First Days in Virginia / Natural Bridge

The house is in the middle of ready-to-harvest tobacco fields.  There is a garage, playhouse, and barn just behind the house and a tobacco-drying barn just to the right.  There's an oooold Ford tractor in the barn I'm going to ask about for our Dallas son, and there is a groundhog (also called a woodchuck) living under the garage.  Google groundhog; it's interesting reading.  They are as prevalent as squirrels around here.

It's a four room house with a shower/bath and very short potty (sigh!) The bed is a double bed - or we could open the sleeper sofa and have a queen size.  Sleeper sofas are none too comfortable, so we think we will just spoon in the double. There's a mud room off the back with an over/under washer and dryer.  Now I know I'll never buy one - it's a literal pain in the neck to reach under the dryer and over the washer to empty the washer of clothes.  John has a real nice recliner; I have a bottomed out chair I'm trying to fill up with pillows.

The TVs are small but so are the rooms, so it's okay.  There is a high-speed internet connection that is certainly nice - especially since our cell reception is lousy.  AT&T says they will come to Danville "soon."  Mmm-hmmm.

As you know, yesterday we headed for Monticello but got sidetracked at Natural Bridge.  It is one of the Seven Wonders of the New World along with the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and I can't remember what all.  George Washington surveyed it when he was just a surveyor's apprentice and carved his initials (teenagers never change!) about 20' up one wall.  Thomas Jefferson thought it was so cool that he bought the acreage it sits on for $3.50 (Ahhh, those were the days.)

 It is pretty neat, but along with the ticket to see it, we got to see a live butterfly museum (now THAT was cool!),

a toy museum, a replica Indian village,

a saltpetre mine, the opening to an underground river (you could here it gushing by), and Lace Falls.  Because of the area drought I think the underground river had more water that the waterfall.  Oh, and let's not forget the wax museum and the factory where they made the wax figures.  Not bad for one ticket price.  Halfway thru the walking tour they had a geedunk that sold monster hotdogs fully dressed and refillable sodas for $6.  Not bad at all.

It took us 4 hours to get there going up the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it only took and hour and a half to get back the smart way.  The Parkway is just like Natchez Trace, but we'll go back in a month or so to see all those tree's leaves change color.  Maybe then we'll make it all the way to Monticello.

We got here last Saturday but delays in processing all the paperwork needed for medical personnel to wander thru the states (including their needing to see his diploma from the echo school he trained at almost 25 years ago!  His college diplomas are framed and on the wall of our bedroom back in Texas; where that certificate is, is anybody's guess) the need for documentations caused him to not be able to start until today, Friday.  So we had plenty of time to settle in and get our bearings.  There's not a straight road in this county, and we always have to go "over here" to get "over there."  Hurray for dashboard GPS!  She certainly knows what she's doin'!

Well, that's about all for now.  I doubt John will be on call his first weekend (and second day) on the job, so we'll probably traipse around the countryside again.  Look for the GSR's (and no, kids, that doesn't stand for gunshot residue).

Love to all,
Granma Mary