Ellen O. Moyer, Traveling and musing...: Virginia

December 27, 2009
Hi All,

Dale's House

After Roanoke I took time out on Dale’s farm in Charity, Virginia, a crossroads spot on the Charity Road marked by a tiny white Primitive Baptist Church in continuous operation since 1778. We arrived near dusk, temperature below freezing and no electricity. By the time the wood stove was working the electric came back on but it was still 10 hours before we could get out of winter coats, earmuffs and gloves. No AT&T phone service and no internet kept me out of touch with the world of Annapolis for two weeks.

The Blue Ridge Mountains

I read a lot. I was captivated by Stuart Woods first novel CHIEFS, a story of political intrigue, good and evil in the South, a part of the country I am in and traveling through. Also read THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD, a true story of the violent world of moon shining in the 1920,s and 1930,s in Franklin and Patrick Counties where Dale lives. Another true story of the region, THE MAN WHO MOVED A MOUNTAIN, described the life and efforts of Rev. Bob Childress to bring education to the mountain folk around Buffalo Mountain an area just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near here once owned by Lighthorse Harry E. Lee and his brother Charles Carter Lee. Both books are descriptive of a male dominated alcoholic culture in some of this remote area as well as the strong loyalties of family and their independent self-sufficient nature.

Benny Wood

Charity is 6 miles from Woolwine home of the Wood’s Brothers Nascar Racing Team. We stopped to see Dale’s old friend Benny Woods at the Woods Garage and admired an antique 1963 Ford he had just restored.

Nearby were two covered bridges, Virginia Historic Landmarks built in the early 1900’s to help church goers cross streams to get to church, most by horse and buggy.

All towns – north south, east and west- Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Stuart, Blacksburg, Floyd, are about 35 miles from the farm and only reached by snake winding Blue Ridge mountain roads doubling the travel time. This is a long way for a cup of coffee and quaint cafes are pretty sparse. Stuart is the county seat of Patrick County and birthplace of Jeb Stuart, Civil War hero and banjo musician.

Jacks Creek Bridge

A 254 mile Virginia Heritage Music Trail called the Crooked Road winds its way through Southwest Virginia from Rocky Mount and up Shooting Creek (popular bootleg territory) to Floyd. Ferrum College, the only college town I know of where no town exists…a post-office, a dairy queen, (the one in Rocky Mount features pick-up fiddle music in the morning), a gas station and an antique shop…that is it, 17 miles away by winding roads is home to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum. This month they are featuring Rock-a-Billy music and the famous Virginians like Patsy Cline and 200 others of that Elvis Presley era.

There is an old graveyard on the farm dating to the 1800’s and a tumbledown 200 year old log cabin with huge hand cut chestnut logs. I would like to find a way to restore it. Maybe interest a university team of students in architecture to apply their sweat equity and magic.

Neighbor moving snow

And then the snow came and the haunting and mysterious Blue Ridge were winter white. We were also stuck. My wimpy Ford wouldn’t traverse Dale’s half mile driveway. A neighbor came by with his Massey-Ferguson farm equipment and plowed the drive. We hauled all our luggage by wheel barrow down the first hill to the marooned car and on the 24th, like the little engine that could, we were free from the farm and on our way to Asheville, North Carolina. And that is the next story. Now it’s Time for an evening glass of wine with Patsy Cline.

Ellen

A few more pictures of the Hood: