Summer Odds and Ends (Member Bonus Post)

Sharing some photos and anecdotes from a summer on the road

On Fridays, I often like to release video posts for paying members of Willoughby Hills. Today, I wanted to try something a little different.

I was recently looking through the camera roll on my phone and noticing how many photos I take for this newsletter that never get published. What often happens is that I have so many other topics I want to cover in a given issue that I simply don’t have the space to discuss everything that’s interesting that I encounter.

Since we’re getting closer to the end of summer, I thought it might be fun to share some of these photos from the past few months, along with brief stories about the images, and my thoughts on why I took the image, the thread of an idea that I had hoped to touch upon if I had published the image, and why it didn’t end up making the cut.

If there’s anything that stands out to you in this set, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Maybe I’ll end up revisiting some of these in the future or doing a deeper dive if there’s particular interest in a topic.

Carl’s Frozen Custard, Fredericksburg, VA

A few days before we left for our summer road trip to Florida,

Rolando Pujol

published an issue of his newsletter looking at the best ice cream in each state. In Virginia, that honor went to Carl’s Frozen Custard, a little roadside ice cream stand in Fredericksburg that has been open since 1947. We used to have family in the area that always wanted to take us here, but we never made it when we used to visit. We happened to find ourselves stopping for dinner in Fredericksburg and decided to get dessert at Carl’s.

Anne’s Grill, Fredericksburg, VA

I don’t know the story of this business at all. I’m not sure if it’s still in operation even. But we passed it after eating at Carl’s and the hand painted sign and weathered boards spoke to me. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but there was even neon outlining the “Anne’s Grill” letters. What was the story of this place? When did it open? Who goes there now? I had always hoped to research this more, but other priorities got in the way.