The Blandy Experimental Farm
There’s nothing like a good walk in the woods.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
After taking that walk in the woods along roads and trails found throughout the Blandy Experimental Farm, I stopped in at the Locke Store for lunch. The Blandy Experimental Farm — a.k.a. the State Arboretum of Virginia — is one of my favorite “local” parks in which to go for a walk or hike. And I’ve yet to be disappointed whenever I drop by the General Store for take out.
Of course if you time your visit right there’s a museum and historic re-enactors who gather down near the Burwell-Morgan Mill and village commons each Spring and Fall during their semi-annual art show and town festival. It’s sometimes the small off the beaten path sites and events that help you get your bearings.
