"So What's Cool to Do in Christiansburg?" I asked.

Often when I ask people that question, about the town they live in, they assure me there's really nothing. You have to go to - in this case - Blacksburg. Or whatever other town where they feel the grass is greener. I was assured that if I went to Tech, there was hiking there.
I'll leave that for a Blacksburg assignment, though. Christiansburg has its own cool places to hike. The one I found last Thursday is the Huckleberry Trail. http://www.huckleberrytrail.org/







The Huckleberry is 5.76 miles of paved hiking and biking trail. It begins at the New River Valley Mall and wends its way to the Blacksburg Library.

Or vice versa - but that's the way I went.



I hiked out to the Coal Mining
Heritage Park and back, having neither the time nor energy to go all the way to Blacksburg and back.



Near the 4-mile marker, there's a really neat bridge over the creek, with places to sit.


It leads , actually, to a dump site.


Complete with porta-john. Personally, I think there should be facilities frequently located on hiking trails. Like benches, but not so often.








If you read this blog regularly, you know I like to find water. Lakes, creeks, fountains... Here's some from along the Huckleberry.

















The trail runs along what was once the Huckleberry Line. The tracks are gone, but the trail crosses another rail line. There's a resting place, and a fenced caged bridge over to prevent mishaps.








I was chatting with another walker, who told me he'd taken pictures of trains on that track - I said that'd be a good thing to get a picture of - and when we reached the bridge over the active tracks - there was a train.


Cars and cars and cars of coal - He said it was going to Japan.









As everywhere - some folks appreciate nature and beauty, and some don't. There was, unfortunately, the usual trash to be seen.








These trees were planted, the plaques tell us, in celebration of births of sons, daughters, grandbabies.







At a trailside park, I found this structure, channeling the creek's water...








I wonder what was originally there? By the way the land was, I suspect a stopping place for the old railroad.







I think every town has some neat places. It just takes a bit of looking around.

I found a Christmas Tree that would fit in my Motorhome!



I stopped in at the local DAV and found this.

It's about 6 inches tall.

So I bought it and I spent this afternoon decorating the Escaper for the holidays.





I have blue and silver
and white garlands
in the windows,








Lights! They run on AA batteries.
















And a beautiful poinsettia candle lamp.




With luck, I'll find my stained glass wreath which is stored in some safe location.

I wish everyone wonderful midwinter holidays - Merry Christmas, Good Yule, Super Solstice, Happy Hannukah, and a Happy New Year.

Did You Miss Me?

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. I worked in Richmond the last week of November, which meant I got to see my older daughter. We went for sushi, of course, at Ichiban, the wonderful sushi restaurant I've written about here before. One of my stores had a Curves in the parking lot - always a good thing - so I got to work out there. One of their members made a picture quilt of the ladies-working-out that many Curves have painted as a mural on their wall. It is quite neat; the picture I took does not do it justice.

When I returned from Richmond, I put the Escaper in the shop for a water pump and went off to Tennessee for Danny's niece's wedding. All the pictures I took were of the wedding, so I don't have anything from that trip to post here. I saw LOTS of places I'd like to stop and investigate on future trips to Tennessee, though, when time is more flexible.

The motorhome was not ready when we got home; fortunately my work this week was in Charlottesville, where my friend Sue lives. We went to a concert, "Music of Early Modern Europe" at the University of Virginia. The UVA Early Music Ensemble plays on either period instruments or reproductions, and we got to hear cornetto and sackbut and viola da gamba, as well as baroque music on more familiar instruments. It would have been rude to be flashing my camera during the performance, but I did catch the stage during intermission.



The mural is behind the stage. It's the School of Athens - and we do wonder how they got bound books and modern slates waaaay back then.









And this is just to show: if you are owned by a cat or two and you need to cover your windows, do not get mini-blinds. Mini-blinds and cats do not mix well; the cat always wins.