Storytelling Trip: Day 1

Thursday morning we were on the road. We had to stop at Belvie's farm to say hello to Darrell's mule. Larry loves this animal for some reason and will always stop and talk to it. I learned something: mules eat brush! This old guy was gnawing on raspberry and multiflora roses for breakfast. All that green grass, and he eats thorns.



We took our usual route, Rte 33, across the state to Rte 28. It's a two-lane highway (hello, Two-Lane Bloggin'!) and the trip can be slowed by trucks and local traffic, but it's beautiful and in the end doesn't take any longer than going around by the interstate. We stopped to use the facilities at a park and once again enjoyed



the incredible beauty of Seneca Rocks. There is actually a trail up the back of these rocks, and an observation deck at the top. During WWII the military trained troops here for rock-climbing.

There is a story connected with the rocks--romantic!

I noticed this rock wall along the river at the base of the rocks, and had to get a closer look. The river rocks are so smooth; whoever stacked this wall did a very good job. It may have been a CCC project, or it may have been built by a farmer who once owned the land the park now occupies.

You can sort of see how wide the wall is with my hand as an indicator. (Try taking a photo of your hand with a digital camera. It's weird. When you move your hand away, you still see the image in the camera). I would guess that the wall is about 3 feet across. That's a lot of rock, but the river has plenty.

Here the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River rushes by. The river is shallow here, but very rapid and the blue-green color is something to see. This is trout season, so I expected to see some fisherman along the way.

And here he is, waist-deep in the water. I snapped this, as you can tell, as we drove by.

After a beautiful trip through the hills, we arrived at my son's house with plenty of time to visit and unpack, and get ready to go to our first storytelling site.