Six days into retirement has found me on my last day in Tazewell, VA visiting Ray's mom. This will be the last visit here before we move to Panama. Ray has made two trips recently to drop off clothing we purged from our closets, clothing Carly and her roommates purged from their closets, and an antique sewing machine that was his grandmother's. They were pretty much twenty-four hour trips. Other trips we have made here (last year when this same grandmother passed away) have been over weekends or so, since we were both working, and Carly was in school. For this visit, we wanted to spend another day or so here. And this past weekend Ray's aunt passed away--his mom's sister--so we had a funeral to attend as well. I think I wrote in a previous post about Tazewell, but I will reiterate here a little bit about this county. Tazewell County has a population of 50,000 people along with a lot of cows and some horses. It's coal mining country and includes rock quarries. And let's not forget there are many unemployed young people with one disability or another to keep them from working.
Since we are here with more time on our hands than usual, Ray took me on a road trip forty-five minutes away to Hungry Mother State Park. Why he has never taken me with Carly to this lovely park, I haven't a clue. Oh yeah, because our trips have been shorter in the past. Ray has been here as a child swimming in the lake. This park is Number One of two attractions in Marion County (the next county over) according to TripAdvisor. There is a 108-acre lake with kayaks, paddle boards, paddle boats, swimming, hiking, cabins and boating. It also has the park system's first conference center. Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed settlements south of this park, Molly Marley and her child survived the attack. They escaped the raiders' base, wandered around eating berries, and then Molly collapsed. The child wandered down a creek, and when he found help all he could say was "Hungry Mother". Molly died, and this is why Molly's Knob is one of the more difficult hiking trails in the park (3,270 feet). The stream is now called Hungry Mother Creek. There you have it...History Lesson for the week.
The road to the park is a two lane road up and over three mountains called "Back of the Dragon". This was named in 2011 (or 12, but does it matter?), because of the curves. There are 230 of these fantastic curves, and the road is a motorcyclists dream. The Back of the Dragon runs 32 miles between Marion and Tazewell County. It has reverse curves, switchbacks (a road that has many sharp turns for climbing a steep hill), and steep grade
s. Geography Lesson for the week.
It started to drizzle and rain some while in the mountains (I thought of Panama--nice weather and warmer temps off the PanAm Highway near the beaches with the mountains being cooler and mistier at times). But I loved it. What a great road trip! And then I saw the chicken fighting farms and that made me sad. Ray and I thought the little chickens were tied to the pretty blue and yellow barrels so they couldn't go far, and they could get ample food. My mother-in-law informed me that they were tied up to ready them for chicken fighting. I was not happy. Life Lesson for the week.
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| Found the beach! |
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| The lake at Hungry Mother State Park |
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| Kayaking in the rain |
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| The bridge that took us to an island |
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| Ray stands in front of "The Restaurant" and Molly's gift shop |
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| Looking down the mountain at Tazewell |
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| Chicken farm |
Once we toured Marion County, its Main Street, enjoyed some BBQ pulled chicken for lunch and stopped at McDonald's to get Sweet Tea for his mom (and Ray), we made our way back to Tazewell. Because there was going to be a funeral today (more about this in a minute), there are visitors coming and going in Ray's moms house. Two of Ray's cousins come to the house around three pm or so and stay until we go to bed. They have been cleaning there mom's trailer up, and there is A LOT to clean. The funeral is not taking place, because there are no funds for a viewing, service, etc. So she is being cremated and a service might take place later in the summer. There weren't any provisions made before the aunt died which I believe happens quite a bit. Another life lesson--have things in order.
Today, Ray and I decided to head to Claypool Hills Mall. I wanted to look in Belk department store for bathing suit bottoms. I have boring black bottoms, but with some new tankini tops I had just bought, I was hoping to find colored one's. And we have a Belk at home, so it would be easy enough to make returns if necessary. No such luck for the bathing suit bottoms, but we did buy my mother-in-law a larger patio umbrella for her porch which we found in the Kmart there. I must say I was a bit depressed walking this mall. Depressed walking a mall!? It used to be booming! I had been here once before at night time, and there were at least people walking the mall. School is out. Where are the kids? Not there. The "mall" houses a Belk and Big Kmart as anchor stores, a nail salon, a jewelry store, an Italian restaurant, an ammunition/hunting/gun store, and a movie theater (movies are current though!). All other stores are gated and empty.
But wait! Ray wanted to drive a different route to the mall. He asked his mom for directions. These were the directions she gave him (sounded like we were in Panama) to the mall:
Go to Busthead, a big white empty building, next to a wood chip pile (no street names even though there are streets here), and locate these buildings
AND when we wanted to find his Uncle's house:
Go to the end of the road Busthead is on, on the right (really on the left--oops) with a van in front.
I did just find out that until about ten years ago, there weren't many streets with names here. They had to start naming streets for 911 purposes.
Since we drove too far and didn't get to the mall right away with the above directions, (Busthead was not really visible from the road--there is a trailer is in front of it), Ray gave me a tour of Amanote Road. This is one road that coal miners lived, including his grandfather. Most of the houses still look lived in, and one house has a car on its porch. Not in the yard, or the driveway, but on the porch. And we drove through Cedar Bluff. Fifteen years ago, this town had one thousand people in it and is two square miles. And then we found the mall. Driving around, Ray knew we could take "the four lane" (meaning highway, but not really a highway), and I have been to "The Jumps" (a big steep hill that you fly over in your car when driving) and down the "Holler" (down in the Valley). When I get back to the grocery store at home in Bumpass, I have to make sure I get a big enough "buggy' (shopping cart), and if I forget to bring my bags with me, I will have the groceries packed in "pokes" (brown paper bags). Language lesson of the week.
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| The mall with Ray's head (all closed up) |
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| One anchor store, Big Kmart |
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| In the window of the ammunition store |
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| In the other window |
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| More mall |
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| Gringos, Mexican restaurant, no more |
After all of this schooling this week, I need summer break. And some fuel! It's off to KFC for some dinner for the family, and we will then eat No Bake Cookies mom made for us!
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| Wonderfully delicious! |
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