Really had good intentions of writing something last night, but was too tired by the time I got back to the trailer that the mind was kind of mush. Much better to wait and write something when I'm at least a little bit more coherent.

   Wednesday was a day to recoup, sleep in and do some of the jobs around the trailer that I had been ignoring. First on the list after getting up was a trip into town to get one of my propane tanks filled. I have two 30 lb tanks on the front  A-frame of the trailer and they can be used either jointly or one at a time. Usually I use them up one at a time so I know there is always one tank left when I finally run the 1st one out. But last time I filled them I managed to damage the collar that attaches my gauge to one of the tanks, so there is only a gauge on the one tank now. I did buy a new gauge to put on, but then found that I didn't have a large enough wrench, like a plumbers wrench, to tighten it up with, and while I don't mind an excuse to buy more tools, I drew the line at paying $20+ dollars for a tool that I would use once and then have to carry around for the next 8 months. So I turned the valve to the center position which runs both tanks at once and figured I would watch the remaining gauge to see when it was near running out. I remember checking it last weekend because I was heading into 4-5 days when I wouldn't be hooked up to any shore power electric. So the fridge would have to run off the propane at that point. The gauge said there was nearly a 1/4 tank left so I didn't worry to much about it.... until I saw the fridge check light was on. Sure enough it wasn't running any more. No problem as it will work just like an ice cooler for at least a little while since it is insulated. So I only lost a couple of things that probably needed throwing out anyway.

    But now I have one full tank and that should get me back to Colorado okay since it took nearly 9 months to run the two of them out. On the other hand it was only about $22 to fill the one up the other day so I may just go and get the other one filled also.

    Had a friend come into town on Wednesday afternoon and we hung out together for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Had a nice dinner in town at a little restaurant with a deck outside facing the river and harbor. A couple of margaritas and some decent Mexican themed food made it even better.

    Yesterday we drove over to the Canadian side of Niagara falls and spent a few hours touring the site and playing tourist. Took a ton of photo's of everything, but haven't even had time to download them yet. High on the list of fun things was taking the boat ride up close to the falls on the 'Maid of the Mist'. They give everyone a cheap, thin plastic raincoat to wear while on the boat, but they aren't very good at keeping you dry. It was sunny and hot though so no one really cared. I took the camera out and took pictures out there also. Not sure if any of them will turn out because of all of the water spots on the lens, but we'll see.

    Nearly 4 hours over there and more than 4 hours back as we had to find some food somewhere along the way. Ended up in a little Thai restaurant in Rochester NY. A really cute little place in a neighborhood that reminded me of S. Pearl Street or Gaylord Street in Denver. We sat outside on the sidewalk patio and had some good, and hot, Thai food and ice tea. Didn't get back until late in the evening and by then I was pretty done for the day.

    Had to be up somewhat early today as I needed to run down to the Syracuse airport and pick up another friend that was flying in from Cincinnati. Anita will be joining me at the end of the weekend for the trip back to her home there and then on to the Dance Trance weekend in Lexington, KY next weekend. It will be fun to have someone along to travel with for a while. This is the 1st time anyone has ever travelled with me, although many have spent a day or two as my guest over the past few years. I hope she knows what she is getting herself into. ;)

    Speaking of dancing, the Great Bear Groove is starting in just a little more than an hour so I need to finish this up and get my teeth brushed. I am so looking forward to this dance as they are still my favorite band and there are so many good friends here to see and dance with. Wha-hoo it is going to be a smokin hot, and sweaty, time here tonight.

Below are a few photo's from a new album I'm starting. Titled Old Barns, Sheds and other Farm Buildings and Machinery, they will be pictures of old stuff that I see along the way. I will be adding to them as I see and photograph more along the way.

 

 Old Barns, Sheds and other Farm Buildings and Machinery.

 

A very old looking barn on the road near Ferrum Virginia. Looks like the upper portion may have been used to dry tobacco, but it's hard to tell at this point.

This one is located on Hwy 8 West of Floyd Virginia. I like this picture for some reason. It might be the deep blue sky, something you don't see to often back east. I think though that it is the way it nestles into the side of the hill like it has always been there.

A more conventional looking barn, this one is near the one in the last photo. I would love to see the inside of this one to see if it was built in a post-and-beam style. It sure looks like it would be. I love the overhang at the front of the barn where the block and tackle hoist would of been mounted so that hay and other materials could be hauled up to the doors into the hay loft.

This structure is a combination of several buildings or additions that were probably built over the years. I liked all of the different roof lines and the old set of wooden stairs up to a second story section. Near Floyd Virginia Photo #1.

Another view showing how old buildings seem to melt into their surroundings somewhat, giving the impression that they just sprung out of the ground right there. Near Floyd Virginia Photo #2.

A view from a different side showing some more of the parts and different roof lines. Near Floyd Virginia Photo #3.

On the same property as the last one, and somewhat close by, was this little gem. Not sure what it was used for originally. It's small and only a single room, but it may have been used as a place for someone to live in. The propane tank next to it lends some credence to this idea, but it might of also been some kind of workshop. Near Floyd Virginia - Old Building #1.

 

   Rain, sometimes hard, all day long today. Woke up with it on the top of the trailer early this morning at a rest stop just south of Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The nice thing about being in the trailer is that from the time you get out of bed to starting the truck is only about 15 mins, with most of that taken up with brushing your teeth and letting the front trailer jack down off of it's blocks. I generally put it down when I pull in for the night in order to not only level the trailer front to back, but to also stabilize at least the front end a little bit. Otherwise it can feel like you are on a boat every time you turn over in bed.

    Took my time heading up I-81 through the rest of Pennsylvania and into New York. A beautiful day for travel as it remained cool most of the day. Noticed a sign in Scranton advertising 'Steam Town', a museum geared towards old steam locomotives and other railroad stuff. Made a note to stop in there next time through the area as I've heard it is a really fun museum if you are a gear head like me.

