Well I will digress with Thursday's activities which started early that morning as we met up in Sparta around 8 AM with Patrick, Kathrine and their son Ryan for the trip to Damascus ,Va. Well the GPS took us a different way than I had planned which was through the Grayson Highlands Park at nearly 5800 feet in elevation. That is the highest point in Va. This road was so winding, crooked and twisted that at times we were at 10 mph and looking at our own tail lights, yikes was it ever a beautiful from the passenger seat but not from my perspective. The Tracy's were holding their own in the back seat. We finally reached this beautiful small town with time to spare for our 10:30 appointment.
We brought our own bikes to the party which saved us about $25 for the two of us. We loaded our bikes on a trailer along with the rental bikes and the 7 of us headed back up the mountain which we just came down down to the White Top junction where we got onto the trail. Well the skies were overcast and the girls had on long sleeved shirts and complained of the coolness in the air but that gave way shortly after we headed down the mountain. Well the trip is really very beautiful as we crossed several bridged gorges and creeks and we basically coasted down the old rail road track which had the rails removed. At times were were braking due to the high speed. We intersected with the Appalachian Trail and some hikers and many other bikers. It took us close to 3 hours to make the 17 mile trip as we stopped several times along the way.
We headed over to the Old Mill Inn for a late lunch in the town of Damascus which was exemplary. The food was made to perfection and very plentiful everyone there was more than willing to make our visit memorable. We headed out for our return trip to Sparta a different route as we were over the crooked road on highway 58. We entered I-81 and traveled northeast probably 20 miles or so out of the way but with none of the hairpin curves. We came back through Rural Retreat, Speedwell and Elk Creek where our friends Sam and Marcia live in the oldest log house dwelling in the county. They too accompanied us on this adventure and had done the trail before.
We dropped off the Tracy's then made a couple grocery stops as we were expecting Mike and Dee around lunch time the next day for a visit over the weekend. We picked up ribs for the smoker and lunch meats for sandwiches as well as two loaves of homemade bread from Becca's Backwoods Bean shop. It was after 8 before we got back to the cabin only to learn we never got any storm nor any rain and then to learn the computer went down. Well we were greatly disappointed with the lack of rain and then the ability to show our pictures on the social network about the day's great adventure on the trail.
Friday morning found us with last minute preparations for the visit of youngest sister Dee and husband Mike with their Jack Russel, Bonnie. They got here around 1'ish and we dined on sandwiches before taking off on a hike to the top of the mountain. I had two racks of ribs in the smoker with apple, plum and hickory wood for over 6 hours and the meat fell off the bones. We had corn on the cob, fresh sauteed Swiss chard out of the garden, parsley taters, a garden salad and wine berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Wow what a feast. After the clean up we retired to the deck and played several games of corn toss until it became to dark to see then boards and then headed in to play a couple games of Euchre. We were tied up 1-1 with guys vs gals in the card game and decide since it was after 10 PM to call it a day.
We tried to get the laptop started too no avail and just gave up on whatever had corrupted or caused it's malfunction, LATER
