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.