   Made it into Oswego by 4:00 this afternoon and found the RV campground pretty much the same as it was last year at this time. Checked in and even got the same site I had last year; right next to the wood pile. That way there is only one side of the trailer that someone else can pull in on, not that it looks like it will be very full anyway.

   Got unhooked and all leveled up during a lull in the rain. A nice site, it has a decent view of Lake Erie just a 150 yards or so away. Of course it is even a better view if you just walk over across the road. There is also the added benefit that there is an ice cream stand right there just in case you need something cold to snack on.

    Had to clean out some items in the fridge, and also melted a bit of ice that had formed in the freezer, when I ran out of propane the other day. Everything was fine in the freezer except for a half bag of blueberries I had. For some reason they partially unfroze and then proceeded to leak purple smutz all over the bottom of the compartment. It all then refroze and stuck everything else to the bottom like glue. Got it all cleaned up of course, and only ended up throwing out some broccoli, spinach and a little bit of milk from the fridge section. All of which would of most likely been ready to toss even if the fridge hadn't shut off like it did.

    Once it was all cleaned up again and I was sure it was working okay, it was off to the grocery store to restock a few things I was in need of. Plenty of fruit in the store today, but not much in the way of real veggies. A bit of lettuce and spinach and some carrots, but no root vegetables to speak of. Had wanted to get a nice assortment so I could slice them and throw them in the oven with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. But the only thing they had was a 'Package' of parsnips and a '3-pack' of turnips. You know, I'm getting really tired of them sticking everything in sealed bags where you can't even be sure if they are any good yet, or where there may be to many or to few of what you need. I guess that is why I lean more and more towards going to the local farmers market anymore. I know there is one here in town sometime during the week because I remember getting a loaf of really wonderful freshly baked Amish sourdough bread last year. I just have to find out what evening it is on and then get there for it.

   Downloaded a few photo's this evening and started going through some of them and picking out the better ones, if any. Hope to post a few in the next day or two. Right now though it is time for some sleep. Even with a caffeine fueled soda this afternoon it is still a wearing day driving this hunk of a home around for a few hours in the rain.

   Done with the 4 day contra dance weekend that was 'Almost Heaven'. An amazing group of dancers, callers and musicians all coming together in one place, Camp Thunder Ridge, for the sole purpose of having, and creating, fun. And boy was it fun!

    From the very first tune played on Friday night by the band Elixir, to the last contra dance this afternoon with both bands joined together into some form of super-uber band, it has been nothing but none stop enjoyment. For those with the stamina and willingness to get up early there was more than 40 hours of dancing that anyone could of done. Me.... I'm a bit more conservative these days, a combination of getting smarter, older and more breakable. I don't do many of the dance workshops anymore, where you might learn some advanced waltz steps or how to do some Dutch Crossing. Nor do I do many of the afternoon squares or specialty contras, although I had good intentions on doing one set of advanced contras yesterday... but my nap got in the way.

   No these days I like to spend my energy on the evening 3-4 hours of hard dancing and then head over for an after dance party somewhere. All of the dancing was enjoyable for sure. Lots of very good dancers and beautiful women of course at this weekend, and it was cool enough that you weren't melting into the dance floor by the end of the first dance. I have to admit that my favorite band this weekend was Elixir because of their unique sound with the horns and clarinet adding to the guitar and fiddle. But it should not be misconstrued that there is anything wrong with Swallowtail. The guys in that band are all phenomenal musicians in their own right and there is no slight to their sound or ability intended.

    So I'm on the road to Oswego this evening. A little more than 400 miles is all, but I'll be doing it over two days just to make it easier and to break it up a bit. Have already done more than 100 of it and want to do another 80 or so more before pulling in for the evening.

   Looking forward to meeting up with some good friends before the dance and then 3 days of dancing to the Great Bear Trio starting on Friday. Hope to be back on a more regular schedule now.... but I doubt it. With any luck I will get a few pictures posted in a day or two, there have been a whole lot of them taken in the past week or so, but most haven't even been downloaded yet. But that is part of what happens when you are travelling around the country looking at things and having fun. So who knows?

    Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Have been spending time out in the 'wilds', so it seems, in what is the equivalent of a WiFi black hole. Right now I'm at Camp Thunder Ridge in West Virginia for the 4 day dance weekend 'Almost Heaven'. Starring both the bands, Elixir and Swallowtail, it has so far been a stupendous two days and nights of glorious contra dancing. Add in 150-200 of my closest friends and you can see that this dance is something special.

    Got to camp on Friday afternoon after nearly 7 long hard hours of driving in a hard crosswind. I had been communicating with one of the people setting up the camp so when I got there I found that they had a great parking spot for me down on the running track. Dry, level and right next to the shower room, the only thing missing was an electrical hookup. But the new batteries I installed a couple of weeks ago seem to be working perfectly, so there has been no problem with running the lights for the few hours a day that I need.

    The food has been pretty good overall and now that the wind has finally died down it has started to warm up a bit again. The first couple of nights were pretty cold here. I did okay because I have plenty of extra blankets and sleeping bags in the trailer, but some of the other's, mostly the women, but a guy or two also, got pretty cold there. I handed out a couple spare blankets to a few people and that seemed to make the night easier for them.

    So far the only problem, if you think of it as such, is that there isn't much of a WiFi signal out there at camp. I can get a bit of a signal, enough to read an email if you are patient enough to wait more than 5 mins for each one to load, but sending anything out is so excruciatingly slow that I finally just gave up rather than sit there for the nearly 40 mins it took to get one email sent.

   So this morning I drove in to the town of Winchester Virginia and pulled into a local McDonald's for a bit, But my computer battery is now about sucked dry and there are no outlets in sight. I'm going to sign off now with the promise of getting back on again sometime tomorrow night. I'll be done with camp here by then and on the road to Oswego New York at that point. Another dance next weekend there; The Great Bear Groove, with one of my favorite bands The Great Bear Trio (GBT). Really looking forward to that dance and seeing some of my favorite friends there.

