On Open Roads, Mountains, and Music

I've been wanting to visit Floyd, Virginia ever since I read about it in a road-trip travel guide. Listed as one of the best five road trips in the mid-Atlantic region, it sounded perfect. Five hours away (just enough time to qualify as a true road trip without being overkill), inexpensive, and filled with music and a quirky small town. Sign me up!

So on Friday, we packed our bags, and Cris, Maggie, and I piled into the car to go!

Off we go!

We were on the road by 10:30, and we stopped several hours later at a place with a sign that declared "Best Dang Barbecue in Virginia." Among us we ordered a couple of platters and tried a little of everything. We can only conclude that if that is the best barbecue to be had in Virginia, we feel terribly sorry for the Virginians! :( Not a great meal lol. Oh, well!

We pulled into our hotel around 4:30, got settled, and I hit the pool for a quick swim before we headed off to Floyd, about 30 minutes away.

 

 

The main attraction of this tiny town is the Floyd Country Store, which is where the Friday Nite Jamboree is held (and which was our main reason for coming). We parked down the street, bought tickets for the evening ($5) and wandered around, checking out the merchandise, barrel candy, vintage wares, heirloom seeds, local barbecue sauce, jams, and preserves, etc... So much to see! Maggie perused their recordings and found the most recent release by Dailey and Vincent. I bought some Alabama White Lightning barbecue sauce, and seeds for Amy's garden. Cris and I bought locally-bottled ginger beer (love!).

Once the music started, it was hard to be anything but happy. :) There's just something about live music, in the Appalachian mountains, surrounded by happy people... nothing better!

 

 

But there were only about five tables in the entire place, and they were all taken up, so after a little bit, we snuck out to the cantina down the street and ordered Mexican for dinner. After eating, we wandered around the streets listening to the music groups that were randomly gathered around.

 

 

You could literally walk around until you found a style that was your speed, and enjoy. This group was pretty traditional - Maggie loved it! But across the street I found a group singing acoustic covers of oldies, blues, and rock ballads, so I crossed over and hung out for awhile.

 

 

Enjoying the street music!

  Eventually we wandered back inside the Country Store, where we had the good fortune to score a table! Cris and Maggie bought coffee, and I had a dish of the local strawberry ice cream (which is to die for) as the last group for the night came on stage. We listened to the music and enjoyed watching some Appalachian cloggers dancing, as well! 

Around eleven we realized we were all getting old (lol) since we could barely keep our eyes open, and headed back to our hotel.

I'm already looking forward to going back for a weekend... There were lots of shops to explore (we didn't get a chance to see any of them since we were pretty wrapped up in the music), cool restaurants, and so, so much music. I think I see a return trip soon!