Natural Bridge, VA

The Historic Landmark was once owned by Thomas Jefferson. It was deemed the "Bridge of God" by the Monacan Indians who discovered it. The Civil War soldiers walked across it as did many others and is used for travel today.



The Bridge has a rich spiritual history dating back more than 300 years. King George lll deeded the Natural Bridge to George Washington's friend Thomas Jefferson. George Washington was at one time a surveyor and even carved his initials into the side of the stone mountain. The second picture below has a white box around the initials of GW. I zoomed in on the box and could only make out a G. Not sure if this is the real McCoy or not, but makes for a good discussion.


This shot is from the back side of the Bridge.

Once you go through the bridge there is an Indian Village of what the Monacan Indians village might have looked like. They made their homes from old dried cat tails but after research they found out they make them from tree bark.



There was a running brook with small rapids for the next 3/4 mile and at the end of the trail you came upon a water fall.



The view leaving the Bridge was as beautiful as the entrance.

Mountain Lake, Roanoke VA

Mountain Lake "You'll Have The Time of Your Life"



We drove for 45minuets to reach the top of the Mountain. It was well worth it. We had heard the film Dirty Dancing was made up there so we checked it out.

In September 1986 a production of Dirty Dancing was filmed on location on the top of Mountain Lake. After driving through a Thunderstorm for over 20 minuets we came to the Mountain Lake Hotel. The lake where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray did that famous movie is almost dried up. There was a self guided tour of all the movie locations, which is around the front of the hotel. The lake in the back ground was close to the white sign when they did the movie.



A view of the hotel from the road



Inside the lobby is a wall of pictures from the movie.



This is the boat house that the water would have come to the end of the dock for that water scene where he lifted her up in the air.



Media coverage of the movie which is posted in the lobby of the Hotel.



Various dinning room scenes were shot here.



This is the Virginia Cottage where Baby and her family stayed. In the beginning of the movie she walked across the lawn to the Hotel.



A big rock that is in memory of Patrick.



When we left the Hotel and were driving down the mountain we came across a beautiful covered bridge built in 1921. Big sign "no trespassing" but I got as close as I could get.



It was a great day walking around the Hotel and grounds where the movie was filmed.

Home sweet home

A Visit to The Billy Graham Library.

The Library was build on 49 acres of land. The original house that Billy lived in up until he went to college, had been moved board by board and brick by brick to this new site and has been restored. This first family homeplace was built in 1927 on a dairy farm near what is now Park Road Shopping Center. The Grahams were big dairy farmers and supplied most of the milk to the town of Charlotte. The rooms were furnished with many of the Grahams furniture and family pictures were in each room.



The barn has a large glass cross as the entry. Rev Graham wanted each person who walked into the barn to come from the foot of the Cross. Inside the barn were 14 room or Galleries. His Journey of Faith, The world discovers Billy Graham, Billy Graham and the Media, The Presidents room, Ruth Graham's room.



The Library construction was started in 2006 and finished on June 4, 2007. Ruth Graham never saw the finished buildings as she died June 19,2007. She is buried in the Memorial Prayer Garden. The garden lies at the edge of the woods. If you click on the picture you will see today would have been her birthday. The flowers in the front were from Billy with a card "Happy Birthday and I miss you" Billy. There is a spot next to her for the Rev Billy Graham to rest.



While driving one day she saw a sign Under construction, thank you for your patience. She told Rev Graham she wanted that on her stone when she died. That is on her stone.

It was such a great place and a must for those who get to Charlotte even if you are not a church person.

The House I Spent many years in as a little girl.

My grandparents lived across the street from each other 60 years ago so we went on a hunt to see if we could find their homes,but both homes were replaced with a nice college. What did I expect...

The one home I spent every summer for 10 years as a small child, was with my favorite Aunt and Uncle. They had a lot to do with my spiritual growth at my early age. I 'm sure each one of us has a favorite family member they remember more than others. This was the one who meant the most to me. She taught me how to sew, cook, pick vegetable's out of the big garden that they kept on an acre of land next door. We traveled all over when I visited them. She made all my clothes even up to the age of 11 yrs old ,but by then I wanted a different style than she did. I had her address so off we went. The road had been widened so I had a feeling her house was gone. The house was there just as I remember it. It was taken over by a Family Service Center. John was going to go in and see if I could take a tour of the inside. A note on the door told us they had moved the office 2 offices over. A wonderful lady John talked to found a key and let us in and we wondered though the empty house. The house was smaller than I remember but then I was smaller back then. These stairs I slid down more times than I could remember. This tree was in the back yard and they put a tire swing on then later a wooden swing for me. The house was built in 1930 when my Uncle had it built. It was in great shape for being 81 yrs old. I was very happy.



Well, we leave Charlotte tomorrow and head onto Roanoke Va. They have had severe thunderstorms all around us with golf ball hail today but did not hit our place. Thank you Lord!!

My Home Town Charlotte NC

We arrived in the town I was born in 60 some years ago. I have not been back to my home town since I was a teenager. My one purpose here was to go to the main library and check where my grandparents were buried and visit the grave sites. We arrived at this camp ground and after checking in we unhooked the car and proceeded to the electric gate. John was in the car and I was behind him in the RV. The gate opened and he went in and I followed but half way through, the gate closed on the RV and ripped off the hand rail, ripped the arm out from the awning, moved the lock cockeyed and scratched the side of the RV. We had to call our insurance agent (due to a severe storm the day before that ripped up a lot of campers and had trees on top of three RVs)they could not get out to see us, so they sent a mobile repair man. We waited all day. In the mean time John took out all the screens cleaned them and the windows. We didn't waste the day. The RV repair person came at 7PM. He screwed the arm back on so we could travel, and attached the hand rail back on. He fixed the entry lock so we could close the door and lock it. We have to have new awning arms, a new door, and some painting done when we get to a place that can do the repairs. The pictures of our damaged RV is below.

Hand rail missing.

door lock inside and out cockeyed.

awning arm ripped out door bent and scratched

awning arm swinging loose.

WHAT A HOME COMING....

What a stress full day yesterday, we got a good start and went to the Main Library where the people in the Genealogy department were fabulous. They researched and printed out a lot of information I needed. We then proceeded to 3 different Cemeteries in a radius of 100 miles and I visited both sets of Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles . The picture below is my grandfather 's grave. He was hit by a bus when he was 90 and killed .My grandmother died at age 45 during a break out of influenza.



On our trip home we ran into a rain storm with high winds, I thought it was going to blow the car over, then golf ball hail for over 4 mins. I don't think my home town appreciates my visit. Oh well tomorrow is another day..

Johns' Island - South Carolina

June 5th-Sunday after church we drove to Johns' Island in South Carolina to see the most visited tree in Charleston. Reportedly the oldest living Oak Tree. They estimate this tree to be over 1,000 yrs old. The lumber from the live oak forests were used for shipbuilding in the 1800 and 1900 centuries.



Towering over 65 feet high. Recorded history traces the ownership of the living oak and surrounding land back to the year 1717.

A branch like the one John is leaning on sometimes weighs as much as 500 lbs. The size of tree trunks themselves are so large and heavy that some of them rest on the ground and some even drop underground for a few feet and then come back up which is common in the old live oaks.



You could never get all the tree in one shot



The diameter of spread reaching 160 feet and a circumference of nearly 25 feet and covers 17,1000 square feet of ground.

This being the last of things we wanted to see before leaving on Tuesday morning heading to Charlottee NC.