Goshen Pass

Goshen Pass in Rockbridge County is Virginia's oldest state-maintained natural area. The pass encompasses 3.7 miles of gorge along the Maury River, which carved out the pass. The state manages a wilderness area there of about 1,000 acres.

The Pass is located about 10 miles outside of Lexington.

The Maury River from one of the overlooks.

Another shot of the river. It's a very rocky river.

Looking upstream.

My sweetie at the overlook.

About midway, where the road and river run more even, the state has a little picnic area and pavilion.

It is a nice, relaxing place to stop and eat a bite of chicken.

People swim in the river here.

This is a monument to the philantropists who donated the wilderness area.

This is a monument to Matthew Fontaine Maury, for whom

the river is named. You don't often see an anchor that large

along a riverway in the Blue Ridge.

The Maury River flows into the James. It was not officially called the Maury River until 1968. Before that it was known as a branch of the Calfpasture or the North River.

Another scenic shot to end the post!

There are many hiking trails in the area. Definitely something to see if, like me, you find a certain kind of calmness in watching the waters roll by whilst in the midst of the woods.

Quick Jump to Short Pump Part 2

As I noted in yesterday's post, over the weekend we slipped away to Short Pump for a birthday get-away.

Someone asked me about the different stores. Short Pump Town Center is a big open-air mall, but there are numerous strip malls in the area.

I am not a big shopper and the heat was incredible, but I did notice Whole Foods, Kohl's, Plow & Hearth, Dillard's, an Apple Store, Good Feet, Nordstrom's, Macy's (we went in Macy's and it was a much nicer Macy's than the one at Valley View), Dick's Sporting Goods, the Cheesecake Factory, Cold Stone Creamery, and Teavana, not to mention lots of other smaller stores.

If you like to shop then this is worth the drive, for sure.

One of our stops was a Williams-Sonoma. This was, truthfully, the reason for the trip. My husband had been asking me for a month what I wanted for my birthday.

"A salad spinner. They're about $5 at Walmart," I had told him time and again.

This bothered him for some reason, so he decided he was going to get me a really nice salad spinner. Which he did. He purchased for me a Good Grips Salad Spinner, made by OXO. He seemed very happy about this. It is a nice salad spinner; I've already used it.

After we checked out the mall we checked into our hotel. Our room was on the second floor.

The first warning of impending problems came when we stepped off the elevator.

"It smells like wet dog," my husband said. And it certainly did. My eyes stung a little as we wandered down the hall to find our room.

The room was very nice, with a king-sized bed, dark furniture, and spacious bathroom. The furnishings were very masculine; I told my husband that they must have had a male decorator. The room was also quite warm, about 76 degrees, and we switched the thermostat down while we settled in. I showered and dressed.

The staff downstairs sent up complimentary tickets for breakfast the next morning at their in-house restaurant, because I had told them we were there for my birthday. That was a nice surprise.

The temperature in the room did not drop, and finally we called downstairs to ask for help with the thermostat. I thought we had set it wrong.

Maintenance came up and said there had been problems with that room before with the thermostat. He set it and suggested we see how the room was after we returned from dinner.

We had planned to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was 60 minutes and no restaurant is worth that.

We wandered around and came before Copper Grill Lobster & Steak House. We went in. The place was completely empty and it was 6 p.m. The hostess asked if we had reservations, which we did not, but she said that was fine and seated us.

It was rather odd that no one was there. Restaurants in Roanoke are crowded at 6 p.m. Once we took a look at the menu we figured out why.  This was the most expensive restaurant we had ever been in. It is similar in style to the Pomegranate in Troutville, which prior to this was the most expensive restaurant I'd ever eaten at. We are Red Lobster folks for high-end dining, if that tells you anything.

James said he wanted to treat me to a nice meal, so we went ahead and ordered. I had shrimp and he had surf and turf. The meal was indeed very good and the shrimp was some of the best I've ever had.

During the time we were there, perhaps five other small groups came in. The place definitely was not jumping. I can only imagine it was the pricing, for the food and service was excellent.

After we ate, we returned to our room to check out the air conditioning. It was still warm. We called the front desk and they decided to move us.

We packed up and went across the hall. It was a little warm, too, but we turned down the thermostat.