    

    What can I say.... I've just been having to much fun to sit down and write anything, so it appears that there needs to be a little catching up here if I can remember it all.

   Friday started with a bit of a road trip over to the town of Wythville to meet up with a friend there. She had a meeting to go to in the morning so I just meandered my way over via all the little back roads I could find. It's kind of crazy back here for me because I just don't seem to be able to get my bearing most of the time. I'll be driving down a road thinking I'm headed northwest and look down and find that I'm actually going south or some odd thing like that. Makes me kind of humble as I don't seem to have that trouble most of the time out west. Must be a function of the clouds and overhead trees, and mountains in all directions. Or at least that is what I'm going with in way of an excuse.

    We had a nice lunch over at a local cafe in a little town nearby and then headed over to 'Shot Tower State Park' to check it out. Just as the name implies the park is dedicated to the 1st 'shot tower' built in Virginia. For those who don't know, a shot tower is a very tall tower, in this case a 90' +/-square stone tower built above a 75' deep hole in the ground right along side the New River. Hot lead mixed with arsenic and other materials would be poured through sieves at the top of the tower and would need to fall at least 150 vertical feet before hitting a trough of cold water. When done correctly the lead would have time to solidify and form nearly perfectly round shot or bullets that could then be used as ammunition in guns. The tower at this state park was mainly involved in producing small shot for 'fowling' purposes, essentially shotgun pellets. So the tower is still there, but the hole underneath, and the tunnel that connected it to the bank of the river, have been collapsed. Still, it was an interesting piece of history and I'm glad I got to see it.

   Stopped at another state park on the way back to Floyd and walked around some of the shoreline there. It is on a large lake and has a beautiful campground and swim beach, but I forget the name of the lake right off hand, and I'm to tired and lazy to go look it up.

   On into Floyd where every Friday during good weather locals fill the main street to listen to friends and family jamming in the little seating areas the city built in along the sidewalk. There were maybe 5-6 groups of 3-8 people all playing bluegrass or country music with a little blues and rock thrown in every once in awhile. We  grabbed some bar-b-cue chicken, coleslaw and beans to go from a local vendor my friend knew and sat and listened to 6 kids, from about 8-14 years old play and sing some pretty good bluegrass and gospel tunes. The banjo player was maybe 12 and he was pretty remarkable, but really all of them could play rings around anything I could do.

    Started to rain a bit after that so my friend and I went over and took a tour of this really, really old local cemetery. Kind of a neat experience with the rain coming down and the thunder and lightning all around. Didn't get out to read any of the gravestones because of the rain but it was nice to be there anyway and the look and feel of the experience will stick with me for a long time.

    Went in to the farmers market yesterday morning hoping to buy a couple fresh things and maybe eat another one of those wonderful blueberry, cream cheese croissants that I had last week. But alas, it was evidently not to be this time around. No fresh beet greens or asparagus, flowers or rolls. Not a big deal though, there was plenty to look at and I was simply killing time until my friend had finished up something she had to do.

    We had lunch in town at yet another nice little restaurant, 'Oddfellows'. Mine was a mexican themed wrap with chicken. Really good stuff, but huge proportions. We took a short road trip after lunch since it was once again raining outside. Lots of little back roads and a couple drops down to the edge of Phillpot Lake to show me some places where you could launch a canoe if you were smart enough to bring one along, instead of just bringing your life jacket and paddles.

     A short walk in the evening when the rain stopped for just a little while. Lot's of people in the campground even with the rain coming down, lots of them in tents and small trailers. I was very happy to be in a spot where I could be in out of the rain for the night. Made a really nice meal of Chicken Tangine, a recipe that I haven't used for 4-5 years. (I have it listed below). Still taste's pretty good and it is easy enough to even do it in the trailer, although it does take a little time to put it together. It rained pretty much all night again last night, but I didn't care. The skylight is still just barely leaking since I put the duct tape on and one of these days when it warms up and gets sunny I'll even do a more permanent job which I hope will fix it totally.

    Today, Sunday, was kind of interesting, I got invited to attend a Quaker Meeting this morning. So in the interest of trying to do and experience things I've never done, or outside my comfort zone, I said yes. Turns out that I actually enjoyed it very much. A very nice, excepting and inclusive group of people even to someone who was there for the very first time. Of course there was also the pot luck afterwards with all kinds of yummy food and good conversation. So I'm not saying I would be willing to give up a day of contra dancing or fishing with my family and friends in order to go again, but it would be something I would be willing to do once in awhile for sure.

   Drove over and hiked to the top of 'Buffalo Mt' this afternoon. Not too bad of a hike, but you did eventually end up on the highest point in the county. At an elevation of 3,971 feet above sea level it made me very aware that I have been living pretty close to sea level for the last 9 months or so. It also showed me that while contra dancing is good enough exercise that a hike like that doesn't kill me, I really need to start doing a lot more cardio work. A walk like that everyday would be just about perfect.

    Tonight I took in a local choral performance in Floyd. Made up of some of the local adults and some of the local high school choral group it was a short performance of only and hour or so but it was still very enjoyable to listen to and the price was certainly right.

