We arrived in this beautiful part of the country on Friday afternoon and have been exploring the area ever since. On Saturday, we took a drive to the community of Wytheville (pronounced WITH vill) which was founded in 1792 and named for the first signer of the Declaration of Independence - George Whythe. Stopped at a couple of antique stores and drove around the town admiring the many, many Victorian and historic homes. The house below is an old log house built in 1776 and now used as a restaurant.
Today we left our campground in "Max Meadow" headed for the community of "Fancy Gap" where we began our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway driving about 35 miles along the two lane highway through beautiful wooded and flowering shrubbery lined areas and open space.
The "Parkway" actually extends for 469 miles along the crests of the Southern Appalachians and links two east national parks - Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains running from northern Virginia to the southern end of North Carolina.
After a wrong turn off the Parkway on to a local road but still with beautiful scenery along the way, we saw this haunted looking house.
When we stopped, we are sure we heard banjo music coming from the house. We righted ourselves and continued admiring the beauty, laughing at the many quaint named communities (Max Meadow, Fancy Gap, Tuggle Gap, Orchard Gap, Grahams Forge, and Meadows of Dan to name a few) and stopping at various overlooks and a picnic area with this structure
and at the Mabry Mill (built in 1910) where we spent considerable time enjoying the old buildings and the local blue grass music being played in the open air.
This picture does not do this "Flame Azalea" shrub justice. We saw many of these and beautiful bright red rhododendron shrubs growing along the road and in home gardens.
Front side of saw mill
Water powered saw blade cutting a log
Back side of saw mill
Musicians
Leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway to return to the campground, we came upon this farmer cutting and baling his alfalfa. The piles of alfalfa were quite high as it is being baled into large rolls rather than the regular bales that we usually see. Quite an operation.
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