Then we went back out for more shopping.

We returned to the room to find it still warm. It was not as warm as the first room but obviously the temperature was not dropping. The room should have been pleasant by the time we returned but it was not.

It also smelled much more strongly of dog than the other room. Regular readers know I have very severe allergies and I wondered if I would last the night without needing my inhaler - or worse, a call to 911.

I never said anything to my husband about the doggy smell, but he could smell it as well and said something about it. The longer we sat there, the angrier he grew. I had not yet unpacked our things again and as he grew more agitated I decided not to.

"I've had it with this," he said. He went out the door, headed for the front desk.

He later told me he told them we were not happy with the accommodations and were thinking about going home. The front desk said they would move us yet again.

This time we went to the 8th floor, which according to the front desk was supposed to never have animals on it. However, by this time I suppose the smell was in our noses because frankly the entire place smelled like a wet dog to both of us.

This third room was a little cooler at 71 degrees. That should have been fine but the room was close and warm despite that. The maintenance man set the thermostat to 67 degrees and by morning we should have been freezing, but the temperature was still 71 when we woke up at 6 a.m.

This is a new motel that opened in January. Obviously their air conditioning system is not strong enough to keep the rooms cool during severe heat. Anyone who tries to open a hotel in the south without proper air conditioning obviously hasn't been thinking clearly.

We dressed and went down for our complimentary birthday breakfast bar. It was good but very pricey and I was glad we were eating on the house.

Then we packed up and checked out. The hotel gave us a discount because of the problems with the rooms. We did not know before that this hotel chain allowed pets. We will not be staying there again for this reason, not because of the heating, which was simply unfortunate, or the customer service. The service was excellent.

The ride back was uneventful and we were home by 11 a.m.

And that was our quick jump to Short Pump!

Quick Jump to Short Pump

On Saturday my husband said he wanted to go somewhere. His birthday was June 2 and mine is today (June 8) and a quick get-away seemed in order.

We decided to go to Short Pump, which is a shopping mecca just outside of Richmond.

We packed some things, made reservations at a hotel, and hopped in the car.

The trip down was uneventful. However, it is a three-hour drive, and that is with only one rest stop.




My husband. Isn't he handsome?

Our destination.

We were very impressed with the development in Short Pump. Here are people who, unlike the officials in Botetourt, understand that you can have attractive and well-designed structures and businesses will still come. In the Roanoke area, they seldom say no to any business regardless of what it looks like, which is why we have the shoddy McDonalds, the warehouse buildings for Walmart, and things like that. There was none of that in Short Pump.

Note that there are trees and the structures are off the highway. This is a Barnes and Noble. I don't think people in the Roanoke area allow trees to grow tall enough to hide signs.

Check out the lights. The properties were accessed from side roads off the main thoroughfare. We liked that design.

We arrived in Short Pump around 1 p.m. We ate lunch at McDonalds - a brick McDonalds that didn't have the clown and the colors, by the way. Then we went to Best Buy, where I looked at scanners. I had looked at scanners in Roanoke but was unimpressed with the selection. The selection in Short Pump was better but the customer service was very poor. The fellow who was waiting on us would only speak directly to my husband and not to me. He reminded me of Raj on The Big Bang Theory only it wasn't funny because I was the one who needed the information. I did not buy a scanner there but found one I liked that I could order later.

However, we slipped into Walmart to pick up more water bottles and found the same scanner there for $50 less. So we bought it and put it in the trunk.

We finally made it to Short Pump Town Center, where we discovered that this was not an enclosed mall but an open-air mall.

This would not have been a bad thing except that the thermometer in the car read 103 degrees and it felt like it. I wilt in 75 degree heat. Despite the heat, we walked the mall, making frequent stops for air-conditioning and venturing into the food court for drinks.

An Apple store attracted my attention and I had my first view of an iPad. It was smaller than I expected, about the size of a nice mouse pad or thereabouts. I can see the appeal of the device but not the expense of it.

Finally it was time to check in at our hotel.

We had never stayed at this motel chain before. Generally we stay elsewhere, having found that certain chains are usually clean. Some are now smoke-free, like this hotel, and that was a plus.


The lobby was quite impressive. The staff was very friendly and exceedingly helpful. We would come to learn that first hand, as you will learn later in Quick Jump to Short Pump, part 2!