    One last thing of note from today and tonight. As I was driving back down to the campground from Floyd this evening it occurred to me that I should of made a few phone calls that needed to be done while I had been in town and had decent cell reception. I did know that there seemed to be some reception along the way at the little town of Woolwine, so I pulled in to the fire station parking lot there in the rain and gave it a try. Had good enough reception to make a couple of calls and at least leave a couple messages at a few others. So I was there maybe an hour total while I jabbered on, what I didn't realize was that I had left my lights on when I pulled in. There was a bright sign there for the fire station that lit up the ground in front of it and my truck was pointed right at it so I never realized the lights were on. Long story short is that when I went to start the truck to get on out of there all I heard was that angry 'growly' sound you get when there is very little juice left in the battery. Knew immediately what had happened and was wondering how long it was going to take for AAA to get someone out there to jump me on a Sunday night in the rain. Was also feeling pretty stupid about the whole thing, but that isn't an uncommon feeling with me so I'm kind of use to it now. :)

    Anyway, I did what everybody would do which is to get out of the truck in the rain and open the hood up. Not sure what I expected to happen by doing that, maybe a magic genie would appear or something.... and then one did. Evidently a couple of the guys in the fire station had noticed me parking there and when I got out of the truck they must of thought I might need some help after all. So three strapping young fellows came out to see what was going on and to hear my tale of woe. I think it was mainly to get me out of their driveway where the firetrucks would have to pull out in an emergency, but one of them said to hold on and he would go get a vehicle and give me a jump. With three of them working it probably took all of 3 mins to get all set up and for me to fire the truck back up. I of course thanked them profusely and offered to pay them for the jump, but of course they didn't except. So it's times like that when I realize just how nice the vast majority of the human race are and just how lucky I am at times.

  But now it's time to finish up and get some sleep. Off to Roanoke in the morning if it all works out okay. Only a few more days to go here in this area and there is still so much to see and do.

Chicken Tangine with Sweet Potatoes

·        3 lbs Chicken Thighs

·        Salt and freshly ground pepper

·        ½ Tbls ground cumin

·        1 large onion, thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups)

·        3 ounces raisins (2/3 cups) or mix half and half with chopped up dried apricots

·        Pinch saffron threads, crumbled (Nice to have, but you can do without)

·        1 teas ground cinnamon

·        1 teas ground ginger

·        Two cups low sodium chicken broth or water

·        1 lb sweet potatoes (yams) peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        ¾ lb Celeriac (celery root) (or just use celery), peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        1 Tbls honey

(You can also add in a couple garlic cloves with the onion if you want, I think it helps the taste a little bit)

Rub the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and cumin.  (If you have time, let stand for 1 to 2 hours).  Heat the butter in a large casserole or Dutch oven and cook the chicken in batches until golden on all sides, 5 – 8 mins.  Add the onion and cook for 2 -3 minutes.  Add raisins, saffron, cinnamon and ginger and pour 2 cups of chicken broth or water into the casserole.  Cover and cook the chicken 30 minutes over low heat.  Add the sweet potatoes and celeriac and a little salt  and pepper.  Simmer the stew, covered, over low heat until chicken and vegetables are done, about 20 mins more.  Carefully stir in the honey, making sure you don’t mash the vegetables.  Serve with couscous, rice or crusty bread.  May add toasted almonds for garnish.

   I had the best lunch today. My friend here in Floyd, met up with me at a new place that she thought I might like. Micky G's, an Italian restaurant, is nothing to look at on the outside, being stuck back in a small strip mall just outside of town, but oh the food!

   It's really nice having someone local who knows all the good places, and in the case of this small town, nearly everyone in it. After getting a place to sit the waitress asked about our preferences and told us the specials for the day. My friend wanted some kind fish for lunch and the waitress found out that the the fish truck had just made it's delivery. Knowing the main chef, she just asked the waitress to ask him to make up a dish for her with only a few minor ingredient requests. It sounded like a great idea to me so we just ordered up two separate dishes and left it up to the cook to surprise us.

    My dish was a wonder fish steak that was similar to yellow fin tuna in texture and look, but tasted much finer. A light sauce of butter, olive oil, garlic and capers with some caramelized onions and garlic slivers on top and all atop a bed of fresh greens. Yum'

    Hers was a whole fish, which might of been fried a bit, but I think it was mostly baked as there wasn't any oily taste to it. This had a light olive oil-butter sauce on top with sun dried tomatoes. All served with a nice dish of fresh cooked pasta. On the side we also had a small appetizer that consisted of a bit of mozzarella cheese enclosed in a small ball of mashed potatoes and then, I think, rolled in panko bread crumbs and lightly fried until brown and the cheese had melted inside. Now how can that be bad?

   We had a great time eating and talking and left feeling fully sated and happy. What really amazed me was that the price was so reasonable that I thought at first it might of been a mistake. Anyway; I'm grateful that my friend has been able to take some time off periodically and meet up with me. I wish it could be more time as she is very good at finding the kinds of things and places I like to visit. It's kind of nice to have a personnel travel guide around. What has been really nice is that when she can't be around to show me cool things, she always has plenty of recommendations for things I can go see on my own.

   So that is what I did for the afternoon. Headed on over to Martiansville to take in the Natural History Museum there. A fun little place with some pretty neat exhibits. It was the 1st week of a travelling dinosaur exhibit they had come in, so I got a chance to really explore that. A couple exhibits about the geology of the Virginia area as well as plant, animal and fossil exhibits. Nothing really there that I haven't seen in some other museum somewhere else, but it was well done and a nice way to spend a couple of hours this afternoon.

    Went and did some grocery shopping afterwards since I was in the 'big city' for a change. Didn't really get a whole lot as I'm trying to use up a lot of what I have so I can really clean the place out once I'm back in Colorado. But one still has to eat in the meantime.

    Worked on some misc photo's this evening. These are just a few I picked from running around these past couple of days.

Misc Photo's taken in and around Floyd and Roanoke Virginia May 2013

A little scenery from a walk along a local river with a friend of mine. Made me wish I had brought one of the canoes along with me this year. Maybe next.

This little jewel flew into the trailer last night when the screen door swung open for awhile. It wasn't the only one, but it was the one that stayed put long enough for me to take a picture of two.

A closer view showing more of the color and texture on the wings and antenna. Note the tear in the bottom half of the left wing. You'll be happy to know that I managed to capture it and set it free outside with no apparent harm.




Noticed this wall while wandering around the streets of downtown Roanoke. It seemed a bit whimsical to me. 

A friend of mine took this photo of me. While generally not happy with most photo's this one was okay after some cropping. Still not great, but acceptable.

