Anita and I are back from a fabulous few days spent in southwest Virginia. What an amazing area this is and we can't wait to go back and explore further! This was the very first photo I took. We were riding down Interstate 81, a major North and South route where speed limits are commonly 70-80 miles per hour! So yes, this shot was captured at that speed! The bull is huge and stands well up on a hill (but I had my 18-400 lens on and did a little bit of a crop.) He used to be a plain black color. The flag in front of him is made from a wooden pallet which are what? 4'x4' I think? Just to give a scale to the bull. I don't know what they used for a hat but it works! LOL I'll be doing a bunch of catching up today and can't wait to see all the beautiful photos I know you all have been posting while I was away!
Tags: bull 4th of July Patriotic Red, White and Blue Interstate
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We finally made it to our destination of Marion Virginia and not far from town the Hungry Mother state park where we had booked a cabin for our "Glam Camping" experience. But somehow and very true to form, between registration and our cabin we got "turned around" and wound up driving Miles in the wrong direction. OK.... I'm the navigator and co-pilot for all our travels so I fully take the credit for this one. But if we hadn't gone the wrong way, we many never have seen this awesome mailbox. I think it is made of an old...what? Missile head? torpedo? Something, but it was pretty awesome. :) We found out the next day that the road we traveled on is called the Back of the Dragon which boasts thirty-two miles with over three hundred curves. Motorcyclist come from all over the country to ride this road. Still.... it might have been a bit much after an already long day of driving! LOL
Tags: Mailbox Rural Back of the Dragon South West Virginia Virginia
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After we finally found our cute little cabin we decided to explore the nearby town of Marion. We "found" this beautiful train station that had been converted to hold shops. The arched door on this end was a barber shop and of course Anita went in to have a chat and get some shots! Haven't seen those yet! I'm including a photo of our cute little cabin in the woods. It had a tiny living area, a miniscule kitchen and Two bedrooms with complete full baths! Each had 2 bunkbeds and that took some getting used to but we really enjoyed that place! It had the name of Sycamore Lodge. :)
Tags: Train Station Marion, Virginia Train Virginia
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"Big Walker Lookout is Virginia's oldest private scenic attraction, celebrating 70 years in business (It opened in 1947). It has a 100-foot-high observation tower with a 360 degree view of the mountains and valleys of western Virginia" and Anita climbed to the top on the morning of her birthday! (can you find her in this shot?) She had been wanting to do this for a long time but even Anita got a bit nervous about half way up and nearly quit! She said she was too busy hanging on for dear life to take any photos from there! And yes, I stayed comfortably on the ground! :) see first comment box below for a view of the tower.... easy to see it is very much taller than the trees!
Tags: Big Walker Lookout tower sky Anita
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Sometimes we make snap decisions that aren't at all the wise ones to make! After Anita's daredevil climb up the tower we turned up this gravel road following a sign that said Burke's Garden. Little did we know! Looks like an innocent country gravel single track road right? With Beautiful flowers lining it and lush farm fields around. It turned into a mountain climbing, winding, twisting and nearly unnavigable road with rocks protruding out of it that could pop tires and washouts that could only be navigated at a crawl! Choices were made between driving into a two foot deep wash out and clinging to the edge of a hundreds foot long drop off! Finally we reached the top and began the descent. We noticed on one side of the road dozens of jugs and a few large water coolers and surmised it was either someone's moonshine still nearby (lots of jokes on that!) or there was a natural spring where people could get fresh mountain water. We found out later it was for people walking the Appalachian trail and the community of Burke's Garden would keep the jugs full of fresh water for the hikers! More on Burke's Garden tomorrow. It really was a very special place!
Tags: road gravel dirt flowers wild flowers fence
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