24th Anniversary Road Trip

We toured the Virginia countryside for a long weekend to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. The weekend started off in Martinsville, at Piedmont Arts Association.

I participated in an informal artist’s talk with some of the other artists in the Poe’s Playground exhibit.

The next day we headed through Hillsville and Wytheville, traveling towards a place called Burke’s Garden. As we headed towards our destination, we found this tourist stop on top of  a mountain, at a place called “Lookout.”

With clouds and rain closing in, we couldn’t really see the view from the tower. If we had, we would have seen Burke’s Garden to the west. It might have looked something like the pictures in the image composite below:

Burke’s Garden, sometimes called “God’s Thumbprint,” is a high mountain valley surrounded by mountain ridges on all sides.

The view inside the valley is incredible on a clear day, but we made the best of the weather we had, stopping to gather some plants…

…celebrating our arrival at our destination…

…enjoying everything Burke’s Garden has to offer.

There are mountains right behind all those clouds.

The next day, we woke up in a hotel near Pearisburg and headed back towards Richmond by way of Craig County for a tour of the family homestead (I can’t get enough).  We stopped at the overlook at Newcastle, Virginia and took in a view that members of my family have enjoyed for 200 or more years.

View overlooking Newcastle, Virginia on highway 42, in Craig County. This is a relatively un-altered panoramic photo.

View overlooking Newcastle, Virginia on highway 42, in Craig County. For this image, I did some high dynamic range toning and color adjustment.

Valley Roller Mills, near Simmonsville, Virginia. This mill belonged to my great grandfather.

The happy couple celebrating 24 years together.