    Spent most of yesterday exploring museums in the city of Roanoke. The drive up was nice having to travel via backroads through the town of Ferrmun and Rocky Mount and on into the downtown area of Roanoke.

   First on the agenda was the 'Taubman' art museum, a small museum in a beautiful newer building all out of concrete and stainless steel. Most of the exhibit was taken up with what they were calling '50 Important American Artist's of this Century'. Made up of from one to a dozen paintings from 50 different artists, some I liked immensely and others didn't do a thing for me. There were none though that I didn't like at all, and I wonder if some that didn't touch me would be better if there had been someone else along who had liked them or been able to explain what the idea was behind some of them.

    They did have one exhibit there at the museum though that everyone should go see, especially since it doesn't cost anything to get into it. This exhibit was made up of about 30 jewelled boxes and purses created by Judith Leiber. She was evidently an early entrepreneur who created a business in New York that would create high priced purses , snuff and jewelry boxes for the rich and elite. It seems that many of Hollywood's 'A-list' actresses carry these to the Oscars and Golden Globes..... Anyway; they are just stunningly beautiful objects of art. You can see several of them by going to the Taubman web site and checking out their permanent exhibits section.

    Once done there, it was time for some lunch, so I headed a couple of blocks away to an 'Indian' restaurant that had been recommended to me. A plate of lamb saag and some nan along with some ice tea and I was good to go again.

    From there it was just a short walk over to the O. Winston Link  museum, just across the tracks from the art museum. The museum pays homage to a man who created some of the best photo's of steam trains ever taken. If you have ever seen an old black and white photo of a train that just takes your breath away... well you have seen one taken by this man. I spent more than an hour there wandering around the various galleries housed in the old Roanoke train station. Again, you can see a few of the photo's if you go to the museum web site. www.linkmuseum.org/collection.html

    Headed south down hwy 220 in the late afternoon, I wanted to take a new way back to the state park just to see some new scenery. Got a call from my friend as I was taking a break and having some ice cream. She wanted to see if I was up for a short hike in the evening, so there was a change of direction back towards the town of Floyd. A very nice walk along an old dirt road and then a cup of hot tea while the sun went down. It is really nice to be able to just do something on the spur of the moment... I sure like being retired. ‎

    A day full of sunshine and swallowtails. Not really all that warm yet today, but what a marvelous day to be out and about. I took a short walk here at the park early this morning and then took the truck out for a bit of a road trip this afternoon.

    Went down through the town of Bassett first. Once home to Bassett Furniture, there isn't much left of the company after they shipped most of the jobs overseas because workers there only demand a dollar or two a day and are still way cheaper than having to pay people a minimum wage. Of course now there aren't as many people here that can afford your furniture once you import it back in to the U.S., but there must still be some demand for it somewhere in the world. Sorry; it was just kind of depressing to see the empty shells of one warehouse after another, even if it was sunny outside.

   On to the town of Stuart next. Went through that town the other day, but hadn't stopped to see their little bit of 'old town'. Not a whole lot there as the town isn't very big to begin with. Still some neat old buildings though, and there were a couple stores and a cafe still open there on main street.

    Back around into Martinsville where I stopped to get something to drink and check for phone messages. There is no phone service, at least for my phone, here in the park so I was surprised to see and hear that I had two on there from my friend in Floyd. One was to invite me up for dinner and a walk, so it was off to the big city.

    We had a wonderful walk down an old road along the river. A good couple of miles at least so our appetite was going gangbusters by the time we got back into the city. Dinner at Natasha's again this evening, really the only place open in Floyd on a Tuesday, other the Mexican restaurant. Tonight it was a buffalo burger done just right, with some to die for onion rings. A glass of iced tea and a view of the sunset from the deck. Yup, sometimes life is just really good.

    Finally got my mill pictures loaded up today at the Bassett library. Lot's of photo's this time but not all of them are of the mill. Hope you enjoy them all.

Mabry Mill near the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway near the town of Meadows of Dan, Virginia. - May 2013

These photo's are from two different day trips to the site. This one was taken on the sunnier day. An interesting mill for several reasons. For one thing it was used to do 3 separate jobs. It was a full fledged lumber mill most of the time with a carriage and circular saw blade that looked like it could handle up to a 24" diameter log, maybe 20-25 feet long, in a single pass. It was also a grist mill in the center section with stones to grind corn and some of the other larger grains. Lastly there was a wood shop with a powered jig saw, jointer and tongue and groove machine for flooring and siding.

A shot from the rainy day trip.

There are a lot of photo's so some of them won't have comments to go with them.

 

There are a total of three small creeks or water courses that the builder/owner had joined together via ditches and flumes to power the mill. The stone culvert was the outlet of the outfall pond and runs under the parkway road.



 

 

The mill used an 'overshot' type of water wheel to power it. In this type of arrangement and flume or pipe would deliver water to the top of the wheel and let gravity as well as water pressure assist in turning the wheel.  

 

A view of the wheel. If you look closely in this picture as well as the next one you will see a secondary wheel mounted onto the main power wheel. This wooden wheel had a series of metal teeth or cogs along the outside edge that matched up with the much small wheel in the picture below. Because of the difference in diameter this would spin that smaller wheel at a much higher rate of speed which then could be used to run the jig saw and jointer in the wood shop area. The main wheel meanwhile would be used to power the slower lumber and grist mill machines.

Note the smaller, higher speed, metal wheel mated to the larger wooden wheel with metal teeth.

A view of the wheel from inside the mill.

Old mill stones that have been ground down to a point where they are now to thin to re-dress.

Also on the grounds was this rather interesting relic from the timber cutting industry. This is a set of 'Big Wheels', though I have seen pictures of some that were a good 8-10 feet in diameter. If you look at the following photo's as I try to explain this it might, hopefully, make some sense to you..... Once a tree was cut down and the limbs removed and cut to length, one of these sets of wheels would be backed up over one of the ends. The wooden lever would be raised which would drop the metal 'log dog's' down low enough to be attached low down into the front of the log. (cont. below) 

If the log was small enough, and these wheels would only handle logs up to maybe 30-40 inches in diameter, the lever would be pulled down and locked into place thus raising the front end of the log. A team of oxen would then proceed to drag the log out of the forest to whereever it was convenient to either load it onto another mode of transport or to a mill itself.

