Lower 48 Road Trip: Maryland, Virginia & West Virginia

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28

Happy October Overcomers! Fall is now in full swing and election day in the United States is less than a month away. I finally have my fall decorations out and have accepted the reality that summer is over (although I am still enjoying the unusually warm, sunny weather). Some aspects of our lives follow a predictable pattern, like the changing of the seasons. However, we are all well aware of how unpredictable life can be. The last week and a half was like a roller coaster for me, with crazy ups and downs. Unfortunately, my mom fell, broke her hip and had to have surgery on the last day of September. This event threw our family into chaos. A couple days later, one of my sisters decided to come visit (unrelated to my mom’s accident), two family birthdays were crammed into the mix and one of my brothers was expecting his son to be born (he arrived on Monday). In light of all this, I decided to leave for a few days to help my mom, who lives a couple hours away. I was flying by the seat of my pants every day last week and plans were changing constantly. It was really challenging to say the least. Thankfully, my mom is recovering well and making progress every day. I am amazed by how our family has come together to care for her. My aunts have gone above and beyond to help her. Even though it was such a sad and unfortunate accident, I can see God moving in it all. He is healing our family in many ways through it. When we trust him, he really does bring good things out of every bad situation. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I trust God will continue to bring good out of the chaos for my family. I know people are falling on hard times all over our country. Have you seen all of the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton? Together they caused hardship and chaos over multiple Southern states. In the midst of it all, I am encouraged to see how the greater family of God in America is coming together to help those in need… even from the West Coast! I trust God will also bring good out of this tragedy as well. Great is his faithfulness!

I believe more unexpected challenges are coming, but I am certain the believers in America will come together and love one another through it all. If we love and care for each other well, then there are no set of circumstances we cannot overcome together. We will be unstoppable! With a consequential election coming up, this is good news. With the country’s attention focused on Washington, D.C., it’s a perfect time to talk about our visit there last year on our road trip. I hope you enjoy reading about our travels to the states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Blessings to you all!

Maryland: Our first stop in Maryland was in the charming and quaint capital city of Annapolis. The buildings downtown have the typical New England Colonial style and many of them are made of brick. Shops, restaurants and pubs line Main Street all the way down to the docks. A Naval Academy is there, so you can see people in uniform strolling down the streets. This was kind of a culture shock for me since we do not have many military bases were I live. Annapolis is one of the prettiest cities we visited on the trip and is a wonderful place to shop and explore. I highly recommend it if you are in the area. Then we drove past the Washington, D.C. area and crossed into Virginia, where we stayed for a few days while we explored our nation’s capital.

Even though Washington, D.C. is technically considered to be its own district and not officially part of any state, I have always thought of it as being in Maryland since the majority of the city borders this state. We have each visited D.C. before when we were younger, but we had never been together, so we were excited for a new experience. During our time there, I heard the Lord say, “There is a dark cloud over D.C.” This seemed to be true both in the natural and spiritual realms… but there is still hope! The United States of America as a whole, is ran by three branches of government which reside in Washington, D.C. While there are some well-meaning people in our government who strive to lead us righteously, I believe our government is overrun with wicked people who do not serve Jesus as the King of kings. As beautiful as our capital is, I could feel the dark cloud over the city and the inward groaning of the Holy Spirit longing to bring God’s righteousness to America. In fact, when we walked up to the large fence surrounding the White House, I could not help but grab the bars, bow my head and pray for God to intervene and save America. May His will be done in D.C. as it is in heaven.

The temperature in D.C. was miserably hot, even on September 11th, while we walked around the city on foot. We saw the Jefferson Memorial from across the water where we parked. From there, we walked to the Washington Monument, which is a visual focal point in the city. While walking across the National Mall, we stumbled upon a 24/7 prayer and worship gathering called “David’s Tent DC.” We sat and rested a few minutes in the Lord’s presence and were so encouraged to see other believers there committed to interceding for our nation. Then we walked over to our gorgeous Capitol Building and toured inside. Its beauty still takes my breath away. We also strolled over to the Supreme Court, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Constitution Gardens and then ended at the White House. The next day, we spent most of our time in Virginia, but then we came back to D.C. to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The museum is so huge and fascinating that you really could spend days looking at everything. After that, we came back on our last day to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is sobering, tragic and deeply moving. I visited the museum as a young teenager, but now it’s a bit different than I remember it. Lastly, we went back to the same Smithsonian museum again and explored a few more exhibits before leaving the D.C. area and heading to the mountains of Virginia. Our visit to D.C. was pretty rushed, but thankfully, we were able to fit in everything we really wanted to see. I also prayed all over the city for Jesus to move there… in every branch of government. I believe He will break the dark cloud with the glory of God!

