BARNYARD RV PARK…COLUMBIA, SC

Saturday, September 20 – We hit the road early this morning, South bound on Interstate 77. We sailed through Charlotte, VA, just at the tail end of rush hour, missing most of the heavy traffic. We had planned on spending some time here but since we were delayed leaving Ohio, we'll discover this growing city another time.

We moved on to Columbia, SC, and checked into the Barnyard RV Park. This is a very nice Good Sams Discount park with paved streets, gravel sites with concrete patios and plenty of privacy space between the sites. We are in a 50 amp, full hook-up site. Site 6C to be exact.

Looking right.

Looking left.

The good news about Barnyard RV Park is Bella likes it! For some strange cat logic, Bella did not want to venture out of the 5^th wheel at our last stop. She either wasn't feeling well or was afraid of something. Who can figure out cats? We are only here to serve her....LOL.

There is a huge flea market, or Pulga for our South Texas friends, right next door. So, after getting set-up, we spent about an hour walking around looking at all the junk. Opps, I mean great bargains. Didn't find any hidden treasures, so came back to the campground and spent the afternoon relaxing outside with Bella and watching some college football.

Pond at the Barnyard RV Campground.

We are a few days behind in our posting. It is actually Monday, and we leave for Augusta, GA, tomorrow morning. We will continue to get everyone caught up on our fall adventures.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

A STEP BACK IN TIME!

Friday, September 19 –  We made a journey back in time this morning by visiting the Virginia Tech campus. Our daughter, Carrie, graduated in 2008 and that was the last time we were in Blacksburg, VA, and on the Virginia Tech campus.

One of the entrance ways to campus.

Library

WOW! What a change a few years make. The campus, although large at the time, has grown considerably. It was a fun morning seeing familiar spots on campus and exploring new areas. We stopped at the new visitor's center to get a parking pass that allows visitors to park just about anywhere they can find a spot…not easy when one is driving a dually pickup truck...LOL.

Housing.

New Visitor Center/Admissions building.

New parking garage. Boy do they need this.

We've always thought that VT is one of the most beautiful campuses we've visited. The architecture is superbly done with Hokie (that's VT's nickname) Stone used on just about every building on campus. The campus is divided in two parts with the housing areas and sports facilities on the west side of the drill field and the educational building on the east side.

Drill field.

We started our visit on the west side remembering the fun we had attending VT football games. Of course the athletic facilities are growing. The stadium is still amazing. They were getting ready for Saturday’s game and ESPN was blasting their music over the PA system. Next door is the new field house under construction.

New field house.

We stopped at the War Memorial located at the North end of the drill field. A memorial to VT cadets killed in battle. VT has a large military cadet program. It was neat seeing all the kids hurrying across the drill field on their way to class.

On the east side of the drill field is the April 16 “We Remember” Memorial in memory of the tragedy on that date back in 2007 when 32 students lost their lives.

We then drove around the east side of the campus checking out the Engineering buildings where our daughter spent most of her time. I bet she would be amazed by so many new additions located here.

New Engineering building.

We stopped in downtown Blacksburg. Surprising how small this town is with a university of over 30,000 located here. There is a very modern shopping district just south of town on your way to Interstate 81. We did visit a couple campus bookstores but left with our wallets securely in our pockets!

The Hokie Bird takes on many different looks around town.

It was a fun morning venturing back in time. Saturday we move on down the road to our next adventure. Stop back and visit Columbia, SC with us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

KICK IT UP A NOTCH

Thursday, September 18 – Boy has it been foggy each morning. We like to get an early start each day, especially days when we want to do a hike. If we waited for the fog to burn off, we wouldn’t be leaving until about 9:30. This is what it looked like this morning at about 8:30.

 

We decided to increase our hiking mileage today. We hiked one part of the New River Trail. When we planned the hike we didn't realize it was a former railroad route (Rails to Trails) making it a very easy hike on a smooth graded surface. This trail is accessible for hikers, bikers, and horseback riding. The entire trail is over 50 miles long. It begins in Pulaski, VA, and follows the New River to Galax, VA.

We began our hike at the Shot Tower Historic State Park. Built in 1807, it stands 75 feet tall. Beneath the base, is a lower shaft dropping an additional 75 feet to the river level. Hot lead was dropped from the top of the tower 150 feet to a large kettle of water at the bottom. The long fall was thought necessary to properly mold the lead into a perfectly round sphere. According to research and tax records, it was the first factory to mass-produce shot on American soil.

 

Back to the hike.... We followed a path around the Shot Tower to some stairs leading down to the trail. We hiked from the Shot Tower to Austinville, a distance of 3.6 miles and back for a total hike of 7.2 miles. As stated earlier, this is considered an easy hike, although we haven't hiked that far for several months so we had enough by the time we were finished.

There were mile markers along the trail, so it was interesting to clock, time and distance. We were surprised it took us 20 minutes to travel a mile. Three miles per hour. We were a little deflated, thinking we sped along at about 4 miles per hour....and that was on a FLAT surface....JEESH!

 

There is one neat tunnel we passed through and an abundance of beautiful scenery.

How do those tree grow like that?

We were happy to have the trail almost exclusively to ourselves. We only saw one bike rider and one additional hiker the entire morning.

 

Where we turned around.

By noon we returned to our car and were headed back to the campground.

One more day, here in Wytheville, VA and we have an interesting side trip planned. So check back and see where we are headed.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!