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We arrived at Grayson Highlands on April 30. There were no leaves on the trees. We had hail a couple of days later. The gang is watching the hail on the picnic table outside.
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This is our campsite. Our job is to meet and greet the campers, sell firewood and ice and to clean out fire pits when they leave.
Our planned schedule was to be here 2 months (May & June), to hike for July and August, and then to host at Natural Tunnel State Park in September and October.
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In May the "Flame Azaleas" bloomed behind our site and all over the park.
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We also had a lot of visitors.
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This is Kevin trying to look official. He's the "Chief Ranger" and our boss.
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The rangers cut, split, and bundle the wood. They also bag the ice. This is Donna or 'Tootie' making an ice delivery.
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The Country Store is usually manned by Juanita.
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Sue is in the Visitor Center. We sometimes fill in on the weekends.
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In our spare time we repainted blazes on the trails in the park.
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There are several festivals in the area. It seems like there is one every week. The Ramp Festival is one of 2 that is held by the White Top Fire Dept. A ramp is a type of onion. All festivals have 3 things in common. The first is a craft fair.
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The second is a chicken dinner. For $6 you get a half chicken, green beans, fried potatoes with ramps, a roll, and a drink. They cook the chickens over an open fire. You can see the long line in the background waiting to get their meal.
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The third common item is music. There are bands all day long playing old time mountain music, bluegrass, or gospel.
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Every year in June the Wayne Henderson Guitar Festival is held in the picnic area in the park. There is a guitar picking contest and the prize is a handmade guitar made by Wayne. About 2,500 people attended.
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We worked in the Grayson Highlands booth. That's Gail another volunteer in the center and Harvey, the park manager, on the right.
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John and Jane Canfield were here to visit for a week. We ate chicken and listened to the music all afternoon.
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This is the winner receiving his new guitar from Wayne.
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There were a lot of musicians in the campground that week. The night before the festival some of them performed in the
amphitheater at the campground.
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John and Jane stayed at the Buchanan Inn.
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It's located next door to the Green Cove Station on the Virginia Creeper Trail.
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While we were biking the Virginia Creeper Trail we did some geo-caching. That's where someone has hidden a box of goodies and has posted it's location on the internet. You then use a GPS unit to find the treasure. You make a note of the date you were there and then leave an item and take one from the box. Jane left a koi pin and we took a coupon for a free pint of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. We re-visited the
cache a couple of weeks later and the pin had been taken by someone a few days after we had left it.
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We did some hiking along Wilson Creek
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and on Wilburn Ridge where the wild ponies are. Judy denies it but it sure looks like she's punching that pony.
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In July there was a group of 12 YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) girls here working for 3 weeks.
Ken and Phyllis Weber were here camping at the same time. We all volunteered to supervise a couple of landscaping projects that the girls could do. This is the front of the Visitor Center.
Phyllis picked out some native flowers and shrubs. We then went out and dug them up from around the park and along the roads.
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This is the finished product.
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We also added some sidewalks and landscaped around the Country Store.
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This is how it looked when we were done.
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On the 4th of July it seemed like every town had a festival and parade. We went to Independence, Virginia for their celebration. There was food and crafts and bands all over town and of course a parade.
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This was the end.
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We biked the Creeper again with Ken and Phyllis.
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We all had ice cream at the end. Notice the giant banana split that Weber is eating.
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We fixed dinner for the girls one evening.
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It turned out to also be a surprise birthday party for me.
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We have decided to stay for the month of August and do some more projects. More to come later.