Virginia: is a state of “peace.” It’s full of the Lord’s “glory.” While visiting Washington D.C., we stayed at an Airbnb in Alexandria, which has some pretty, Colonial style buildings made of red brick. It was so refreshing to spend a few nights in a large apartment and get a break from camping in the van. The couple we rented from were Korean and own a Korean food restaurant. On our first and last days there, they brought us a huge portion of delicious fried chicken wings from their restaurant! Their hospitality was exceptional. During our stay, we visited George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon. I had vivid memories of the first president’s home and property from my first visit because many of the rooms were painted bright colors, like hot pink, bright blue and crayon green. I was so excited to see it again, this time with my husband. When we got to the house, I was surprised to see so much had changed. On one hand, I was happy we could now take pictures inside the house, but on the other I was sad that the pink room had been repainted and some of the furnishings were missing from before. Even with the changes, it was still so special to be there and experience part of the early history of the United States. The estate is beautiful and expansive, offering a unique view into the everyday life of our very first president… the good and the bad together. President Washington, his wife, family members and slaves are buried on the property. I walked away grateful for all that President Washington did to establish our country and sad for all those who were enslaved there. Our history is so bittersweet. Speaking of bittersweet, we also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We also happened to stay long enough to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony. The soldiers guard the tomb around the clock, just as I remember them doing when I was young. It’s amazing to think that all these years later the ceremony is continuous and unchanging. The cemetery itself is enormous and you really can’t fathom just how many of our soldiers are buried there until you go visit it yourself. Their sacrifice should be appreciated by every citizen of our country. I’m thankful we had the opportunity to visit.

When we left the D.C. area, we drove through the Virginia countryside and entered the Shenandoah National Park through the Thornton Gap Entrance. It was sunset as we approached the national park, so as you can imagine the views were stunning. We drove south on Skyline Drive, which runs on top of the mountain range, so you can see the valley below on both the east and west sides of the road. Every time we caught the skyline to the west, the vibrant colors of the sunset were breathtaking. This was one of the most romantic drives on the whole trip. We camped for a night at Big Meadows Campground where we saw deer, a fox and a skunk near our campsite. I’m thankful the skunk didn’t spray us because we startled it at pretty close range. The next day, we enjoyed a gorgeous sunny drive with more incredible views, as we continued south on Skyline Drive all the way down to the exit at Rockfish Gap. I highly recommend this scenic drive! After leaving Shenandoah, we headed toward West Virginia. On our way, we passed a sign for Stonewall Jackson’s house, so we spontaneously stopped in Lexington to see it. Gabe always had a fascination with the Civil War growing up, and was also interested in Stonewall Jackson since they shared the same last name. Unfortunately, the house had just closed for the day when we arrived, but we were still able to walk around the outside, see the backyard garden and take some pictures. It was a special gift from God for my husband, since we didn’t even know it would be on our route. Lexington was our last stop in Virginia, although we did pass through the western part of the state on our drive from West Virginia to Tennessee. This area of the state is rural with pretty mountains. Virginia was such a pleasant surprise!

West Virginia: This very mountainous state easily has the craziest roads in all the Lower 48 states! Not only do the roads go up and down with steep downgrades, but they are also incredibly curvy. The roads here made me feel like I was riding a wild roller coaster. Google Maps is a little deceiving because it makes the highways in West Virginia appear like major roads, when in reality most of them are small two-lane roads through the country mountains. To make things even crazier, the locals fly on these roads in large trucks going about 80 mph! Driving the roads of West Virginia was an unforgettable experience, and to make it even more memorable, we played the song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver several times. Who doesn’t love that song? As we traveled through small towns and communities, I could feel a tangible depression caused by a spirit of poverty. I already knew West Virginia has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States, but I didn’t know quite what that would look or feel like. The mining industry is a major part of their economy and with all of the mine closures over the years, people have struggled to find work that can support their families. We went through some mining ghost towns that looked like one day, everyone just left. It was so sad to see. The verse that came to me was Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” With a struggling economy and poverty, some towns are wasting away with many of the people lacking vision and hope for their future. This state is also a Baptist stronghold. Not all, but many Baptist churches do not believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate through people today. I could sense this religious spirit has squeezed out any fresh move of the Holy Spirit here, although we did pass by a revival tent on our way to Beckley, so there is hope!

Our first stop in West Virginia was in the town of Lewisburg near Fairlea for some Blizzards at Dairy Queen. The young man who took my order gave me a discount on both of our ice creams, which was such a blessing! We savored our sweet treats as we made our way up to the campground at Babcock State Park in Clifftop. We enjoyed sitting by the fire in the cool mountain air and spotlighting deer through the trees on the hill next to our campsite. The next day, we explored the Glade Creek Grist Mill. The beautiful creek has little waterfalls and large pools of water where you can walk on the rocks out into the middle. They also have a gift shop and some fun West Virginia signs where you can take photos as well. Then we drove up the hill to Boley Lake. The water was so tranquil. It looked like a perfect place to swim, so we were surprised to find a sign that said “No Swimming.” As we walked along the path near the water wondering why they didn’t allow swimming, I looked down to see a medium-sized snake swimming underwater. I was startled and pointed it out to Gabe, so we immediately knew the answer to our question… yikes! We also saw some snake skins along another side of the lake. We are so used to being able to safely swim in lakes back home, but in other parts of the country, swimming is not always safe. Snakes or not, we still drank in the undeniable beauty of this quiet mountain lake that we pretty much had to ourselves. We camped one more night at Babcock, then drove through the city of Beckley, which was clean and neat with a little rustic charm. We didn’t stop there because we were short on time, but we did enjoy the remaining country scenery as we made our way to Virginia and then on to Tennessee. “Almost Heaven, West Virginia” is such an appropriate way to describe the endless mountains of this beautiful state.

Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia surprised us in so many ways. From the nation’s capital to the mountains of the two Virginias, there is so much to explore and enjoy. America is such a beauty! Watch for my next blog as we dive further into the South. The adventure continues!