He finds really cool things on his grand explores. Of course, he notices things that I would just probably trip over. Old fences are interesting. The first thing that's notable about them is they are very often smack dab in the middle of the woods. Healso finds many piles of stacked rocks out in the forest. A lot of the land back here was once pasture. When the farming population started to fall off the trees grew up. Much of the fence remained. Some farmers built meticulous fence, fence that has endured now probably two generations. Larry would be that kind of fence builder. Built to last, well thought out, painstakingly constructed. Some fences were built what appears to be more randomly. I call it artistic and creative. Wrapping around trees and up and down hills. The ADD and impulsive way to enclose your land. Maybe the ground was too rocky to put post holes in, so you nailed your fencing to a poplar tree. Maybe you didn't have the budget the meticulous guy had. These fence builders probably had more fun in construction but they sure didn't have the staying power of the meticulous fence. And they probably weren't too effective in corralling your cattle. Guess which fence builder I would be? Ahhh....it makes for an interesting relationship.
He also found a cool old rusty Chevrolet truck with a tree growing up through the middle of it. It comes with the property. No extra charge. The truck probably isn't going anywhere soon. That tree has a 16" diameter and probably stands 50' high. I'm not sure it would run anyway. :) A photo is on our website www.floydvirginialand.com on Tract 3N Remainder, in case you're interested.
But, this story is about balloons. On more than a few occasions he finds balloons. Once he found a National Weather Service balloon high up in a tree. With just the right stick he struck it down and found a prize. It had been launched from the Blacksburg VA office and had electronic gear and a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of said tracking gear and data collector. Pretty cool, as I was saying.
Then just the other day he noticed a huge pile of really colorful balloons over in the Overlook. The cluster held about 20 business cards thanking the balloon recipients for attending Piney Grove Baptist Church's Fish Fry and commissioning them to be fishers of men. Well, we don't have a Piney Grove around these Blue Ridge Mountains. A Sandy Level and a Rocky Bottom and a Flat Top but no Piney Grove. So, of course, we googled it. There was a phone number but no area code. So I put the phone number in google search, along with the Piney Grove Baptist Part. AHA! A match! Seems our balloons had traveled all the way from Cottondale, Florida, a tiny town on the border of Alabama and Georgia. An 11 hour drive. Almost 700 miles away.
I was able to reach Pastor Rich last Sunday morning before the men's prayer breakfast. He said the fish fry was about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and they had an unbelievable turnout of 120 folks! He remembered the balloons getting loose, not intentionally but they escaped from some kid's greasy fish hands. So these colorful beauties must have gotten a fierce updraft (did we have some hurricane in there somewhere?) and cruised 700 miles or so in a little over two weeks. I told Pastor Rich that his outreach was much greater than the deacons could ever have planned for.
So when you are out hiking through these gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains, keep an eye out for history. Sometimes old and rusty, sometimes new and colorful.
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Awesome stories. Bet you made that pastor's and that church's day.
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