Rodeway Inn
Hi All,
We left Roanoke Friday October 5th and headed east. Today, Monday, October 8th we are in Chincoteague, VA hoping the sun really will keep shining for a bit. No wifi as I type this but later today I’ll take my computer to the lobby and send this off.
Ru
Our Road Trip Starts…..
Friday afternoon Randal and I set off on our road trip to visit family and some old friends. We stopped off for a quick visit with Randal’s brother Don and nephew Donald Ray to say hello. Then it was off to Big Island, just past Bedford, to spend the night with Linda and Ken Burger, Randal’s sister and brother-in-law. I love them and their home is just the neatest place nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with the requisite bubbling stream running alongside the house that sang me to sleep. We talked and ate and walked and ate and went off to visit an exhibit of Sustainable Living at the Sedalia Center and then to the old Otter Mill which is in the process of being restored.
Linda and Ken’s place
Sit on the front porch and listen to the stream that runs by the side of the house.
Lots of history and family treasures.
Lots of good talk and good food!
Getting ready for dinner.
Reverend Ken giving thanks and sharing bread.
Randal tuning Linda’s guitar and Linda relaxing and enjoying the time with us.
We spent lots of great time in this corner talking, looking at old family photos and applauding Randal while he sang the country songs he’d written
Saturday morning after a great breakfast that included some of Linda’s homemade, from scratch, biscuits we went off to the Sedalia Center just down the road. http://www.sedaliacenter.org/
The Gathering at Sedalia – For Sustainability and the Art of Mindful Living
Learning about electric cars.
This man’s copper work caught our eye. Randy Cox I believe. He also builds race cars!
Talking about the old smithy equipment.
Once upon a time Linda and Randal’s dad had owned and used similar smithy tools and furnace.
I call it “smithy” because there are silversmiths and coppersmiths and blacksmiths and all of the tools are similar though the products are quite different.
Molds for different sized pieces and some of the beautiful finished products.
Ken saw me admiring this copper leaf and treated me to it. I will get some beautiful satin cord and wear it and look quite lovely!
Then we hopped back into the car and drove down Rt. 122 to the” old red mill” I’d always admired when we’d passed it going to see Linda and Ken. We thought it was the Saturday there were to be tours but we were a week early.
http://www.bigottermill.com/ Rt. 122 Big Island Highway
Big Otter Mill is situated on the bank of the Big Otter River, a few miles north of the City of Bedford, Virginia on Route 122 North, south of Big Island.
The site of this mill has been used for grist and sawmills for more than two hundred years
. 
A very animated discussion about how the mill must have once operated.
A very lovely setting.
A very wonderful visit that sped by all too fast. From Big Island we were heading to Ashland, Virginia to visit my college buddy Sheila and her husband David, their dog Nute and cat Casey.
Ru