* * Showing old friends our area of Virginia and West Virginia

Jane and I had a wonderful weekend with our friends, Charlie and Marti from Seattle.  I lived in Seattle from 1981 until 1991 and Charlie was one of my first and best friends there.  This was their first visit with us since we moved back to Virginia in 1991.

On Friday, we went into Blacksburg and toured the campus of Virginia Tech.  Marti took photos of the campus, including the memorial for the students and faculty murdered in the shooting rampage on April 16, 2001.  They thought the campus was lovely, with the limestone, gothic buildings.

That afternoon, we turned south and visited with Lee Chichester in Meadows Of Dan.  Lee is a the falconer who keeps two hawks.  We accompanied her as she took the red tailed hawk hunting for squirrels and rabbits.  The hawk was able to scare up one squirrel but was unable to kill it.  Lee told us that when a rabbit is killed it admits a loud and sorrowful scream.  Jane was happy when Lee’s hawk was ultimately unsuccessful at killing anything.

We then toured downtown Floyd and had dinner at one of the restaurants there.  Our evening culminated in the attendance at the world-famous Friday Night Jamboree at Cochram’s country store.  After the first hour of gospel music, a bluegrass band entertained us as a crowd of cloggers and tap dancers danced.

On Saturday, we took Charlie and Marti to the hotel at Mountain Lake where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed.  One of the chapters in The Spine of the Virginias is an interview with Buzz Scanland.  Buzz is the general manager at the hotel.  The hotel itself is grand.  The Dirty Dancing connection is fun.  And the fact that the lake periodically empties itself out and then refills is geologically interesting.

Our next stop was the short hike along the Appalachian Trail to Wind Rick which is an overlook on Potts Mountain of the Little Stony Creek Valley.

Our third stop was atop Peters Mountain where we walked to the Raptor Observatory at Hanging Rock.  Although we only saw one raptor, coincidentally a red tailed hawk, the day was bright, sunny, and unseasonably warm.  It was the perfect day to be atop an Appalachian Mountain. 

Our fourth stop was at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant in Paint Bank.  We had a nice chat with Mikell Ellison who is the manager.  Mikell is also profiled in the book and she is a great conversationalist.

Our fifth stop was with Tracy Roberts who lives on SR 42 between New Castle and Newport.  Tracy lives in a pre-Civil War house that I wanted Charlie and Marti to see.

On Sunday, we drove to Bramwell, West Virginia, where we got a personal tour from Mayor Lou Stoker and her daughter Dana Cochran.  Lou and Dana are also profiled in The Spine.  Bramwell is an enchanting town with many exquisite homes.  Jane had not met Lou and Dana before and everyone enjoyed the tour very much.

Afterward, we drove through Pocahontas, Virginia and Welch and Mullins, West Virginia on our way to the New River Gorge.  We spent the night in a bed and breakfast called the Morris Harvey House in Fayetteville, only 2 miles from the great arch bridge over the New River.  I had a nice conversation that evening with another guest, a retired Mennonites minister from Stanton, Virginia.  He and his wife were there on their 50^th wedding anniversary.  He was very excited about my book and asked to be put on the mailing list.

On Monday morning, Charlie and Marti departed eastward towards the beaches of North Carolina.  They were delighted by what they saw and experienced and the weather couldn't have been more cooperative.

Jane and I took a hike on the rim of the New River Gorge to a place where we had an exceptional view looking to the south at many rapids in the river and the gorge itself.  We sat in the warm, bright sunshine for perhaps an hour watching the buzzards soar on the thermals emanating from the gorge.  We were also delighted to see what I think was a Peregrine falcon.

By early afternoon, I was back in Christiansburg at my office.