Cowboy Jim Garling

     ......Or was the saying "Go west, Young Man, go west?"  Well, we've been in every western state in the US but had never been east. When we were invited to provide music for an event in October in Virginia/North Carolina area, we jumped at the chance to go east. It featured old-fashioned buggy rides and Brunswick stew at the farm of Charlie & Sue in North Carolina just over the southern Virginia/North Carolina stateline. Fall foliage colors were at their peak, the weather was perfect.....if you discount the impending approach of Hurricane Sandy, and the Saturday night  event came without a drop of rain, just a very cool fall day.....very doable and delightful.

 
Charlie and Doris            NORTH CAROLINA             Jim at Chuck Wagon

     Our trip east on I-40 involved a short detour from the interstate to follow a trail through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Then further east we stopped in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to visit the Historic Town of Old Salem where costumed tradespeople re-created life of those times. In Virginia,  Joyce of the Danville Historical Society provided a guided walking tour of Danville's Millionaires' Row featuring historic mansions of founding members of Danville and churches, and then a visit to the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History housed in the former home of Major William T. Sutherlin, one of the most prominent citizens/entrepreneurs of that city. Then on our own a visit to the Historic Old Grove Street Cemetery of Danville.

 
Old Salem Restaurant                                 Picking greens for the restaurant

     Also on the agenda for Danville I did a program at the Stratford House, a retirement community where we enjoyed a very responsive and appreciative audience. So, all in all, the trip was an enjoyable whirlwind of Southern hospitality. Can't beat that!