Hiking with my trusted camera, my iPhone. I hardly ever use it to make phone calls. It takes reasonably good snapshots. Although I miss my professional Nikon, I don’t miss the bulk and weight.

Today, we drove another loop like yesterday, only south. We took Highway 11 down to Roanoke and returned on the Blue Ridge parkway. The first town we encountered was Buchanan, home of the swinging bridge. Tiny Buchanan has two things going for it: The mighty James River and the swinging footbridge that spans the river. The James River is a picturesque waterway that looks like a great canoe/kayaking river. An outfitter located on the bank of the James rents canoes and kayaks, which confirms my judgement.

The swinging foot bridge does swing. It is an old rusty suspension bridge with a wooden plank walkway that doesn’t exude confidence, which is the source of its charm. From the bridge I could see a nice run of class 2 rapids down river.

The rest of Buchanan was nondescript. The downtown theater looked to be in poor shape, however, it was still in operation. We have noticed that many of these small towns south of Staunton have a disproportional number of junk shops. They call themselves antique shops, but it is mostly junk. I guess the old adage, “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” might hold some merit here.

Staunton seemed to be the dividing line in these Virginian mountains. North of Staunton, the cities and towns are quaint, well maintained, and prosperous. South of Staunton, the towns just seem to be struggling economically. They are more of what I would call “aging-industrial”.

Staunton, as I mentioned yesterday, had some fraying around the edges. The towns we visited today, Buchanan, Troutville, and Roanoke were more frayed. Even the little community near our campground is a case in point. The nicer homes were tiny. The trailer parks were squalid. The yards were full of junk. The trailers were dilapidated yet somehow they were inhabited. Of course, the most decrepit trailer house flew the Stars and Bars.

I fully realize that I am basing all this judgement on a very limited sampling derived from a quick drive through. Take it with a large grain of salt.

Buchanan has a large city park on the banks of the James River.

The James River as it flows from the Appalachian Mountains. It eventually widens into a major river as it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. 

The precarious swing bridge.

Bridging the James River has been a passion at Buchanan. A history plaque described the many versions of bridges built in Buchanan.  

This is one of the few antique shops in Buchanan that has real antiques. Across the street are antiques shops with stuff that I would call junk. However, as the adage goes, "one man's junk is another man's treasure."

Farther north, closer to Charlottesville, I believe that an old building on the National Historical Registry, like this example, would have been nicely restored. For some reason this building, currently being used by a Real Estate business, is falling into disrepair.

Troutville, our next little town, was named after the three original guys named Trout that first settled the spot. Google promised Troutville to be a QT. Google is usually right about these matters, but it was dead wrong about Troutville. It was not picturesque. We quickly moved on.

About six miles north of Roanoke is the Carvin Cove Natural Reserve. This is a huge chunk of hilly woods surrounding a good sized reservoir. The county, or so I believe, operates the reserve. There are miles of hiking trails and mountain bike trails. A top-notch boat ramp is provided. They charge a daily user fee, something like $7 a day. They allowed us to drive in and check it out for free. I liked the whole concept, although I thought the fee was a bit hefty.

Here is a map of Carvins Cove Nature Reserve. It depicts the reservoir and the large tract of land surrounding it. Over 100 miles of trails access the reserve.

The reserve provides a modern fishing pier.

The trailhead for a trail that circles the reservoir. 

We read that Roanoke was a great place to retire, so we were expecting it to match Charlottesville in appeal. Not so much. The outskirts had that aging-industrial look. On the north edge of the downtown is a giant Chicago-sized rail yard. There is a walkway over the rail yard that was actually kind of cool.

Railroading has always been an important part of Roanoke dating back to the 1850s when Roanoke was originally named Big Lick due to a nearby salt deposit. A local railroad buff, David Goode, pushed to have a trail built to follow the tracks in Roanoke. It came to fruition and is called the David R. And Susan S. Goode Railwalk. It includes the walkway over the rail yard. It might not have been picturesque, but being a railroad buff myself, I admit that I stopped in the middle of the overhead walkway and watched the trains rumble through town.

I wanted to check out the Museum of Transportation, which boasted a large collection of rail cars. It was closed on Mondays. I looked in the windows and saw many nicely restored old automobiles, much like those at Luray Caverns. The train cars, from what I could see, looked pretty beat up as is the case with many collections that I have seen. It takes a lot of money to restore train cars, so many don’t get the same treatment as antique automobiles do.

OK, how about the Science Museum? It was closed on Mondays. There is a theme here. So it came down to walking downtown. We were first greeted by a terrific Market building. There are lots of market buildings like this in Europe, however, when we went inside, it was only a food court for a handful of small restaurants, much like in a typical shopping mall. With such a great facility, I’d love to talk to the city government about repurposing the building.

Overall, the downtown was decent with a few things that caught my eye. We zigzagged around the streets and drove on.

The railroad yard that splits the city in two. I took these photos from the railwalk bridge.

I believe that this strange looking building down by the rail yard is the Taubman Museum of art. Closed on Mondays. We just couldn't catch a break.

Looking down on Saturn from the railwalk bridge.

At first, this City Market building really impressed us, however, looks are deceiving. In reality it was just a glorified food-court. There were small restaurant shops, just a smidgeon up from fast-fast joints, around the peripheral of the building. Most of these food stalls were empty.

What should have been a vibrant farmers market was just a mall-like seating area for the few restaurants stalls.

A winery with a sense of humor.

Wanda was surprised with the updated ‘60s hippy-chick garb. We saw several women wearing the style. It seemed like a regional Appalachian thing.

The fancy hotel overlooking the rail yard.

To complete our loop, we caught the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed north towards our campground. Along the way, we stopped off for another difficult hike on an Appalachian Mountain trail to a waterfalls. The Fallingwater Cascades Trail promised 2000’ of sheer downhill, then back up hiking. I would say that description was accurate.

Ah, it is good to be back on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Fallingwater Cascade Trail promised to be only 2000’, but much of it was nearly straight down. I thought we’d need some repelling gear.

Don’t let this flat level spot fool you. It was just the stretch at the top of the mountain.

The cascades started about 2/3rds of the way down and continued to the bottom. The creek was barely a dribble. In the Spring I am sure it puts on an impressive show.

One level of the cascades.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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