A couple of points here; the lever in the picture has warped. Normally it would be straight so that it could be locked into the eyebolt you can see at the end of the yoke assembly. Also; note how the bottom of the wheels are 'toed' inward. This was actually by design. As a heavy load was placed into the chains the weight would pull down the center of the metal beam in the center and the wheels would actually straighten out. Pretty good engineering for that period.

Another view showing the lever in it's raised position. Note that the log dogs are now low enough to touch the ground.

A view of the back end showing the metal beam and to some degree the metal axle's. Having few metal parts it would be easy to haul the few critical parts into the woods on a pack horse and then build the rest from trees in the surrounding forest.

Not much here that a good blacksmith couldn't make in an afternoon or two.

Moving parts would of been greased of course.

One of the farm wagons that might of hauled in bags of corn to be milled.

A very old seed planter. This one is starting to melt back into the earth it came from.

Part of the mill construction showing some of the dovetailed joints at the corners. Pretty good for construction that is nearly 150 years old and has been out in the elements for all of that time.

Finally; they had this re-creation of a small 'still' set up in the woods as it might of been way back when.

    Cold today, or at least not warm.... which isn't really the same thing, but feels like it when you go outside early in the morning. So I tried to avoid that, going outide that is, as muchas possible this morning. Did finally have to get out and about though and at least go up to the main park office. This morning was my original scheduled departure date, but since I haven't seen everything around here yet and there is really no place else I want to be right at the moment, I decided to see if they would let me stay a bit longer. I figured at the very least they would let me stay another week as I have only stayed for a week so far and most parks have a limit of two weeks total. And indeed they were happy to let me sign up for that many more days with no sweat. The problem is that I wanted to stay a couple more days beyond that amount, four more days to be exact. The lady I was working with, a volunteer, wasn't having any of it at first, so it looked like I would have to pack up and leave for a day come next Monday. Seemed kind of stupid to me since I'm the only one here in the campground again, so they would end up giving up at least some revenue and I would have to go find someplace else to stay for a day and an evening. But another Ranger was listening in and she said they could make exceptions to the rules at times when demand was low. So the short of it is that I'm now signed up through the Friday morning before Memorial Day weekend starts and that will work out well for me.

    Once that was all taken care of it was time to come back to the trailer and get some breakfast and drink a couple of cups of hot tea. A pleasant morning of reading the comics and doing the crossword puzzle, otherwise it was pretty quiet around here.

    I went out after lunch when it had warmed up enough to feel decent outside again. Spent  not quite 2 hours wandering around some of the roads and trails here in the park. Really very pretty out there after all of this rain. Had to really check after getting back to make sure there weren't any nasty old ticks on me. Didn't seem to be, or at least I didn't find any of them. They evidently have these really little, tiny ones back here that aren't much bigger than the period at the end of a sentence. At least not until they swell up from all your blood. Yuck!

   Have been trying to upload pictures onto this Blog for the past 2 hours, but it has been extremely slow going for some reason tonight. Out of the 24 pictures there were to load, only 7 of them actually made it on okay. So no pictures tonight. Tomorrow I'll go out and find a faster WiFi signal somewhere and do all my loading there like I usually do. For right now though it is time to go read a bit before turning in. Tonight it is a book on West Virginia Railroads that I picked up at the museum the other day. A pretty easy and quick read, but it has some wonderful old pictures of early steam and diesel trains in the mountains.

   It has been a busy time for me these past couple of days, so I'll try to catch up on what has been going on with out becoming to tedious.

   Yesterday started out as usual here in the trailer with a check on the computer to see about emails and fb postings. Didn't have much time for a real breakfast though, as I was off to meet a local friend over in the town of Floyd at the farmers market there. Met up as expected and wandered around the market a bit. Wasn't a whole lot to look at as the market won't really get going until the Memorial Day weekend. Still, there were a few vendors there, and between the two of us we managed to buy a few fresh veggies and other goodies. Top on my list was this wonderful, just out of the oven, yeasty blueberry and cream cheese scone. With a hot cup of tea to go with it, I was pretty much in heaven right there.

    We spent a couple of hours doing 'routine' stuff which she had to do, as she is one of those unfortunate people that still has to work. For me though it was like being on a short vacation as she did all of the driving while I could just sit there and view the country side as it passed by. Trips to the grocery store and bank and office, then out to a car rally on a farm just outside of town. Not a whole lot of restored cars there, but what they had were pretty cool. We actually went more so my friend could meet up with some friends of hers who are 'Ham Radio' enthusiasts. So she got to get on the air with bunches of people from around the country.

     Lunch was at a local Amish bakery that had way to many good smells and sights for someone who had grown hungry again with the passing hours. We grabbed a sandwich there at their deli and a drink and sat outside at a table in the 'sun'. Not really all that sunny actually, but good enough.

    Speaking of yet more food, I enjoyed a wonderful home made meal of fresh pasta from the market, as well as beet greens and fresh asparagus. I also got to learn what 'ramps' are. Had been hearing about these wild greens for several years now, and seeing signs for them along the roadways, so now I got to see and taste what they are personally. They basically look like a flat green leaf.... maybe a bit bigger than  a normal spinach leaf. Pick one and take a bite and you immediately know they belong to the same family as onions and garlic. Indeed they kind of taste like a combination of the two. If you take too big of a bite though, they have a way of kinda biting back.

     We had tickets to a harpsichord concert at 7:30 back in Floyd where we had front row seats facing the keyboards. The concert was actually two women playing on two separate harpsichords, each all handmade and each a little different from the other in the way they were constructed. About an hours worth of music that was absolutely delightful. Some Handel and a couple from JS Bach's sons and one from a composer I had never heard of and can't remember with out the brochure. Oh well!

