The Blue Ridge Saturday, 23 Oct 2004 I was out of the Galax Motel this morning about six. I was told there was a McDonald's less than a mile to the east. I walked there, stupidly, in the dark, but there were some streetlights and I did it without incident. Ordinarily, I don't particularly care for McD's, but I was hungry. I guess that accounts for walking in the dark. I wonder what really stupid, senseless, maybe even illegal things I would do if I were really, really hungry like many people in this world? Ironically also, there was a cafe with real breakfasts another hundred yards or so down the road. Payback for bad behavior?! The Mt Olivet United Methodist Church between Galax and Hillsville is boiling apple butter today. I had to stop and reminisce a little about making apple butter when I was a kid. Picking up apples, helping (or avoiding it) Mom peel and cut the snits, and watching the setting up of the big copper kettle, keeping the fire going just so, and most importantly stirring constantly...big lazy eights, but always stirring. I think it was our church too that had the apple butter boiling project. These folks were using applesauce. Where's the tradition? I guessed I was too early for a sample, but I was wrong. I was given a biscuit and a nice big sample of last year's product! I hope the picture turns out. I'll send them a copy. I am now in Hillsville. This must be the outlet/discount store center of Southwest Virginia. Oh, and there is the great Labor Day Weekend flea market that virtually engulfs the whole town. Also, about three miles west of town in a collection of outlet stores is a busy little museum of all kinds of artifacts. There is no readily apparent organization except maybe for newspaper accounts of the great Carroll County Courthouse shooting. In a front-page New York Times headline story on March 15, 1912, the lead paragraph read: "Down to the quaint, old red-brick courthouse at Hillsville, the seat of Carroll County, where sentence was being pronounced on one of their number, a troop of twenty mud-splashed mountaineers galloped in with rifles from the surrounding hills early this morning, and in less time than it takes to tell it, the judge before the bench, the prosecutor before the bar, and the sheriff at the door lay dead in the courtroom. See http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/hsid0198.htm for more of the story. Today was a short 12-mile hike. I'm doing laundry this afternoon and working up courage for tomorrow's 22 miles. It's still cool, cloudy and even foggy in spots with a little mist in the air. Doesn't the sun ever shine down here? Sunday, 24 Oct 2004 As seems to be normal, it rained during the night and the day dawned cloudy and foggy. The sun tried mightily to break through and did on a couple of occasions, but on the whole was unsuccessful. It even sprinkled rain during my long mid-day break. US221 north out of Hillsville would take me to Willis in Floyd County near where my Dad was born and raised. But I continued on to the East on US58. I left the motel about 7:40. The first road sign out of town reads "Blue Ridge Parkway 21 Miles." That's my walk for the day. For the first two hours there was a steady flow of traffic heading east. Today was NASCAR race day at Martinsville and apparently people spend the night as far west as Hillsville or even further and then drive on to the track the morning of the race. They passed by me in convoys of 6, 10, 12 or more, each driver pretending he is at the wheel of a racecar. I was somewhat concerned because this is a two-lane highway and in a passing situation, I would have a vehicle coming up behind me at high speed. Fortunately most drivers seemed satisfied at the speed of the day. Many cars had pennants flying, fancy decals, or license plate holders promoting their favorite NASCAR driver or sponsor. My first rest stop was at a foundation of a destroyed building. There was a piece of concrete to sit on and I leaned back against a concrete tank of which one side was glass--kind of like an aquarium. As I was leaving a local farmer was setting up a roadside vegetable stand. I asked about the old building. It had been a church; razed to clear right-of-way for the new highway to be built...I was resting against the baptismal. VDOT plans to rebuild the highway into a modern 4-lane divided road and there are many places between Hillsville and the Parkway where buildings once stood. Tonight I am in Meadows of Dan. My cousin Ann's husband met me at the Parkway and I am spending the night at their house. He will drop me off at the Parkway tomorrow morning. I will continue my walk. He will go deliver the mail. Ann will pick me up in the afternoon and bring me back here for another night. [Continued on next page.]