Mount Solon, Virginia - National Jousting Hall of Fame

Jousting is one of the oldest held sports, and the Jousting Tournament is a family and friend event or anyone who wants to learn. August will make this sport 190 years old. The Jousting Tournament is always held the 3rd Saturday of the month, in June and August. Jousters from all over compete.

They were closed for the winter when you were there. The building which holds the Hall of Fame and the history of this sport is not dusty or raggy, Unless you know the history or you are there to see a tournament then you can not just go by the web site. [Judy Tumer, 06/22/2007]

The National Jousting Hall of Fame isn't a hall, per se...it's a very cluttered, dusty room in the back of the Natural Chimneys Regional Park's visitor center.

It was closed when we tried to visit, but I think we saw most of it through the window: a suit of armor, a mannequin dressed like a medieval page, and some lances. To be fair, though, it may have still been closed for the winter and merely in need of serious spring cleaning.

According to the National Jousting Association's website (no, I am not joking), the park hosts an annual jousting tournament ("America's oldest continually held sporting event") on the joust track, where you just might be able to stage your own tournament when you visit, if it's quiet around and can find some big sticks. And steeds (deer, car, whatever).

The NJA site says that "the Jousting Hall of Fame encapsulates all that is the finest of American Jousting." I say you can probably give it a miss unless you also feel like checking out the (very pretty) farmland you'll pass on the way. Unless it happens to be the third Saturday in August, in which case I'll be really peeved if you don't go check out the tournament and report back on it (there's one on the third Sunday in June, too!). [Danny, 03/30/2007]

[RA: Note how Danny and his fellow knights have secured their car hood with tape so it doesn't fly open, whether while jousting or driving....]