    A very nice little reception afterwards where you could talk to the artists and meet a few of the locals while munching on little snack thing's. All in all a very pleasant evening.

   It got even better as we were walking back to the cars as we had to pass the Floyd Old Country Store, where once a month they host a live old time radio broadcast featuring local and regional musicians and entertainers. We happened along in time to catch the last 30 mins or so of the broadcast. Really reminded me of a broadcast of 'A Prairie Home Companion' without all the professionalism. I would really like to come back at some point and see a whole show, I think it would be such a hoot.

   It was a brilliantly sunny day today, Mothers Day here in the U.S. I spent some time today thinking about my mom of course. It has only been a couple of weeks now since she died and her memory is still very fresh in my mind and I still miss her a lot. I think what I most associate my mom with are all of the times we had 20-30 people, brothers, sisters, friends with nowhere else to go, etc, for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. There would always be way to much food, but everyone was welcome and we always had such a good time. She was the glue that held us all together and made that all happen even if she didn't do all of the cooking at times.

    I decided on doing a road trip today after fixing and eating some breakfast. First stop was the mill whose picture is shown below. I had been to Mabry Mill a couple of days ago, but it had been raining pretty hard so I wanted some more pictures of it when it was nicer. No problem with that today as I managed to take 50-60 additional shots.

   From there I just headed a bit west and a bit south and let the roads lead where they would. At some point I crossed over into N. Carolina and ended up in the little town of Mt Airy. I had been thinking along the way that this country and these little towns along the way looked like they were right out of a Currier and Ives picture. I half expected to see little Opie Taylor riding his bike down the street in front of me. Right about that time, and I'm not making this up even a little bit, I passed right by a museum dedicated to Andy Griffith. Spooky huh!  Well that called for a little exploration, so I turned right around and went back and went on inside. Turns out Andy had grown up and lived in the town and area of Mt Airy. His original TV series, The Andy Griffith Show and then later, Mayberry RFD, were patterned on that town. The Museum was only one large room really, and most of the displays were old newspaper articles and movie billboards, but there were a few props, clothes and such from various things he had done over his lifetime. Certainly worth the $3 it cost to get in.

    I'd like to say I had lunch at Barney's Cafe, but it wasn't open so I settled for Chinese instead. After that it was a broad circle back to the east and then north again until I finally managed to make it back to the Park later this evening.

    Will probably end up staying in the area a bit longer if the park people will let me. My original time is up as of tomorrow, but given that there were only 5-6 campers here over the weekend and most of them are now gone, I doubt there will be much trouble in staying a few more days. Especially if I promise to be out of here before the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Right now though it's time to go get some sleep. Cold here tonight already. May have to shut the windows and put another blanket on the bed.

Mabry Mill - Off the Blue Ridge Parkway near the town of Meadow of Dan, Virginia - April 12, 2013

Mabry Mill. Located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic highway stretching from near Georgia up to West Virginia along the Blue Ridge Mountains. This mill is just NE of the town of Meadow of Dan in the SW corner of Virginia. I hope to be able to post more photo's once I have them all downloaded and sorted out. 

    What a nice day today turned out to be. Took a long hike on a path around the lake this morning after finishing up breakfast and my usual routine. It was really beautiful out with the sun shining, but little tendrils of wispy fog were still swirling up from the surface of the lake. Got back after noon and grabbed all of my dirty clothes from the last couple of weeks, a full two baskets full, to take in and wash. I have a spare set of linen's here in the trailer so I did manage to get the bed made up again before leaving, as well as breaking out some fresh towels for me and for the kitchen.

    I knew there was a coin laundry place over in the town of Floyd so it was a easy decision to just head over there for the rest of the day. I knew that there was a drinks and dinner meeting set up for later in the evening with a friend of mine, so it seemed logical to just stay there in town after doing the clothes. Took about an hour and a half to get the 4 loads washed, dried and folded up in the basket. Once done there, it was only about 30 mins before meeting my friend. We headed over to a local tapas bar, picking up friends of hers along the way, and met up with several more people there. A very nice group of people, so I was pretty happy once there was a cold pint in front of me and a dish of hummus and pita to munch on. We stayed about an hour and then we headed over to a local restaurant for dinner. I had a great steak, medium rare, with some sliced zucchini and a mixture of whole grains that had been cooked and spiced up. It was all so tasty.

    Of course the company was good also and it was fun to sit and talk to someone besides myself. It was still raining pretty good when we finished up but we headed back into town anyway, as there was some local musicians that were going to be playing downtown in one of the buildings there that has started showcasing music on most Friday nights. Lots of people out and about and in the building. We stayed and listened for a while and talked to lots of different people. My friends son stopped by with his wife and small daughter so there was a lot more talk and a chance to hold and play with her. Such a cute little kid.

    We went outside after a bit and wandered down the street a bit until we found a couple of musicians who had found a refuge under the roof surrounding the local public bathroom building. We found a nice place out of the rain with a bunch of other people and listened to them until they quit around 10:00 p.m. They played all kinds of music genera's, all very well, and all in a bluegrass style. So it was quite fun listening to songs from such diverse groups as the Beatles and Ben E. King done as bluegrass tunes. It was just a nice time all in all.

   Finally cleared off last night so it was a bright, sunny day this morning when I woke up. Not sure why I was up at 8:00 in the morning, not after making the mistake of drinking a diet Dr Pepper last night and suffering through an inability to get to sleep. So only about 5 hrs of sleep last night, and yet it seems like it was enough.

     Headed for the city of Roanoke late in the morning to see what sights it had to offer. Emma, my GPS, was still being stubborn and not acquiring any satellites, so I was feeling kinda screwed. I turned her on and off a dozen times, even rebooted the whole 'on' sequence a couple of  times. It wasn't until I unplugged her from the cigarette lighter and then plugged her back in that she started working correctly. Not sure what it was about doing that, or even if that had anything to do with her starting to work again, but you can bet I'll remember that trick for next time.