Corporate welfare

Ukrops in Roanoke is closing.

The grocery chain, which I have visited approximately five times, was nice and all but since I did not shop it frequently (I live too far away), I had trouble finding the deals. To be honest, I stopped in there for one single item that I could not find elsewhere, and it is something I can live without.

What most folks don't know, since apparently few people read an article all the way through anymore, if they read it at all, is that the City of Roanoke gave the property developer many incentives to build Ivy Market (the name of the development) on this location. So let me remind you.

The deals cut for Ukrops/Ivy Market, a $20 million project, are thus (from The Roanoke Times archives):

$9 million package. "The agreement will allow Painter's development company, IMD Investment Group, to get a maximum $600,000 city grant annually for 15 years. The grants, or rebates, are to be based on the amount of revenue Ivy Market produces annually. The program will be administered through the city's Industrial Development Authority. None of the money will be paid to the developer upfront." - The Roanoke Times, December 19, 2004

According to this article, the developer told the city the project would bring in $1.4 million in annual tax revenue. That meant the city would still get $800,000 after it gave the developer $600,000. But the city's own analysis indicated the amounts actually would be more like $900,000. They went ahead with the deal anyway.

In the same article, which reviews emails, note this quote. "The chances of Ukrop's leaving during the next 15 years are extremely small," [Councilman Brian]Wishneff wrote. He is not a councilman anymore.

I call this largess with taxpayer money corporate welfare. It means the city is giving the developer back money because he decided to operate there. The city hopes to gain financially from their investment over time.

I also call it bullshit. If someone wants to develop something in a community, let them come, provided they meet the zoning, but why pay them? They take the taxpayer dollars and run. Botetourt County has offered incentives many times to businesses, and now we have big empty buildings. Was it really to the citizenry's advantage to make concessions, to offer tax breaks or money up front? Did the jobs stay forever? Did they even last 10 years?

Another instance of corporate welfare is federal agricultural subsidies. This is supposed to help small farmers, you know. We are small farmers. Do you know how much money we receive from the federal government?

ZERO. Not one single penny. Nada, nothing, zippo.

And every other small farmer I know, with the exception of a couple of local dairies, receives nothing, too. Guess who does get all of those millions? ConAgra, DuPont, Cargill, all of the big companies. The companies that don't need the money just to eat and be able to watch cable.

Walmart also receives federal dollars. As of 2004, the $256 billion company had received over $1 billion in state and local government subsidies. In the 1990s it received over $5 million from Roanoke City for its Valley View store. (The Roanoke Times, Dec. 19, 2004). No wonder it wants to put in more Walmarts here. Follow the money.

Here are some of Roanoke's other corporate welfare projects, from the same article:

1994 - First Union, $500,000, 200 new jobs
Early 1990s - Wal-Mart - $5 million for the Valley View store
Mid-1990s - Roanoke Electric Steel, $260,000 for a $14 million investment
1997 - Maple Leaf Bakery, $757,324 for a $20 million investment
1997 - First Citizens Bank, $25,000, 30 new jobs
1999 - Johnson Johnson Spectacle Lens Group, $9.17 million, $125 million investment
2000 - Precision Technology USA, $80,000 $2.2 million investment; 112 new jobs
2001 - Foot Levelers, $34,790, $3.3 million investment
2001 - The Roanoke Times, $600,100, $25 million minimum investment
2002 - Advance Auto, $1.13 million, $6.7 million investment; 168 new jobs
2003 - SEMCO, $150,000, $4 million minimum investment
2003 - Boxley Materials Co., $154,000, $2.5 million investment; 9 new jobs
2004 - Member One, $66,000, $6 million investment

And then you have something like Gander Mountain in northern Roanoke County, which is the only development I've ever heard of that actually turned down incentive money. Good for them. I try to shop there when I need something they sell.

This is our country. Corporate welfare is a plague. This kind of madness needs to stop. NOW. Make corporations work within their own budgets. That is what the rest of us. Why should a corporation be any different?

The Big Game Show

Saturday we woke in Harrisonburg to rain. Many of our plans or potential plans had involved outdoor things, such as perhaps going to Natural Chimneys.

