Filling in the Gaps –Natural Tunnel State Park, Stone Gap, VA 6/5

True to our word, we packed up early and headed out toward the Appalachia Mountains. It had rained while we were sleeping last night so the drive through the eastern part of Kentucky and over the mountains was particularly beautiful. Everything is lush and brilliant green. One of the things we have been having fun doing the past three days in Kentucky is looking for, and trying to capture on camera, the quilt patterns on the barns. It’s so charming and quaint to see all the brightly painted quilt squares. We continued to entertain ourselves by periodically stopping, jumping out of the car and snapping the pic. Once we reached the Appalachian Mountains we stopped at the first grocery store to load up on provisions. Mmm – groceries are a little different in this neck of the woods. We usually buy a quart of milk, several yogurts for breakfast, chicken, turkey or perhaps a steak for barbequing and fresh fruit and veggies. That usually lasts us for a couple of days. This store was predominantly stocked with canned and frozen goods, sliced processed cheese, and the meat choices were pork bellies or other fine choices of swine. The veggies were basically iceberg lettuce. There was also a large display of gallon sized frying oil. An older gentleman in front of us in the check-out line had only two cases of moon pies and ABC ginger ale in his cart. I feel so sorry for these folks that the main grocery store in town (and it was a big’un) had such poor choices. We really do take for granted our fresh fruit, veggies and lean meats. Needless to say we walked out with a small bag of items. In preparing for this trip I discovered a Coalfield Miners Folk Festival in Grundy, VA for today. I was so excited that we would be able to experience first hand a real mountain community gathering. When we reached Grundy we couldn’t find anything about it so started asking around. After several attempts from different people, we finally realized the festival was outside of Grundy in a place called Poplar Gap. We began a long, long climb up a ridge, passed small houses, trailers and shanties clinging to the edge of the mountain, with the gap in the mountain no wider than a single lane road. All these towns are called “gaps” for a reason! We traveled through several of these small gaps and hollers. It was so interesting to see how entire communities and generations have eeked out an existence all around mining coal. Ned was particularly fascinated with the geology of the area and pointing out all the exposed seams of coal in the mountain. Of course, the farther we went up and down, the more doubtful it seemed we would ever find the festival. Ned thought for sure this was one of my usual hair-brained ideas. Finally, we spotted a handmade sign tacked to a post, directing us to the place. (What, me worried??). We were warmly greeted by some gentlemen and given a program of the activities at the festival. Ned was delighted to see that at 2:15 there was a talk to be given by a geologist on the history of coal in this region. We attended the talk with about a dozen other people and found it to be informative and entertaining. It turned out that the speaker also just wrote a book about Natural Tunnel State Park where we were camping tonight. How fortuitous! After the talk we enjoyed walking around the grounds, (which were on a flattened hilltop which turned out to be a restored strip mining site), listening to “pickers” (bluegrass musicians), seeing basket making demonstrations, etc. (See today’s pic). I especially enjoyed talking with the guy who had a booth about the Scots-Irish genealogy of the area. The conversation started out something like this: Him: “Are you short?” Me: “What?, Well, I don’t think I’m thaaat short.” Him: “You look short.” Well, his accent was so thick that I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. After awhile I figured out that he thought I was a descendent of the “Short” family in that area. Pretty funny. We also enjoyed the local fare. Ned had a fried green tomato sandwich and I had soup beans, which consisted of a plate of beans, collard greens, hominy and a hoe cake. We had such a great time at the festival. Everyone was very welcoming and absolutely fascinated that we came from the Gold Mining area of California. We finally moseyed on through the Appalachia Mountains to Stone Gap, where we are camped tonight. It’s an amazing park whose main feature is an 850 ft. natural tunnel surrounded by 400 ft. cliffs. An active railroad actually goes through this tunnel. Ned and I decided to hop on our bikes and ride to it. The trail was so steep we had to walk our bikes down to the visitor center. Once at the visitor center there is a chair lift (much like at a ski lift) that takes you to the tunnel. Well, it was well after closing hours so we decided, what the heck let’s just hoof it. We were rewarded with the most amazing site of the tunnel nestled in a hardwood forest, next to a stream, and looking up at these huge cliffs. Unfortunately we forgot the camera! We had a really, long and hard climb back to the top and then an equally hard climb – walking our bikes – back to the campground. I was exhausted when we got back. Tomorrow we swear we’ll go down and capture it on film, the question is will we walk it or take the lift?