    Made it into the city with no problem and even made it to a very precise address where I met a friend for a nice lunch outside on the patio. The food was good, the company fun and the feel of the sun on my face was outstanding. A fun time there and then a quick hike up one of the local hills to a spot where we could look out over most of the city and the mountains in the distance. Other than a bit of humidity, it was a darn nice walk. Would of been even better if I hadn't been wearing a cotton sweat shirt... but at least I had shorts on.

    Had time after lunch to go over to the Roanoke Transportation Museum for a couple of hours. In fact I closed the place down as it was just so interesting. A very nice collection of old cars and trucks including several Model T's and A's, old Studebaker's and a couple other odd cars that I forget the names of. They did have a few more modern cars such as a nice 55 Impala and a 65 Mustang. One of the more interesting however was one of the few EV1's that didn't get crushed. This was the 1st modern electric car that came out back in the 70's as a leased car only. What is amazing to me is how much like a modern electric car it looked like, even way back then. There will be pictures at some point.

    There were other displays of some of the boats from the Virginia area as well as a couple of displays of small planes, jets and plane parts. They even had one whole display dedicated to Greyhound buses. But what was most interesting to me of course were the train cars and locomotives. Top of the list was the only 'J' model 4-8-4 steam locomotive still in existence. This is the very sleek, streamlined style of local that you might see in pictures of old classy train advertisements. Capable of speeds up to 110 mph it was once the Norfolk and Westerns passenger train pride. Next to it was one of the very few 2-6-6-2 articulated behemoths that use to latch on to more than 100 fully loaded coal cars and run them through the country side at better than 70 mph. An articulated locomotive was made up of two separate 'engines', each having, in this case, 6 driving wheels each. The set closest to the cab of the locomotive were rigidly attached to the frame like most loco's were and used high pressure steam to power the cylinders that drove the cranks and side rods on either side. A second engine was placed in front of this one and could actually swivel from side to side under the boiler. This allowed the whole loco to go around much sharper curves than one that couldn't swivel could. The 2nd engine was either powered by another set of high pressure steam cylinders, making it a 'simple' type of articulated, or it could reuse the steam from the 1st engine in a much larger, but lower pressured set of cylinders to power it. This would be considered a 'compound' style of engine. Either way they were often referred to as Mallet style locomotives after the man that invented them.

   Also out in the yard were several more modern diesel style locomotives including what was either an RS-2 or RS-3 style, I'm not real sure about the difference, engine. One of the 1st diesels introduced back in the late 40's and early 50's that would soon take over from steam locomotives. There were also a couple of small 0-4-0 tank style loco's and a nice 4-6-2 Pacific and a 2-8-0 Consolidation. Plenty of things to look at in any case.

    Decided to drive south out of the city on the way back to park just to see what there was to see. To that end I drove south to Martinsville where I was yesterday, and then back to the park from there. All in all a very nice day.

    Going to stay in the area most of tomorrow. Decided it was time to go do laundry tomorrow  some time and then head to Floyd later on. They evidently have a kind of street fair every Friday night there in town, with lots of local musicians playing and lots of arts and crafts type things going on. Sounds like fun anyway. Right now though it's time for bed.

     Still raining hard this morning when I got up. No real reason to go out in it too early so I just stayed in and read my book for a couple of hours, and drank near endless cups of hot tea while watching the rain drip from the leaves on the trees.

    By 1:00 I was feeling a bit cooped up and decided at least a drive would be better than nothing. Wanted to head for Roanoke like my original plan for the day, but when I started up Emma, my GPS, she failed to find any of the multitude of satellites that had to be up there in the sky. Given that everywhere you look in this country looks pretty much the same, all trees, and the highways are little more than two lane roads, poorly marked at that, it didn't seem prudent to try navigating all the way over to the big city. My thought was that I would most likely find my way there, but then wouldn't find my way back. The thought of wandering around this country in the dark, often with fog on the road, didn't exactly thrill me. Okay; so I'm a bit of a scardy cat, or as I like to think of it, mature and smart. At least that is what I'm going to keep telling myself.

   So with that in mind I just went out to the nearest highway and turned left towards a town I could actually find on a map. Turned out that it took me directly to Martinsville where I had a very nice, late lunch before wandering around the streets for a couple of hours. Ended up in the public library there for a couple of hours catching up on the news and watching a show on the computer.

   It finally started to clear up a bit this evening so once I made it safely back to the park I had an hour or so to go out and take a walk along the lake. Very pretty this evening once the sun came out. Saw a couple of deer and lots of very colorful birds, cardinals, indigo buntings and such.

    Have been very happy with my latest roof patch using duct tape. So far it has only leaked about a 1/4 cup of liquid in over 48 hours of pretty constant rain. Still more than I would like, but I feel I'm on to the cure now, and will give it a more permanent fix once it stops raining and warms up again.

    Hope to actually make it into Roanoke tomorrow if everything goes as planned. I also have to figure out when I'm going to get my laundry done though. It's now been more than two weeks since it was last done, and while I still have more than enough clean clothes for at least another two weeks if needed, the ones that are dirty, include the ones from two weekends worth of dancing. I am so glad they are stashed under a pretty air tight bed, but they need to be taken care of soon!

    Tonight I have a couple of pictures from my drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday. They were meant to show the ground fog and rain amongst the trees. Not sure if it really shows up very well, but I like them.

Blue Ridge Parkway Overlook near Floyd Virginia

 April 7, 2013

The ground fog was just pouring over the mountain and through the trees when I took this picture. It doesn't really do it justice since there is no movement. But it still looks neat enough with the trail heading off into the distance.



A similar scene in black and white. I thought the fog might show up better, but it didn't.



Looking out on a wet hillside and valley through the rain. It looks more like a fall picture with all of the red, but that is just the color of the new leaf buds on some of the trees.

More ground fog pouring down the side of the mountain.

One last view.