We ditched those plans since the weather was not cooperating. Instead we took a long drive around the countryside.



The Shenandoah Valley has large farms on it. Some of the fields were black with cattle. Other farms specialize in poultry, especially chickens and turkey. Others are dairies.

We were actually looking for a specific event, a Harvest Festival that was supposed to be at a Mennonite and Brethren Heritage facility. However we never found it.

Later we went shopping to see what Harrisonburg had to offer, and then we went back to the motel room.

I watched The Bee Movie, which I found to my consternation had quite a message to share, i.e., the rich need to stay rich and the poor need to stay poor because its better to leave things alone.

Nothing like being beaten over the head with capitalistic ideals in a cartoon movie. Whatever happened to a story for the story's sake?

The next day we rose early and then headed for what was truly the entire reason for this weekend:


The Virginia Big Game Show, Western Region. This is a collection of deer heads, a competition for the hunters.

My husband had no entry this year but he likes to see the racks. I think this puts him in the mood for the upcoming hunting season or something.

I don't really see the point in it but I suppose I do many things that he doesn't understand, either.

We spent time wandering around there and then went to a gun show in Fishersville. It was not the best gun show we've ever been to so we soon headed home.

And boy was I glad to get back in my own little bed in my own little house on my own little hill! Going away is always fun and interesting, but truly there is No Place Like Home.

Field of Lost Shoes

Friday we left home and headed north. Aside from a four-day weekend in Asheville, we've had no other vacation and this was a trip to help clear our heads.

We had reservations in Harrisonburg, VA even thought that's only a two-hour drive away from home.

Our original plans were to go to Luray and tour the Luray caverns. However, my issues with my heel spur were such that we didn't think caving was a good idea, even if it was a commercial cave. I was afraid I would find it difficult.

Unfortunately for us but fortunately for the soil, it rained, which played a role in our trip.

Friday we traveled up Interstate 81 in downpours. We arrived in Harrisonburg a little after lunch. It was too early to check into the hotel so we decided to go to New Market.

Our destination was the New Market Battlefield Historic State Park. This is an historic civil war battlesite and there are quite a number of these in northern Virginia.



The Hall of Valor museum offered up an hour-long movie about the Battle of New Market with a focus on the cadets from Virginia Military Institute who fought there. VMI is a small piece down the road from New Market, though it would be several days of walking or marching.



As I watched the film I began to recognize names. Earlier this year I had written a book review of The Liberty Hall Volunteers, a reprint of a 1964 book about VMI's efforts in the Civil War.



The book had confirmed for me the horrors of war as it offered a view of the travesty based on letters from soldiers who once were VMI students.

In a chapter titled “Dirty, Ragged and Barefoot” the author uses the letters of Ted Barclay, one of the Liberty Hall soldiers, to great effect. Barclay is hungry, practically naked for want of clothes, and starving for the comforts of home. Barclay is an expressive writer and his situation dire:

“I have had on my clothes for nearly a month, my pants are nearly worn out… I feel lonesome sometimes with the few of us who are left …The rest I suppose are captured. I wish that when you send the clothes that you would send me a small Bible if you can get one. My Testament got wet and is torn all to pieces.”

Later letters complain because he has not received new clothes from his family. “If it is in the range of human exertion I wish you would send me the clothing, you cannot imagine my condition. I have no seat in my pants, the legs are worn out, have had but one pair of socks which are worn out completely, my shirt is literally rotted off me, but I was so fortunate as to get a white shirt and a pair of drawers, which both are now so lousy that I can scarcely bear them.”

The movie emphasized some of this but the New Market battle was rather early in the war so the poverty of battle had not yet crept in.

Instead, there was blood shed as the Confederates swirled around the Bushong farm outside of New Market in order to confront the Union Soldiers.

The date was May 15, 1864 and it was raining. One of the newly-plowed fields became a mire of muck for the Confederate soldiers.

Many lost of their shoes in the mud and went on to fight their battles barefoot. The field became known as the "Field of Lost Shoes" and it is visible today.

The Confederates won this battle.

Because it was pouring, we did not tour the fields or the farmhouse, but even so we spent an interesting couple of hours learning about this small part of our state's history.

Windstorm

I have never seen such wind. I understand there are downed trees every where, lots of power outages. Worst of all, there are forest fires.

