My Appalachian Hostess, Kathi, decided that we would spend this glorious spring day exploring the mountain goodness of Southwest Virginia. Oscar decided that climbing mountains in a cassock was not a good idea, so he opted to stay home. Armed with our cameras, we hit the road for Grayson's Higlands State Park. Apparently there is a trail there that wild ponies roam around on. It sounded delightful.
The morning was quite gray and chilly, which wasn't boding well for our outdoor adventure, but by the time we got up to the top of the mountain, the sun was shining with big white fluffy clouds. It was warm enough to be comfortable, but not so warm that we wanted to pass out!
The trail we chose was a short one. All in all we hiked about 3 miles. And it was through some quite hilly terrain...at least for this NOLA girl. You gotta remember the closest thing I know to a hill is a levee and that don't count for much! Sadly, we saw no wild ponies, but the views were amazing despite this! Here are a few of our shots:
We hoped to continue on another trail that would lead us to a waterfall, but we decided that the ravenous feelings in our bellies were not about to go away with more hiking! So something had to be done to take care of that! Off we went to the Whistling Pig in Damascus! So. Darn. Good.
Let's just put it this way: outdoor patio, on a stream, colored umbrella, good friends, good food, cheap beer. Done and done! While waiting for our food, we had fun taking pictures of things that the colored umbrella was reflecting off of. Pretty darn fun! Here's a random smattering of our work:
There was some more hiking to be done post lunch time. This hiking involved climbing to the top of this hugulous rock wall/arch over the road and then climbing back down the other side in order to play in a creek. Again, please make note of my extreme fear of heights. There was one point in time where I just sat down because walking any further would have made me pass out. I survived though. I did not fall off the side! I was quite proud of myself!
These are SOME of the steps we had to climb:
Me taking a rest on the side of the very high wall of death:
Playing in the creek:
Holding the wall up with my own brute strength!:
After all of that adventuring, I was worn out! We came home and had a DEE-VINE porch sittin' sort of evening. Oscar was happy to join in. There was amazing food, wonderful friends (new and old), and a YouTube marathon that rivaled any good time I've had in a long time. We laughed so hard we cried. Oscar considered this an All American sort of evening. He concluded it with an All American Beverage. You can reference the YouTube vide below to really get the gist of why this is so!
All in all, I was most certainly not led astray by SWVA! Tomorrow we hit the road again! More scenic byways on our way to good old Asheville, NC!
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