Goin' Mobile-A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country

    Headed out to 'Friday Night in Floyd' on, of course, Friday night. It is a local celebration every Friday while the weather is good. People from miles around come into town to eat and browse the shops while out along the streets, locals of all ages bring their instruments and set up to jam. Bluegrass, old rock and roll, a bit of Gospel... you never know what one group is going to play next. Rima and I met up with a fellow contra dancer and her two kids. She was on her way to visit some Amish friends further north and was going to stop and stay the night with us. We all had pizza over at the 'Dogtown Tavern' here in Floyd. Pretty good pizza, but not great. It didn't stop anyone from eating several pieces of it anyway so it couldn't of been to terrible. A bit more walking around town and then back to Rima's place. The kids, Gwen and Davis, 8 and 10 years old, were both bouncing off the wall for awhile because of ice cream they had earlier in the evening, but they finally settled down for the evening and we all had a chance to turn in finally.

    Saturday was just a whirlwind of activity. Up early because the kids were up and running around wanting to be fed. Home made quiche, left over pizza and canned peaches settled them down. We all went on down to the farmers market to do some shopping before it closed up for the season. Fresh bread and some beets and beet greens, also an awesome pumpkin cinnamon roll to munch on while strolling. Jessie and the kids were soon on their way and Rima and I walked over to the local high school to take in the quilt and arts and crafts shows that were going on. Some beautiful quilts were on display, many in designs I had never seen before. Also fun to stroll the tables of local arts and crafts but I think the only thing we purchased was a jar of carrot cake jam.

   After a bite to eat we headed back to her place and relaxed for a couple of hours while it was still hot outside. Around 4'ish we were back up and going again, this time out to cut more firewood. I had sharpened up the chainsaw and adjusted it earlier so it was all ready to go. We started with an old tree that had fallen across one of her fence lines and then just started down the right of way cleaning out all the dead stuff and trees that were all gnarly. We ended up filling the back end of her van twice so we figure enough for at least a cord and a half. So not a bad couple of hours worth of work.

    One interesting thing about working in the woods out here... back home in Colorado you might run into a patch of poison ivy once in awhile back in a cool, damp area, nearly always along a creek or spring. Out here though it is everywhere. Not only that, but it grows as a vine here in the east so before you know it the tree you are falling has this huge mass of it 20-30 feet up above you and your chainsaw has just chewed through a 1/2 inch diameter vine of the stuff spewing pulp, sawdust and bits and pieces of it all over you. So the first thing you do on getting back home is to strip out of your clothes and hit the shower without touching anything along the way. So far I have been lucky enough to have missed out on the pleasure of getting it. Hope my luck continues to hold out.

   Lazy day yesterday. We hung out most of the morning before finally heading out on a road trip. We drove over to 'Natural Bridge' here in Virginia and wandered around that site as well as the cavern that is part of the whole complex. The cave portion was interesting, but I have seen many other caves over the last couple of years that had more, bigger and better formations. Still fun, but not a great cave.

    Natural bridge however was just stunning. As the name implies it is a huge stone bridge over a small stream. Pictures will be forthcoming at some point, but I am so far behind right now that I can't guarantee when that will be. One really cool thing is that on the way home we stopped at a local Viet Restaurant in Roanoke and found that they had rice noodle bowls, 'Bun', like the ones I love in Colorado. A nice way to finish the day.

   Speaking of photo's; here are a few more from my trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg Virginia - Sept 2013

The front facade of the original 'Governor's Palace' in Virginia. The first Governor, the Kings man, spoiled his chance at really governing when a letter he had written to friends was disclosed and printed in a local paper. The letter divulged the fact that the Governor was not looking forward to his appointment where he would have to mingle with the 'common' folk and the social graces just weren't up to London's, or even New York's standards. Needless to say.... he wasn't very popular.

Another view of the front of the palace. After the revolution, this became the residence of the 'American' Governor of the Virginia Commonwealth. As such, Thomas Jefferson, the third governor and his family lived here briefly until the capital was moved up to Richmond.

The front gate to the Governors Palace.

It was fascinating to me that they took into account moving rain water from the roof's and paved courtyard off site. To that end they actually sloped bricks around the base of the buildings to act as a shallow gutter to move water from the uphill side around the building and then on down the hill to the gardens. Sometimes it is almost a curse to be an Engineer.

Inside the Governor's Palace separate kitchen building. They were getting ready to bake some meat dishes and pastries one of the days I was there.

The food displayed is all real and had been prepared and cooked in the kitchen by some of the people you see. It was interesting to me that many meat dishes were cooked, baked really, in thick bowls of shaped pastry dough, as you see in the 'pie' shaped item that is the second item from the left end of the table. The pastry wasn't usually eaten, but was often highly decorated with flowers and other types of decoration. Very pretty to look at. Oh, by the way... all the food was thrown out after a certain amount of time because it was left out too long as a method of showing people how it was done.

Getting ready to roast a large leg of some beast on the spit in front of the fire. The spit was turned using the weights hanging to the left of the fireplace opening.

Just inside the front door of the palace. The atrium was a mass of dark wood, tile, swords and guns. Certainly very 'manly' looking.

Believe it or not, all of the weapons displayed are real and actually work. It was a method of keeping large numbers of weapons handy in case there was a problem at the governors home.

More wood and weapons.

The display is really quite striking.

Heading up the main staircase to the second floor. Plenty of carved wood designs scattered about the building.

More weapons displayed on the staircase landings.

The bedroom for two daughters of the first Governor. A very nice room with beautifully furnishings. One thing that was very interesting to me is that this bed was set up on top of a large oriental style rug. But in this case, in order to save money, they didn't actually weave a whole rug... they left the center section, the part under the bed, empty, cuz..... well, ya just never saw that part anyway.

Part of the sitting room with one of those new fangled piano forte's and the crib for the most recent child.

One of many fireplaces in the palace. The surround is all carved marble.

A closer view of a carved panel over a fireplace.

A French coal heater in the main ballroom.

Loved the carved wooden trim around the windows and doors.

They also had some great crown molding.

In the basement were the storerooms for all of the many items needed to run the palace. It was evidently quite important to show the common folk that you were well enough off to throw great parties once in awhile.