Your Camera Ready???

We headed out the door and climbed into the truck. It was a beautiful morning, the fog still lingered in the air. For some reason, my cousin’s house is located in an area which seems to hold fog almost every morning. We drove through Floyd and turned on to the Blue Ridge Parkway soon arriving at Mabry Mill.

Mabry Mill

Mabry Mill is a beautiful little tourist attraction which houses a sawmill, woodworking shop, blacksmith shop and a gristmill and depicts what life in rural Virginia was all about in the early 1900’s. Edwin Mabry first started his enterprises with a blacksmith shop and later expanded his operations to include a sawmill, grist mill and the woodworking shop. By 1935, Edwin Mabry’s operations provided for the needs of the families in the nearby community. Today, Mabry Mill is one of the most photographed locations in the United States and of course, I had to take my share of photos as well. In fact, Mabry Mill is such a beautiful area that at one point Ohio along with Connecticut showed Mabry Mill on postcards enticing visitors to their state.

Pill

As we near the blacksmith shop, Terry tells me, “That’s my cousin.” Apparently, Terry could recognize his cousin’s voice even before entering the shop. We entered to find “Pill” hard at work hammering away on a hot piece of metal. We learned that Pill spends his summers at Mabry Mill hard at work making items which will eventually be sold. As we start to leave, Pill tells Terry to make sure to bring us back before we leave. We wonder around the grounds for a bit and headed back to the blacksmith shop where Pill was finishing up the last of two wrought iron hooks he made for me as a gift. He forged them to look like oak leaves and will really come in handy in our new home… once we finally settle down that is!

I’m glad you asked as I had to ask myself, what kind of name is Pill? As my cousin Terry tells it, apparently Pill’s given name is Eugene but he was such a handful, and that is putting it lightly, Pill’s uncle started calling him a “little pill” and the name stuck. To this day, no one really knows his given name, they just know him as Pill.

All along this trip Brian has been telling me to always keep my camera ready. Every time I turn around he wants me to take a picture of the beautiful countryside or some sign. And believe me, there’s quite a few unique signs out there. I’m sitting in the back seat of the truck, not paying much attention to the conversation going on in the front seat when I hear Brian, “Bear, bear… BEAR!” I look up to find the largest black bear I’ve ever seen sitting on the side of the road. As I’m scrambling to find my camera, rip it out of it’s case, turn it on and roll down the window all at the same time, Brian yells at me, “Take the picture, take the picture!” Now the problem with sitting in the back seat is the manufactures of these cars must think the only people who sit in the back seat are those 5 years of age or under, therefore, the child safety windows which means the flippin’ window wouldn’t roll down all the way! And as I’m struggling to maneuver my way to the top of the window, the seat belt locks into place, holding me down in the seat and not allowing me to move at all. Yep, you guessed it, in between Brian’s yelling, “Take the picture,” the child safety window and the locked seat belt, the bear takes it’s last look around, heads down the hill and back into the woods. Bear… One. Donna… Zero. I’ll never hear the end of this one!

Hugs to all… D and B