Galax, Virginia

First I apologize for all the crazy emails you got from the blog. I tried for three days to change the theme (of which there are thousands). I would like to tweak a few of the settings this theme doesn’t allow me to do. I finally gave up and switched back to the old one, but that left a bigger mess. Thankfully, WordPress support has been great helping me get the site cleaned up. What I really need to do is to set it up on my computer, make changes and then take it live, but I’ve never quite figured out how to do that either. Anyway I’m sorry about all those emails, but they did show examples of what could be done.

Galax and the campground are near the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the mountains, so it is cooler. It has been hot in Charlottesville, very hot, with temperatures in the mid to high 90’s with high humidity. Besides the Fiddler’s Convention, we wanted to bike the New River Trail, a 57-mile rails-to-trails that runs beside Chestnut Creek and then the New River. Tubing or floating the New River sounded like a great idea in the Virginia August heat. There are also some good hikes along the Blue Ridge. A bonus is there is a par-three golf course next to the campground.

Unfortunately hurricane Isaias was making its way up the coast. Galax is in western Virginia, but it was going to get us wet. Virginia gets a large portion of its rainfall from hurricanes, so it’s important, but at times like this, a bit of a headache. With 1.5″ of rain predicted for Monday, we delayed a day.

We chose a site backing up to the golf course. Not long after we set up, Karen and the kids arrived. Josh has had some golf lessons this summer and was anxious to play this little par-3. We all walked over and played for an hour or so. Little Melissa did her best to play with Martha’s clubs, but they were too long for her. She entertained us with handstands on the greens. Both have great athletic abilities. Still, I was surprised to see Josh shooting 3’s and 4’s on most holes.

It was time for Karen to head back home. As we fixed dinner, Josh and Melissa pitched and putted on the nearby green. Asking what they wanted to do tomorrow, Josh said, “Play golf”. I was reminded of my youth at Camp Yonahnoka in Linville, NC when they asked me what activities I wanted to do. Riding horses was all I cared about. Karen challenged the kids to see how their scores changed by the end of the week.