Great Atlantic Seaboard Bicycyle Tour: Christiansburg, VA- Chantilly Farm RV 10/8 80 driving miles; 7.5 walking miles

After another interesting but mundane morning, the afternoon really jazzed up once I started chatting up eighty-five year old lifetime local, Herbert Jones. First, we sidled up the road to see Ed's neighbor's former inn in Radford, VA. The property, which sits on a bluff, is bordered by a fairly noisy highway and a pretty little river called the New. The inn itself is quite darling and the income from the five rooms is supplemented by weddings,which the property can accommodate quite well. From there we sauntered up the winding road to Ferrum College because there is an institute there where we learned a little about the history of mountain music. Ferrum, another on our now redundant campus tours, is a small Methodist College of 1,400 students. It's quite nice, albeit isolated. From there, we checked out the Floyd Country Store, which houses tomorrow night's jamboree. I can hardly wait! There were no rooms anywhere, so we've pitched our tent eight miles out of town at the luscious Chantilly Farm RV Park. We had a whole afternoon to wander aimlessly and the first "best" human of the day, Joe, gave us great directions which sent us twisting and turning down a waterway known as Shooting Creek Road, so named because when the water runs high, it shoots down the ravine like a shot. The highlight of the day came in Rocky Mount, county seat of Franklin County. Ed, who hadn't had any ATT phone service, finally had reception, so we pulled to the side. While he exercised his phone neck, I spied a farmer's market. It was there I bought apples, walnuts, drank a sip of moonshine, and met Herbert Jones, owner of a powder blue 1964 two door Ford. I was ogling the car while chattibg up David, the guy who sold me the apples and snitched me a sip of moonshine. Then Herbert came over and showed me every part of his Ford, including thr trophy he'd just won at a car show. Then he said, "Hey, if y'all have a few minutes I can run ya' up town and show you some other cars; I only have eight. I ran like a thrilled teen girl on her first car date back to get Ed, and we hopped into the car with Herbert, no seat belts while just to show of, he peeled a little rubber and grinning he said, "Three-ninety horse, bored out." It was then I started to worry about the wisdom of tooling around town with an eighty-five year old moonshiner. Not to worry (He is an excellent driver), and as he says, "I like to tool around town just so people can bust their eyes out." It turns out that Herbert is the youngest of four children, one brother (93) still living with Alzheimer's whom he cares for on a daily basis. It also turns out that he has more money than God (On our tour, he showed us houses he and his family own). The rest of my info came from David, who characterized Herbert as a man who worked hard, invested well, and didn't "piss it all away". We ended up driving all over town with Herbert pointing things out as they are now and as they were when he was a boy. What an experience! Complete strangers treated like visiting royalty-What's this country coming to? Right now I'm sitting in a tavern in Floyd, VA surrounded by a packed house of folks waiting to hear sone mountain music. I'm bouyed by the thought that honest folk, family allegience, and a life choice toward glee literally sings in the hearts of these, my fellow humans. (The music didn't disappoint either). Seriously, life is good,especially today.

The gazebo is often a site for nuptials.