I've always really liked Virginia's town names, largely because they have a strong English flair that adds an air of pomp. I was in Mexico and chatting with two Mexican ladies and told them I live in a county called 'Prince William' and they told me it sounded rich, to which I laughed, since I'm in Woodbridge of all places.
So with that said, what are your favorite city/town/neighborhood names?
I tried to be as official as possible, so all names are Census Bureau-official unless there's an asterisk* (in which case they're usually small villages)
Some of mine:
- Abbs Valley
- Appalachia
- Apple Mountain Lake
- Assawoman* (when paired with Manassas, you can tell our Commonwealth has a fetish)
- Blacksburg (reminds of a German alpine town for some reason)
- Blue Ridge (fancy)
- Bobtown
- Bon Air (fancy)
- Buckingham (fancy)
- Buena Vista
- Bumpass* (a very...curious name)
- Cape Charles
- Captains Cove
- Castlewood (fancy)
- Cats Bridge
- Chantilly (fancy)
- Clifton Forge (sounds like a Skyrim location)
- Colonial Beach (fancy)
- Culpeper
- Dante
- Difficult Run
- Disputanta
- Dumfries (love/hate relationship)
- Emporia (reminds me of mattresses, but oh well)
- Falls Church (simple, but sounds fancy)
- Farmville (like the game!)
- Forest (fast and to the point)
- Front Royal (fancy)
- Galax (did they forget the -y at the end?)
- Gargatha
- Gasburg
- Goochland (sounds offensive, but at least it's unique!)
- Gore
- Great Falls
- Grottoes (fast and to the point)
- Haymarket (sounds like a medieval English town)
- Horntown
- Horse Pasture
- Hot Springs/Warm Springs (fast and to the point)
- Hurt
- Keezletown
- Kilmarnock (1000% Irish)
- King George (fancy)
- Lancaster (fancy)
- Leesylvania (the neighboring town from me, makes me think of a vampire Robert E. Lee)
- Loch Lomond (not near a lake and not Scottish, but cool name nonetheless)
- Lovettsville (fancy)
- Manassas (sounds like an exotic South Asian spice)
- Manchester (fancy/soccer)
- Mechanicsville
- Modest Town
- New Baltimore (new and improved compared to Old Baltimore)
- Newport News (sounds like a media company)
- Orange (Dutch-sounding fancy)
- Osaka (Japan doesn't have a monopoly)
- Paris (fancy)
- Port Republic (about 4 hours from any port)
- Port Royal (fancy)
- Prince George (fancy)
- Pungoteague
- Quantico (sounds CIA-like)
- Richmond (fancy)
- Rio
- Rose Hill (fancy)
- Savage Town
- Sherando
- Short Pump (sounds like a seedy truck stop or a strip club, so unique)
- Sterling (British mon
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Where: Section hike of the GR11 (Spanish Pyrenees) through the Ordesa Valley; starting at Baños de Panticosa and ending at Refugio de Pineta (with detour to Refugio de los Ibones de Bachimaña on first night)
When: 2021/10/21 to 2021/10/24
Distance: 44mi
Elevation Gain: 13.5K feet
Conditions: Crystal clear skies and weather for the entire trip; Temps ranged from a high of 70F at 3800ft (elevation of towns like Banos de Panticosa) to low 20s F at night at elevation (8000ft). Slept in refuges for two of three nights, with Saturday night cowboy camping near Refugio de Goriz.
Gear list: https://lighterpack.com/r/w78504
Useful Pre-Trip Information or Overview:
- GPX track: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=12.0/0.1071/42.6762&pubLink=WvBF6PceP1eUE8NLB4N32HWd&trackId=1cc928c7e04b2a910fff6e6e8f472cc8972f5235
Photo Album: https://imgur.com/gallery/gW4Gmne
The Report:
It seems to be a theme for my trip reports that I must start with a crisis of some sort: which the hero ultimately overcomes, but must face adversity in order to achieve his ultimate goal.
This time, I forgot my passport.
Rewind to explain what this trip was for me: I am an American living in the UK, who has not left the island of Great Britain since January 2020. Given easier travel rules within Europe for fully vaccinated travellers, I decided it was the right time to take a long weekend, and treat myself to a birthday present in Spain.
I was inspired for this trip based on this blog post. I had in my mind a European hut-to-hut type hike in an alpine setting (Dolomites, Alps, Pyrenees) and aired toward France or Spain, as the travel rules were slightly easier (no PCR for fully vaccinated travellers). The flight prices into BCN, and its relatively easy access to the Spanish Pyrenees pushed me to the GR11.
I started planning in earnest right off the back of my earlier week-long trek in Scotland (documented here). I was particularly pleased to plan an ‘exotic’ and longer-than-a-weekend trip so soon off the back of my Scotland trip. I saw it as a focal point for some of the learnings and reflections I’d had on the previous trip. Also, I have established an endurance fitness regimen betwe
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