We did this 3 night visit starting last Wednesday morning with a trip up the valley mainly on the back roads which parallels I-81. We visited areas which we had never done before on Rt.11 starting with the Verona area and then northward. We love the Hillsville, Floyd and Christiansburg towns but decided to forgo them on the way back south yesterday. Our first evening after the check in at the Sleepin Motel in Harrisonburg which by the way was as nice as any we have ever stayed in was to head up to the Dillon residence in Woodstock which is close to an hour away if you take the back roads. We ran into a heavy rain storm with high winds on the way up as many of the roads were covered in standing water and tree leaves. There were lots of vehicles parked on the shoulder as this storm passed. The area looked really parched and the rain was well received.
We had a fun evening meeting our grand nephew and niece Eli and Joanna for the first time as well as their parents Kelly and Jordan along with lots of the wedding party for a delicious meal. That occasion lasted until well in the evening. There really was nothing for us to do so the next day we played tourist and visited several small towns, battle fields, historical buildings and then met up at the Wood Fire Grill and Buffet in Harrisonburg. Wow what a spread this place puts on with such a variety of delicious foods. We had a separate room for the rehearsal dinner group. We waddled out of that place and once more we met several new folks who were family and friends from out west.
Friday found us again with several free hours so we took off again up the valley on Rt. 11 and visited shoppes and then crossed the Weems covered bridge which is still being used to connect a small one lane road across the Shenandoah River. Luckily we found the Rt 11 potato chip factory and stopped to take the tour as well as take some back to Florida with us. Well the cookers were down so there was no tour but we did sample several flavors of chips and purchased enough of the chips to add an inch onto my spare tire. These are the best chips ever. We then went through the Bushong Farm which sits right in the middle of the new Market Battlefield and it was kept intact throughout the conflict. The inside is just as it was during that period which really was pretty nice when compared to some of the more rustic buildings of that era.
We headed out around 2:30 for the Sunny Slope Farm where the outside wedding was to take place on a hill top. This at one time was a 300 hundred acre turkey farm which now has been replaced with just a venue for weddings and special occasions. The farm still grows crops and cattle but no longer poultry. It was rather warm with temps in the high 80's but thankfully a nice breeze kept us from heat stroke and eventually a thunder storm brought the temp's down to bearable by late afternoon with a little rain.
Halley was just a beautiful bride and her husband Cory and his retinue were all in cowboy boots, Bolo ties, jeans and white shirts and he with his 10 gallon hat. They made for a handsome couple. We got to visit with lots of our family as well as interacted with lots of his family and friends in attendance. We especially got to know one Kansas farmer from Sublette, Kansas Bill Lower who is familiar with the area where our son in law Tyler grew up. He too is a grain farmer much like Tyler grandfather. We teamed up in corn toss and was unbeatable for the rest of the evening while everyone else danced in the big tent. I didn't dance as I wanted to save the knee plus it was just too hot in all of these clothes. We had another meal of roast beef, chicken smashed taters and salad plus some delicious cup cakes in place of the traditional wedding cake. Well the evening was filled with seeing this beautiful couple enjoy their wedding festivities. We got to know several from out West and renewed old friendships from the past who attended niece Kelly's(Halley's sister) wedding a couple years back.
Well we headed out of town on Saturday morning and saw several from the wedding in the breakfast room at the motel before leaving. We even got to see the newly weds as they left the motel on their way to the D.C. area for a baseball game and some sightseeing in the nations capital. We headed out around 8:30 and traveled the interstate totally for the couple hundred mile trip back to the cool mountains. It was in the upper 80's in the valley but in the 60's when we got back to the cabin. We had over an inch of rain while we were gone and neighbor Gerald and Karyl were at their cabin when we came in. We saw them and visited briefly and then we took off on a hike to the top of the mountain as we hadn't really had any workout since leaving on Wednesday. We always love to visit new areas and make new friends and we will be doing so this coming next week as we head out west to Lake Tahoe. This will be my only post for a day or so as we travel south to hot Florida for a couple days before flying out to visit with family and once more put on the "feed sack", oh well such is life, LATER
