The Fateful Trip, part II

Today's entry is about Purcellville and Leesburg.

We stayed in Leesburg. Its a small town a bit outside D.C. and a bit outside Purcellville. Well really Purcellville is a bit outside Leesburg. Anyway, its got a population a bit over 100,000 or so I think I read, which means that Simi Valley is safer than Leesburg. Go figure. Actually it has a bit of a Simi Valley feel in its newer parts. Run of the mill stores in strip malls. If you travel west in Leesburg you will encounter its old townish part. That's the part I liked...actually loved is more the word for it. There is a lovely courthouse which I would like to see the inside of one of these days, old style houses, brick buildings, and no shortage of Italian food. Purcellville was about the same. It had its newer part, which is fine with me, but the majority was old and scenic. Purcellville, however, is much smaller than Leesburg.

A few things that struck me about the area:
-There were track homes and many new areas being built up, but they are nothing like Southern California track homes. They were very spaced out instead of fitting as many houses as possible into one area. Really most houses were like that. There does not seem to be pressure to maximize the value of the land. After observing Virginia it seems to me that clustering people really tightly together does more environmental damage than just letting them roam about the land and end up where they will.
-Zoning laws seem to be a new invention over there. Our first day there we missed a lot of town because we thought we were heading into residential areas. Well we were, but what we didn't realize was that there were resturants and businesses of various sorts occupying that same space.
-Lots of water. That was especially evident flying in but it was also pretty noticable as we drove around. It reminded me of a lot of puddles and I rather liked it. I guess some places aren't constantly battling with nature in order to get a decent supply of water.
-Beautiful. Even though most of the trees were naked, it was still pretty. I like open space and I really like grass, so that must have been what made me love it.

I love Virginia.

To Be Continued....