The wind is gusting at 60 mph and is expected to last into early tomorrow morning.

We have fence down, but that is nothing in the big picture. One of our neighbors has lost half of his roof - and his house is brand new!

My brother is without power and has been told he will be for DAYS.




Above: Leaves dance across the grass, moving faster than a cheetah.



Above: This is what my view of oak trees looked like yesterday morning.



Above: This is what it looked like at 3 p.m. Note the new addition of cedar where there used to be only grass...



Above: My little well house that covers my well pump has been blown over.



Above: Smoke rises from a forest fire out my front window. I believe that to be in Craig County.

Weather Changes

Yesterday it went from this:



to this:



all in a matter of hours!

The temperature dropped, too, of course, since we had snow showers.

This past weeks seems to have been the peak for fall colors, finally. It's the latest I think I've ever seen it. The oak trees on the farm, as you can see, are just now turning.

Unfortunately we still need rain very badly.

Also, the governor last night released the state wide burn ban. It remains in effect in my county, though, as far as I know. Be sure to check your local laws and use common sense if you burn outside. The ground is still really dry.

Get Out the Vote

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. - Gore Vidal

The hallowed halls of the Virginia General Assembly never heard such a speech as the one Mary Johnston gave before the learned politicos on January 19, 1912.
An advocate for a woman’s right to vote, Johnston, an area native and by then a much-accomplished and well-respected author, told the legislatures that she paid $1,000 annually in taxes to the state, yet had no voice in how the revenue was spent.

Her family settled western Virginia and had fought in all of the country’s wars up to that time. Yet recent legal immigrants, who knew nothing of democracy, she said, were treated as if they knew better than she what the interests of the state might be.

“We are asking that those who live under the laws of a state … may have something to do with the making of those laws,” Johnston said in another speech, this time before a meeting of governors. “We are asking that we who pay a very considerable portion of the taxes of the State and of the country may have a voice in the apportionment of those taxes. We are asking that we who work may have a say as to the conditions under which we work.”

For six years, Johnston gave up much of her life so that women could obtain the right to vote. She suffered from vicious personal attacks from anti-suffrage groups. She did not give up.

How sad then that today, the local voter registrar expects less than half the entire population of the county to turn out when the polls open on November.

Less than 100 years after Mary Johnston took a stand and fought for the right to vote, have we thrown it away? If just half the population votes, and half of those are female, then only 25 percent of the women in this area will bother to exercise a right for which some women were imprisoned.

Not long ago, I heard someone on a late night radio talk advocate a change in the voting laws so that only landowners could vote.

I have heard other people advocate taking the vote from women and from minorities. No doubt about it, at this very moment, there are folks working to undermine a linchpin of democracy that 50 percent of you, male and female, black or white, apparently take for granted.

If you don’t vote, they could very well be successful, because you can be sure they will vote for candidates who think similarly.

Voting is your right. It is also your duty as a citizen to take this single action every year to ensure that the county or the country is overseen by the best person.

So make plans now to go vote. Tell your boss you may be a little late the morning of November 6.

It’s that important.

Thursday Thirteen

Conservation easements

1) Conservation easements are supposed to protect special large tracts of land.

2) About 235 acres of this mountain was preserved in 2006. This is Tinker Mountain, and this wooded land is part of the Carvin's Cove watershed.


3. Carvins Cove, for those who don't know, is where the City of Roanoke gets it water.

4. The water comes from Tinker Creek, which Annie Dillard made famous in her book, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

5. Tinker Creek allegedly orginates, at least in part, on our farm from a spring which flows into two ponds.

6. Others have it orginating on land behind us, property that is now a subdivison.

7. Regardless, the streams which run together to form Tinker Creek have no name that I'm aware of.



8. On Tuesday, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine appeared at Hollins University to applaud my alma mater for helping procure the Tinker Mountain Easement.

9. The photo above is Governor Kaine talking to Hollins University President Nancy Gray.

10. Governor Kaine wants to preserve 400,000 acres of Virginia land during his four years in office.

11. So far, just over 100,000 has been preserved and he has three years to go.

12. Conservation easements are hard to sell to the old farmers.

13. That means that land like what you see below will probably one day be sprouting houses instead of crops.