Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Today we started 15 miles north of Abingdon, Virginia and ended in Abingdon. The weather was again sunny and into the 80s F. A fine day for walking.

Most of the day we spent walking through rural areas. We walked near Glade Spring and Emory, Virginia. I write “near” because we were on Route 11 which was on one side of Interstate 81 while these towns were on the opposite side of I-81.

We did take a side trip to Emory to see Emory & Henry College (that is with an ampersand “&” in there and NOT the word “and.” That is official and they are serious about it.) This is the oldest college in Southwestern Virginia, founded 1836, so the entire place is a historic site. Absolutely beautiful. I didn’t take any photos as you really need a video of riding through the campus. This video should go in the dictionary next to the word “college.” It is what I imagine when I think of college.

I did take a photo of the Emory Post Office which is across the street from the college. I also put this photo on the Wikipedia page for Emory, Virginia. By the way, everything “in” Emory is across the street from Emory & Henry College.

Abingdon is a historic town – the whole town is historic. Downtown is about 20 square blocks of history. The town was founded in the 1770s about the same time the country was founded. There are plenty of 1700s buildings, 1800s buildings, and even some 1900s buildings. It is all quite impressive with many shops that are real shops, not junk stores with an “Antiques” sign out front.

If you are in Southwestern Virginia and have a day or a few hours to see one place, visit Abingdon.

The most impressive building in town for me is the St Thomas Episcopal Church. It was “only” built in 1846, but an impressive building nonetheless. The Wikipedia page for Abingdon has several downtown photos, so I didn’t add any.

The oddity of the day was the rural tanning salons. Ten to fifteen miles north of Abingdon are a number of small businesses spread along Route 11. Maybe half a dozen of them have tanning as a sideline. There was an auto body shop that also did tanning, several beauty salons that also did tanning, a second-hand clothing store that also did tanning. I didn’t see any churches that also did tanning. Someone came through this area selling tanning beds or whatever they use and convinced people that it is a good side business. I didn’t think that people in a rural area were concerned about getting enough sun. We are getting plenty of sun while walking, so we didn’t try any of the tanning places.

And we ran into another trail or road – The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. This runs through southwest and southern Virginia and celebrates mountain and bluegrass music. I love it!  Here is yet another trail that would be great fun to walk or ride or traverse somehow.

I have to give a special mention to the Rosedale Baptist Church a few miles north of Abingdon. We sat on one of their picnic tables in the shade to eat our lunch. Three of their Pastors came out (they were having a meeting and breaking for lunch), gave us bottles of water, and chatted a while. They let us use their indoor bathrooms and were genuinely kind to us. Thank you Pastors Paxton, Stringer, and Stapleton.