Fries VA August 25-28, 2016

Day 15 – Thursday August 25, 2016 We did our morning walk around town and had breakfast. I did some reading and Lena practiced on her lap harp for awhile before we walked down near the river to The Cafe at Fries for lunch. This is the only Cafe in town. The food was good. The town has a large recreation building that was built by the founder of the textile mill. It is used as the library, town hall and also has a theater with stage. The town uses the theater for a variety of functions and on Thursdays they have a musical jam session with local musicians. About 6PM we walked to the theater to listen to the free event. There is a large floor space between the seating and the raised stage. There were 17 musicians setting in a circle playing mountain/bluegrass style music. Several women and a few men got up and did some flat foot dancing. This is a very old and popular style of dancing in the mountains. They played from 7-9PM.

Check out those prices from many years ago

Lena's Lap Harp

Day 16 – Friday - August 26, 2016 After our morning routine of walking and breakfast we drove through Galax and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway and heading North a few miles to the Blue Ridge Music Center. They have a large display on the history of the music in the area. On Fridays they have a music jam session on the breezeway so we listened to them for a couple of hours before going back to Galax for a late lunch and then on back to the campground.

Later in the day we went back to Galax to the Rex Theater. A bluegrass group named The Crooked Road Ramblers were performing. The local radio station 98.1 broadcasts the show live on radio. We won the door prize – a CD from The Crooked Road Ramblers. There were lots of men and women doing flat foot dancing for most of the two hour performance including a 80 year old man.

Day 17 – Saturday - August 27, 2016 Well Happy Birthday to me. Since it is my birthday I decided I wanted to be lazy today so we walked a couple of laps through the campground, ate breakfast, rode into Galax to Porkey's Family Buffet for lunch. Then returned to the campground to relax and read. I did get industrious and cooked some apples on the grill for our evening meal. Yummy!

Day 18 – Sunday - August 28, 2016   Starting about 7:30AM we did a 6.5 mile round trip bicycle ride along the New River State Park Trail before returning to the campground for breakfast. After breakfast we drove to Matthews Historical Farm near Galax to tour the farm and checkout the Civil War re-en actors that were camped there. There were about a dozen soldiers there in uniform performing drills and firing their rifles. They had several tents setup and an open tent where the wives and babies were setting around in period clothing much like they would have been during the Civil War. We also toured the 1900's farm house and many outside farm buildings that are original to the farm. A blacksmith was also demonstrating his craft.

View across New River

New River

Our bicycles

From there we drove on over to the Baywoods Community to see the Crossroads Primitive Baptist Church that we had seen on a map. We drove through the countryside for awhile and Lena decided she wanted to go back to the Independence Courthouse and get two more packet of the music for her Lap Harp. When we got there we discovered the courthouse is not open on Sunday so we went to a Mexican restaurant in town for lunch. The food was very good.

The day was still young so we decided to drive up to the Graysons Highlands State Park. We went there three years ago to listen to music at the Albert Hash Festival but the festival is now on Labor Day weekend. Virginia is now charging just to ride through the park now so we paid our $7 to enter the park. We have heard that North Carolina State Parks are considering charging an entry fee. After checking out the park campgrounds we drove back to Fries and relaxed/read until about dark and did a walk through the campground and stopped and talked to the owner for awhile. The campground is almost full.

Fries, VA August 22-24, 2016

Day 12 – Monday August 22, 2016 We slept really good and got up a little later than normal after getting to bed late Saturday night. The temperature was 60 degree this morning – nice after all the hot weather this Summer. The elevation here is 2129' above sea level. We did our morning walk around part of this small town. The town was founded by Col. Frances Henry Fries a 19^th industrialist when he built a textile mill here beside the beautiful New River.

Lena finished our laundry and we just relaxed and enjoyed the cooler weather. It was cool enough that we decided to put on our long pants and take off the shorts. Tom (the owner) brought us two muffins that his wife made this morning so I guess he is not mad with me. They sure were good with a cup of coffee. Then Tom started repairing the mess I made in the grass. I offered to help but he said there was no need. Tom soon had it fixed and put the grass back in place, put out some grass seed and spread some straw over it so it looks nice now. After talking to him while he worked I found out he built the campground himself after he retired so he could remain active. He has really done a good job with the layout and landscaping. He keeps it really clean, all the grass is kept mowed, the bathhouse is nice and very clean (we don't use the bathhouses in campgrounds but sometimes will check them out) and he is very friendly and easygoing. We really like it here.

Our site #6

Day 13 – Tuesday August 23, 2016 Tom (the owner) gave us a set of driving instructions for a scenic driving route through some of the back roads in the area. So after our morning walk and breakfast we took off on the drive. There is some really pretty scenery in this area with lots of nice cattle farms, rolling hills, trees, hugh rocks, etc. We would really like to come back to the area in the fall for the fall colors. We stopped in Independence, VA to tour a 1908 court house. After the county built a new modern court house some of the community wanted to tear it down and build parking lot but a local man that had money purchased it and donated it to the town after he had some restoration work done. Now it is a museum filled with local artifacts and a small gift shop. The upstairs court room is used for meeting, etc.

Lena spotted a lap harp in the gift shop that she wanted so we got it and two extra packs of music sheets to go with it. Then we stopped for a late lunch at a local pizza shop for their buffet. From there we returned to Fries.

1908
Grayson County Courthouse

Peach Bottom Primitive Baptist Church

Day 14 – Wednesday August 24, 2016 We did our normal routine and had a late breakfast, then we drove to Galax to get some groceries. After we returned one of our fellow campers stopped to talk to Lena about her lap harp. He told us to go to his campsite and his wife would use her tuner to make sure the harp was in tune. They both play dulcimers. Later we went to their site and they used the tuner and got the harp in tune. It was just a little off. The lady also gave Lena a couple of pointers on playing the harp.