                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996                   TAG: 9605100075
SECTION: DAILY BREAK              PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   45 lines

TRAVELER'S ADVISORY

Faire facts: The Virginia Renaissance Faire is open weekends plus Memorial Day Monday from now through June 16, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., rain or shine. Gate admission prices are $14 for adults, $6.50 for children 5-12 (4 and under free). Advance tickets are $11.50 and $5.50; to order by credit card, call (800) 52-FAIRE; allow two weeks for delivery. No pets, please.

There's more: The village also will be the site of the All Hallows Eve Haunted Forest Ride on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings (7 p.m. to midnight), Oct. 4-27. Call (540) 371-3999 for details.

Getting there: The conventional route is I-64 west to I-95 north (a.k.a. the East Coast Raceway) at Richmond to Exit 130 east (Va. 3) through Fredericksburg. The Faire site is 3.5 miles east of the Rappahannock River bridge at Fredericksburg on Va. 3. Alternative route: If you're not into participatory auto racing, avoid I-95 and go north on U.S. 301 (exit 41 off the I-64/I-264 Richmond bypass). Six miles after the Rappahannock River crossing at Port Royal, turn west on Va. 3; the Faire site is about 15 miles ahead.

Along the way: The lightly traveled 301 offers a relaxed glimpse of rural Virginia woods and farmland. It takes you past Hanover Courthouse, where Patrick Henry sometimes practiced before the bar and where he made his famous Parson's Cause speech, and past the Hanover Tavern across the road, where Henry sometimes filled in behind the bar for his father-in-law. Route 301 also takes you through another pretty little courthouse town, Bowling Green, where nothing much happened that would make a line in a history book; past the site of the barn where an Army soldier, Boston Corbett, killed Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth (there's nothing to see except a historical marker along the northbound lane of the divided highway); and past the village of Port Royal on the Rappahannock, founded in 1734 and mostly forgotten by time ever since. Just across the river at Port Conway, in a house that no longer exists, James Madison was born.

Either way, it's about a three-hour drive from South Hampton Roads. ILLUSTRATION: Map

by CNB