the pic~a~nic day way back when

So remember when, a long long time ago I mentioned in a post that we'd gone to look for some local music and took a pic~a~nic with us?  Yeah, it was Memorial Day weekend when the festival turned out to be a town wide (that went on for a mile at least) flea market (aka, in Tracey speak, "a flea circus")

Well we had taken that drive a few days prior (up and over some of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Hillsville, VA where the "festival" was) when we were just out "exploring" the area ~ something I love to do, something Rick, I think, tolerates if we are in the car, if it's on the bikes I think he loves it as well.  However Rick would not have loved this journey on his bike - it was windy with steep steep drop offs.

So, once again I digress.  When we did this route a few days earlier we traveled by this really interesting old building that we figured to be an old hotel/motel.  We didn't stop that day ~ I think we may have planned to stop on our way back to Mt. Airy, but ended up returning a totally different route.

This is where we stopped for our picnic on the "festival trip".  Not exactly what I had in mind for a picnic stop but it worked out terrifically for all of us.  We ate, Arlo played and Rick explored!

The photo above shows additional motel rooms behind this large old building.  We didn't notice this back building when we went by the first time ~ Rick discovered it on his exploration.  He didn't go into any of the rooms (not even sure they were accessible) but he did say that you could clearly see that the bottom portion of the back wall of this building is being pushed in by the mountain that it is built against!  WOW that could have led to an exciting stay back in the day if that sucker just came crashing into your room huh!  

Like I said, Sir got to do some water play.  This was such a pretty little stream coming down the mountain.  This stream was behind the smaller of the buildings out front - the one with the balconies.  There was pipework to the left of the stream that eventually fed the waterwheel in front of the property.  

It was such a neat place but we just couldn't find any information about it.  I believe it is in the town of Cana, VA but not sure.  We did ask a gentleman at the campground we were staying at in Mt. Airy if he knew anything about it and he commented that he'd been coming to the area for ten years and he'd never known it to be open.  

We did leave Mt. Airy (after extending and extending our stay) yesterday and spent last night and tonight at a fabulous campground in Romance, WV.  OMG words can not do this property justice.  Unfortunately it rained today so I don't have any pictures of it and they do not (strangely enough) have a website.  We are at Rippling Waters (Church of God) Campground.  To say the least I was very apprehensive to even make the phone call because it was church related and I had "odd" feelings but I'm so glad I did - absolutely outstanding, peaceful beautiful place.  On a scale of one to ten I rate it a nine point nine nine nine.  There are cardinals and bluebirds all around as well as deer and who knows what else that we can't see, but they can see us!  Oh what a place this is.  Another place I'd love to work camp at but I don't think I'd fit in real well in that capacity.

Our plan is to leave here in the morning unless Rick hears back from a friend from way back who lives in WV.  

I do have photos ~ many many photos ~ uploaded for the next post, pictures of our travel from NC to WV.  I'll try to do that post in a day or so ... seems I just can't do them when we get to our destination on a "travel day" however.  Suffice it to say for now that it was  a beautiful trip.

A follow up to a previous post - we did get brave enough to color my hair which is now a lovely shade of greenish/blue.

The washer, we were successful in repairing - Chuck and Anneke email me (tpw0607@gmail.com) and I'll give you the specifics as best I can if you are still having issues - I don't want to bore people here with  what we did .....