Rainy Days and Mondays

It was a good weekend, despite the rain. On Friday Susan and I drove up to Roanoke Va. We had a few things on the list for Saturday. However, the weather was not very cooperative. It rained Friday night, all day Saturday, and all night.

We did quite a bit of walking and looking into small shops downtown. We went to see the “O. Winston Link” exhibit at what used to be the major train station. “OWL” was an innovative photographer and was commissioned by the Norfolk and Western railroad to photograph it’s trains and lines at the end of the steam era. Over the course of 5 years he took a ton of photographs. They are tastefully displayed in the “museum”. There were a few that really stood out, but one that struck me as really cool was a picture of people in their cars at a drive-in theater, an airplane on the movie screen, and a train screaming past on the tracks right next to the theater. The picture can be seen at this link:
o-winston-link-hot-shot-eastbound

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We visited “The Hotel”. A gorgeous hotel that you just have to see to believe. We sat on rocking chairs out front and watched the rain.

We later had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called “Red Clay”. This restaurant was 2 or 3 doors down from the theater where we took in a play called “Elvis Blossom.” The story was about a woman, who apparently had some mental illness, and her fascination with Elvis. She believed that her child (conceived 10 years after Elvis’ death, by one of many unknown Elvis impersonators) was the child of Elvis. The story was told in flash backs and forwards. It was enjoyable, but I really thought there was going to be more humor. In the end it left one hanging as to how she was going to survive, after her child won an International Elvis contest and decided that he wanted to be his own person, not what his mother expected him to be. Also, her husband Jerry, decided to cast off his lifestyle of Elvis impersonator, to be his own person, yet vowed to take care of her (he only continued in the Elvis persona because it was her wish to be surrounded by all things Elvis).

After that we drove back to Winston.
By the way, lodging was scarce in Roanoke because Virginia Tech was hosting University of Miami. That may not have been a very fun game for the spectators because of the rain.

On Sunday, having no local plans, we decided to go to Linville Caverns. That is about a 2.5 hour drive, yet still shy of going to Asheville. It was a beautiful day and the cavern was fun. At one point we were asked to stand still and they turned off the lighting. TOTAL darkness! You could not see your hand in front of your face…really amazing. When I was much younger, my family went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky…now I would LOVE to go back there.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. It is now Monday and I am already looking forward to the NEXT weekend.