Instead of camping...

Hotshot Eastbound by O. Winston Link

  Well, we'd planned to see the synchronous fireflies this weekend in the Great Smokies Park, but the truck and trailer are in the shop for routine maintenance, and in this age of COVID shipping delays, waiting on parts. So Ruthie and I decided to find other fun. 

Having previously mentioned Greg's infectious passion for trains, he had wonderful books of train pictures taken by O. Winston Link and others. Norfolk & Southern was the last American railroad to run steam engines. They had their own shops and had the expertise to run their engines efficiently long after others had switched to diesel, but all good things come to an end and they hired Link to document the end of steam as the last trains were converted. Link was a master of lighting, using banks of flashbulbs and planning his photographs with exact timing and a remarkable depth of detail. A collection of his works is housed in the old Norfolk & Southern station in downtown Roanoke, VA, across the tracks from the art museum, a wonderful train museum, and the restored historic market area. Ruthie, a former lab manager for Polaroid and hobbyist photographer, was familiar with none of this, so off we went.

 

Hotel Roanoke

Art Museum across the tracks

Doggie bags inside the skywalk?

Historic Market

Train yard behind the museum

What replaced steam

 

From Roanoke, we wandered the Virginia mountain backroads through communities like Burnt Chimney, where we stopped at the Boone Country Store, soaking in the scenery and checking out the local merchandise. We hit Old's Cool in Rocky Mount, VA and took a trip down memory lane. We ended up (by intention) just outside Prospect Hill, NC, in Shangri La. This really is folk art at its best. Shortly after I moved to NC back in the 1970s, I found myself living in Graham with a Volvo station wagon that could only be service in Danville, VA. I would take old NC 86, a narrow, winding, shoulderless backroad, and be delighted with this little village created by a retired tobacco farmer who spent his last years sharing his imagination in these charming buildings. Since I was sharing happy memories with Ruthie, this had to be on the list.

Boone's Country Store, Burnt Chimney

Old's Cool Rocky Mount, VA

Old's Cool Rocky Mount, VA

Plate reads "Rustee", Rocky Mount

Saw it in a theater, I'm that old...

On old NC 86

 

The day before, we'd ventured down to Concord, NC, with a new friend from Sisters On The Fly, to

The Depot at Gibson Mill

explore an extensive antique mall in a former textile Mill. The Depot at Gibson Mill is a fabulous collection of the curious, the odd and the old. We even found a sign from Pekin, NC, the home of my son Ben and his wife, Sydney, and a fabulous set of 1950s shelves only my daughter could love. We barely scratched the surface so I think we'll be back. And they have a great little café when it's time for a break.

 

The truck parts are in and should be installed tomorrow. The trailer should be ready by Monday. We will be on the road again soon. In the mean time, have fun exploring and Happy Juneteenth!
 

Ladies of the Lake

 

I joined Sisters on the Fly, the largest women's outdoor club in North America, a couple of years ago. I've made it to a couple of meet-and-greets but never got to camp with them. Their gatherings are so popular, they are often full by the time I know I'm free to go. And COVID caused me to cancel a number of events I did get in until I was vaccinated. So when I got a notice of a gathering at Poplar Point at nearby Jordan Lake, I leapt at the chance to meet other camping women in my area. Ruthie has also joined so we received our official flip flops to mark our campsite and here we are! 

Fortunately, this was an informal weekend. I came worn out from Tommy's funeral--an intimate, private affair, full of his music with nary a dry eye among the gathering of family and friends. After all that, I wasn't up for a lot of group activities, but Ruthie, Odie and I managed a couple of wooded walks. Kate Pruitt, also a new SOTF member, and our friend, Cathy, who lives nearby, joined us Saturday night for a cookout. We had so much fun catching up, we kept the evening to our own sisterhood.

The humidity  was a challenge but the woods are always healing. Ruthie and I started Saturday with

American Tobacco Trail

a walk on The American Tobacco Trail, a 22.2 mile rails to trails project traversing Chatham, Wake and Durham counties. It starts in the woods near Jordan Lake and ends up at the Durham Bulls ballpark. We only walked about a mile and a half before returning to our parking lot but we got the loveliest part of the morning and the deepest part of the woods. The photo is courtesy of caryrealestate.com.

I've camped at Jordan Lake before but never at Poplar Point. Our campground is part of a series of  camping

loops up and down the east side of the lake. Our site is up on a hill with a view of the lake through the trees. A wooded trail connects all the campgrounds and we explored it after lunch and a nap. We saw this lovely inlet crossing a bridge and enjoyed the winding trail until the humidity sent us back to our camper's AC. 

I'm not sure how enthused Odie is about the great wild. He seems to prefer the sidewalks of home. That said, he doesn't want to be left out of anything, including any chance to mark over where another dog has been or to supervise us. 

Kate, Ruthie, Cathy. My sisterhood.

Sunday morning was muggy and damp but we weren't quite ready to end the trip. On the way home, we stopped at the Jordan Lake Education State Forest. Greg and I used to take the kids on a loop trail with periodic views of the lake. Today we made a wrong turn onto a new loop of the Talking Trees trail, except the trees weren't talking. It was still beautiful and I recommend it when you are in the area. 

Home now, unpacking, cleaning and dreaming of the next trip out.