Traveling Man

You know, getting out of town for a few days is a great idea. We visited our friends Billy and Betty in Hillsville, Va. The trip included dropping off the flat trailer to haul the '71 Volvo back home. Next morning, headed out to the the  Rockbridge Festival. in Buena Vista, Va., to have a last tune or two for the summer.

It's the last fling of summer for most of us  Old time musicians are about all that show up. It's a reasonably priced little festival 'cause the don't have big name bands to pay. They hire a great square dance caller and a couple of bands to provide the tunes. The dances are the only scheduled events of the day on Friday and Sat. There were some workshops, but I decided a nap and a jam would be the better options. Great camping right along the river.

We didn't camp, we stayed with Freddy Goodhart and his wife Vicki, who have a beautiful place with an old rock cottage that we dearly love to visit. There is never a dull moment around those two. We did some flea markets...no deals there anymore! Freddy's Second Hand Shop has the better selection of "stuff", and you can haggle with Freddy. Most of the giant flea markets these days have individual booths, and there ain't nobody to argue price with.

We rode the Blue Ridge Parkway from Floyd, Va., North to Buena Vista and back. We had the whole road to ourselves.  I stopped at an overlook above the James River, and a bear came out of the laurel and wandered up the road without a glance. We saw about a dozen cars in our 70 miles, a very pleasant trip. I felt sorry for the poor devils I saw on  Interstate 81 crawling like ants up the valley below. Been there done that...more than I care to think about.

The Hawk migration is heating up at Hawk Mountain. Bird watchers bring lawn chairs and sit all day watching hawks spiral up and over the Blueridge from the Shenandoah Valley. We didn't see anything but one ole buzzard, but the day was young.

Leaves are sorta' getting set to do some changing. The Black Gums and Dogwood are turning first. Walnut trees are losing yellow leaves, the Black Locust  have succumbed to the leaf miners, as they do every year. Temps are getting down in the 50's  and low 60's every night, Day temps are in the low to mid 80's. We're about 3 weeks behind in Georgia. Oh yeah, they got some rain out of Irene, we didn't, much to my dismay. The weather couldn't have been better for the weekend.

We spent another night in Hillsville, hooked up the Classic Volvo, and drug her home to get her brakes worked on,and those SU Carbs adjusted! SU carbuerators are sorta' like the B string on a guitar...they ain't ever in tune. They are just part of the driving experience.

One story of interest. I took my evening meds and vitamins and left the pill box in the truck. While we were getting ready to go next morning, and I left the truck door open, not unusual for me. Billy and I were sitting on tailgate looking over his Christmas Tree farm, when one of the dogs dropped a piece of plastic in the yard. A few minutes later, Janice asked if I had dropped the pill box on the ground. Billy picked up the piece of plastic the  dog had dropped...Hello! The top of the pill box...

The little black rascal got up into the truck, since none of the other dogs would get near a truck, according to Billy. The little devil had chewed the top of box off, probably smelled the fish oil capsule. We found NO pills on the ground. Alright, which one ate 'em. All of 'em? None of 'em? They all pleaded the 5th, but knowing the little black sucker, we figured  he'd eaten 6 days worth of  prescription drugs and a bunch of vitamins. Off to the Vet for the weekend. No ill effects after pumping him out... just a vet bill. Luckily, Janice had packed replacement pills for just such emergencies. She thinks of almost everything.

Nice to get away, now and then. To hear David Morgan tell it, we've been gone all summer. The truck would agree with him, so would our gasoline bills.