Home at last

We packed things up and headed back toward home on Wednesday morning. The weather promised to be better and we figured to make it a two day trip on the way home. Our preferred route was to come down I79 to Rt. 19 and then to I77. Coming that way takes us over the New River bridge, so we stopped at the visitors center.

This bridge is the highest bridge east of the Mississippi and is closed to pedestrian traffic. Except for one day a year when it closes to vehicles and is opened to pedestrians. This year it's October 15th. It's called "Bridge Day" and is another local spectacle with vendors and food and arts and crafts. But the thing that makes it special are the BASE jumpers who jump off the bridge and try to land on a target below. I just can't imagine it. Why would anyone jump off a perfectly good bridge? But, they do!

From the bridge, we traveled on down to Beckley and to Tamarac, which is billed as "The Best of West Virginia". And it certainly is in terms of craft articles. They have furniture, books, textiles, pottery, wooden ware, wine and much more. The prices reflect the quality so we looked and bought a cookbook and then moved on.

We wound up for the night at Wytheville, on I81, at a Cracker Barrel. It was a good stop with a pretty good place to park until the morning delivery truck rolled in and ruined the rest of the night. Oh well.

Thursday morning we left early and headed down I77 only to get off at Fancy Gap so we could cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while and stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center. This museum of country music is quite new and they have done an excellent job of illustrating the origins and growth of early country and bluegrass music. If you like Bluegrass at all, this is the place to go to learn about the "Crooked Road", a music trail that winds through the mountains.

We kept on the parkway until Boone, a distance of about 80 miles, with a quick stop at the Northwoods Trading Post and the shops at Glendale Springs. Then it was down Rt. 421 to I85 and home.

Our trip took us a total of 2445 miles and we managed 11.3 mpg on fuel. We never paid for a night of lodging, either boondocking at a store or staying in the yard of relatives. We saw lots of neat things and spent valuable time with our relatives. And, of course, we ate our way across the northeast. We can't wait to do it all again.

The Buckwheat Festival

The last scheduled stop on our trip was at our daughter's home outside of Masontown, WV so that we could attend the annual Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood. It seems that buckwheat was a major local crop in years gone by and is the theme for the annual fundraiser for the local fire department. It is a BIG DEAL locally and attracts exhibitors and attendees from a wide area. The event starts on a Thursday and goes until Sunday afternoon and each full day features a parade with a different theme. We went on Friday when the two hour parade focused on the local schools and athletic teams. There are the local bands,

and, of course, the King and Queen.

There were trucks of all kinds,

It was fun watching the little folks, who took their rolls very seriously.

It sprinkled a little during the parade and turned decidedly cooler and we felt sorry for some of the girls riding in the floats in strapless dresses.

After the parade we decided to tour the grounds and get something to eat. The skies turned ominous just as we got to the barbecue chicken.

And then it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Which, I guess, is a tradition for the festival. But it never stopped raining until the next Tuesday afternoon, turning the fairgrounds into mud hole. We never went back.

Our daughter stayed at the fair almost the whole time as our grandsons had entered the pigs they had raised in the competition. They took fourth and fifth in their divisions. The pigs were then auctioned off on Saturday. She has a camper she stayed in and it was still there awaiting extrication when we left on Wednesday.

We enjoyed what we saw and got to partake of some food but I sure wish it hadn't rained the way it did.