The Old Dominion State - Woolwine

Virginia - part one

(Seeing Friends and Sightseeing)

May 26, 2018 - June 1, 2018

Drove north out of North Carolina and caught the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.  It's absolutely beautiful along the parkway with alternating views to the east and west.  We were heading to the town of Woolwine to visit Carol and Carl, whom we had met on a cruise in Hawaii in 2015.  We pulled over at the Rock Castle Gorge viewpoint only to discover later that we could actually see Carol and Carl's property from that spot.

Panorama from Rock Castle Gorge on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Carol and Carl on their front porch.
They had just returned from Yorkshire, England where they were looking into Carl's family history.
They asked to see inside a local church in which one of his ancestors was buried and the person who was sent to unlock the church turned out to be Carl's 12th cousin.  He had lots of information on the family going back many years which he was happy to share with Carl.  They hope to get together again over in Yorkshire so they can get to know each other better.

The front of C&C's home in Woolwine.
The left most garage window is missing because a bird built a next in the garage and Carl wanted to be sure it could get to it's babies.

This is Spook, C&C's cat.  She isn't stretching - she lays around like this pretty regularly.
I'm not sure she knows she is a cat.

The side yard.
The 2nd fence keeps his neighbor's cattle in their pasture.

Part of the backyard.
Over to the right you can see the roof a their gazebo.
They really have an idyllic setting.

The neighbor's cattle.  They are tended by a donkey who's job is to keep the coyotes away. 

C&C provided us with the most wonderful camp spot while we were there but we failed to take a picture.  Honestly you couldn't find a spot better than this.  It was just down the hill from their garage with trees, shrubs and flowers on both sides and grass all around.  I can't believe neither of us took a picture!!!  We had such a lovely time there.  They adhere to a strict afternoon schedule.  Tea and cookies at 3 pm and a "sun is over the yard arm" drink at 5 pm.  We had lots of good conversations at those times and in between.

Carol went with us as we visited the nearby towns of Floyd and Stuart. In Stuart, Carol took us to the Wood Brothers Racing Museum. We don't follow any kind of car racing but we still found the museum to be quite interesting.  For those of you who follow NASCAR, the Wood Brother's car is #21.  As Carl told us, the Wood brothers are the original definition of shade tree mechanics.  They began working on cars under a large oak tree in their yard.  They attached chains and pulleys to one of the limbs and used it to haul engines and other parts in and out. From that a racing dynasty was born.

Entrance to the museum.

(Above and below) A very small portion of the racing paraphernalia in the museum.

Worn out racing tires.

Just a few of their racing cars.

The driver's compartment in one of the racing cars.

NASCAR car bodies must conform to specific specifications and this contraption holds the templates which are used to check the cars to make sure they conform to those specifications.

Another of the Wood's race cars.  Laura especially liked this one.
Looks like it would be fun to drive doesn't it.

Machine shop area of the museum.
They've moved their base of operations to another facility but left this equipment behind for fans to see.

The extensive "paint" jobs on NASCARS with all the advertising is actually just a plastic wrap which can be taken off and changed quite easily.  This is what remains of a wrap after it's been removed and shrunk down into a ball with heat.

Signed pieces of Wood Brothers Cars.
They are for sale at the prices below!

When we left Carol and Carl's home we headed back to the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued to move north.  The scenery is beautiful but the road is very curvy.  We saw rhododendrons and both evergreen and decidious types of azaleas along side the road.  The decidious variety were actually in bloom!

Everything was so wonderfully green.  Love looking at the farmlands from up on the parkway.

Ran into some heavy weather towards mid-afternoon and had to pull over until it slacked off a bit.

Waiting out the rain along with some fellow travelers.