By Accident

We discovered a lovely drive yesterday

I was up shortly after 0600 and did my normal routine of reading and gaming and catching up on the computer.  I also wrote some postcards to send.  Do you write letters or postcards?  I find it fun and who doesn't like to get mail?

I woke Jim at 0800 but he snoozed until 0845.  I was eating breakfast when he got up.  Boo had already finished his.  By the time Jim had his coffee and read all the blogs he asked if I wanted to go for out and about.  Sure!

I got busy with dishes while he shaved, then I dressed and made the bed.  Now we were both ready to hit the road.

We located the Kroger grocery store.  Easy find as it was just inside the city limits of Clifton Forge.  The iron industry and the railroad make this area historic.  The C&O Railroad was big here until the advent of the diesel engine and at that time the headquarters were moved to West Virginia. We are in the Alleghany Highlands

There is a small historic downtown with a couple of restaurants, shops and museums.  We drove around checking out the housing, winding our way up and down the hillsides and narrow streets.  I'm sure when this area was built and in it's heyday the bigger homes were magnificent.  Some are well maintained but others are in need of some TLC.  Apparently there are just under 4000 living here, but I'm not sure where they all work.

As we exited one neighborhood we kept driving into the countryside, ever upward.  Finally came across a sign that said something about trucks over 25 should not travel this way because of the narrow and winding road and lack of GPS signal.  Well we like narrow and winding roads so we just kept going!

It was quite beautiful and they weren't lying when they said it was narrow.  Two small cars can easily pass each other, but it was tight in a couple places with our big hipped beastie.  Some of the hairpin turns were interesting also!  Not much traffic so that was pleasant.

We traveled up, up, up through the forest but there wasn't any place to pull over and enjoy the views.  There were driveways so some folks live up there.  When we came down that mountain we found ourselves on Sam Snead Memorial Highway (220) and heading towards Hot Springs.  This is a very posh area!  The population is under 1000, has golf courses and big homes.  The Homestead is located here and on this day there were a gazillion Austen Healys being displayed!  We'd seen several as we were driving but this place was full of them and I'm sure if we could have found a place to park Jim and I would have enjoyed viewing every one of them.

We continued our drive eventually arriving back in Clifton Forge where we stopped in at Jack Mason's Tavern where we had a fine lunch and a cold beer.  Jim ordered a special of Shepard's pie in wrap form while I had fish and chips. Afterwards we headed to Kroger's and from there headed home.

I put our purchases away, changed into comfy clothes and read for a bit on the lounger.  Meanwhile Jim napped.  We both enjoyed our coffee while Boo had his dinner

For dinner I fixed us some bruschetta.  Such a light, easy dinner!  TV and gaming rounded out our evening.