurisdiction. I’m beginning…

  • Counties in Virginia that I have Visited

    There are 133 Counties / Independent Cities in Virginia – “The Old Dominion“ Also be sure to see my United States County Counting Page for the rest of the states. I have visited 133 Counties / Independent Cities = 100% of Counties / Independent Cities in Virginia Counties visited are colored-in; counties still needing to…

  • Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay

    Accomack County, Virginia (June 2000) For many years I’d wanted to visit Tangier Island in the middle of Chesapeake Bay (map). People have inhabited Tangier for more than three hundred years, making a living from the bounty of the Bay, mostly isolated from their neighbors on the eastern and western shores. This has resulted in…

  • Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

    Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center; Fairfax County, Virginia, USA (January 2007) The Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center provides extra room for much of their extensive aircraft and spacecraft that cannot fit into their location on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The center sits about 25 miles west of the city on the grounds of Washington-Dulles International Airport…

  • Dinosaur Land

    Near Winchester, Virginia (December 2007) In the days before Interstate highways, before large corporate theme parks and fast food restaurants, little mom-and-pop attractions provided the traveling public with a few moments of amusement and perhaps a brief rest as they traveled through rural America on rolling, winding two-lane asphalt. Kids hung their heads by the…

  • Washington, DC Boundary Stones

    Located in Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia (Visited 2000-2010) Beginning in 1791, a survey party placed stones marking the boundary of the District of Columbia, one mile apart in a diamond pattern, ten miles on a side. Two thirds of the land came from Maryland and one third from Virginia. This land formed the new capital…