Misty Mountain

From our Fourth of July headquarters at Misty Mountain in Greenwood, Virginia we took advantage of a break in the stormy weather and drove through part of the Shenandoah Valley to the Blue Ridge Parkway- a twisty, windy scenic road that literally runs along the ridge of the mountain range and looks out over the Shenandoah Valley. We'd been on parts of the parkway in other states but this was our first foray in Virginia. Very scenic. Very pretty, albeit a hot and hazy and foggy day owing to the thunder storms that have plagued us since we arrived. Each time it rains, the coach is nestled in a couple of inches of standing water- no danger of flooding as the water gets carried away by the stream that flows through camp. But wet, none-the-less.

Admittedly I was hesitant about taking pictures and working them up for the blog today. Not that I don't like taking pictures and working with them, but Marilyn returned home from South Africa and Botswana with something on the order of two thousand digital images that we are editing for later use- and let me tell you - that is a whole lot of images to work with. Still, we found some nice material at the ridge life farm museum at the visitors center up on the parkway, so here come a few images from the today's jaunt....

The old farm house had some locals playing ridge music on the porch. Inside we got a first hand look at what it took to survive the ridge in the winter in the "old days."

The barn was made of native logs and hand cut wood shakes- hayloft and all....
And here, Marilyn stands by the "bear proof razorback hog pen" used to hold the hogs over winter or before slaughter after they had been allowed to range in the woods over summer.

And more scenes from the "working" farm museum....including root cellar, spring house, lye filter and more.