The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 289: Floyd, VA/Post E

True love strikes again (Always worth it, and that's my best Father's Day advice). We drove a hundred miles South to Abingdon just to ride the Creeper Trail, an extremely popular multi-use rail trail in South Eastern Virginia. The original plan had been to take the Fric and Frac show down that a way on the way home from Floyd, but my Bunny has become intrigued by the Shape Note Singing they're doing here at The Floyd Country Store tomorrow afternoon, so we changed plans because we can, and because why not make the Bunny happy? It works both ways:) Fric, the work horse, handled the extra duty flawlessly by the way. Tim, the driver, avoided all contact with other dogs, big and little, so life is good. The trail itself is quite worthy of any distance it takes to travel there. The trail, born, as usual, as a money grabbing venture, which means some rich white guys were trying to get richer by extracting minerals and logs from the area, is exquisite. They succeeded for quite a while, almost a hundred years. However, in the 1970s, the trail suffered from neglect (And lack of profit), so when the floods came and tore out the rails and trestles, the line was abandoned. It was reclaimed by the towns of Abingdon and Damascus as far as right of ways go, and much of the land was returned to the farmers in the area. Today, the thirty-five miles of trail, mostly crushed gravel, some mud, a few rocks, and at least 20 trestles flows like a blue grass riff up and down the Holsten River from Abingdon to White Top. A multi-use trail, we saw families walking, bikers biking, some serious, most not, and a couple of ladies riding horses. In keeping with the tone of this area, almost everyone greeted us with a "Hey". Judy and I rode to Damascus and back, which covers half the trail length of 35 miles. We covered a total of 32 total riding miles. It was a glorious day, another rose petal on the cake of our twenty-seventh honeymoon (Thanks, Kate and Scott). Tomorrow, Sunday, will be our last day in Floyd. We've chosen to attend the Church of the Brethren in Beaver Creek. In our travels we've found it interesting to attend an assortment of denominations. We've covered the whole gamut from Catholics, to Lutherans, to Mormans, to Mega-Churches, to Baptists, to Presbyterians, to non-descript Bible driven Christian churches. I'm especially interested in the Brethren because they are one of the three recognized non-violent groups in Christianity. Along with the Quakers and the Mennonites, they've been in the forefront of resisting violence, actively placing their beliefs in the face of war by refusing to serve as a matter of conscience. Another aspect of their belief system is to "walk the walk". For them it's not enough for them to live well in the sight of the Lord. They must also live lives of service, hoping to emulate in the best sense, the walk of Jesus. I'm also secretly hoping that the music will be influenced by the area. We'll see. Maybe we'll hear some old time gospel songs. This evening, we're enjoying a last night atop this knoll we're calling home at Chantilly Farms. As Robert Frost suggests in A Road Not Taken, knowing how way leads on to way, we may not pass this way again. But I can assure you, for the past five days, life has been especially good.