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Natural Bridge and Lexington circa 1957

As seen on my main blog…  Sorry for the rerun, but this blog is read by different people than the main blog is.

A very interesting film made in 1957 about my family’s American home… Special thanks to my friend, Joann, for posting this fascinating video about Natural Bridge and Lexington, Virginia.  

 

I have mentioned before that I come from Virginia. My family has been in Virginia since the early 1700s.  The earliest relative I’ve found in Virginia was a man named Johann Tolley, who came to Virginia from Hamburg, Germany.

Johann Tolley evidently fathered the people in my family who eventually settled in Rockbridge County.  Rockbridge County is kind of in the west central part of the state, in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains.  Although I have been visiting Natural Bridge and its environs my whole life, I did not grow up there myself.  I was born and mostly raised not far from Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia, clear across the state.

Because my dad was an Air Force officer, the family he made with my mother was nomadic.  My parents spent the first 24 years of their marriage moving to different towns, mostly in the southern United States, but occasionally in other countries.  I was born during their fourteenth year of marriage, so I missed a lot of the moves and didn’t have any sense until the bitter end of my dad’s military career.

The one place that has always been a constant in my life has been Natural Bridge.  I’m pretty sure my family has lived in the same creekside house since at least the 1940s.  I’m not sure what’s going to happen when my aunt and uncle pass on.  I hope someone in the family will keep the house.  It’s a special place that is mostly full of wonderful memories.

Granny’s house… where my dad grew up.  There is a creek that runs in front of the house and another one that runs perpendicular to it on the left.

Down by the creek…

After a rare November snow in 2014… when I last visited.

Another shot up the hill.  I pray this house never leaves our family.  The street it’s on was named after my grandfather.

My family as of 2014.  Sadly, a couple of the people in the photo are no longer with us.  I think we’re missing about twenty people, too.  The Mormons have nothing on us.

 

The family church, High Bridge Presbyterian.  This is where we held my dad’s memorial service.

 

Many of my relatives are buried here, including my dad, who was moved about two years after he was initially buried at Granny’s house.

 

Goshen Pass, which is very close to Lexington and where Bill and I honeymooned…  It’s also kind of where we fell in love, the weekend before 9/11.  That’s another story, though.

My friend, Joann, who originally posted the above video, lives in Lexington, Virginia.  Lexington is about ten miles from Natural Bridge.  It has sort of a special place in my heart because not only is a super cute town, it’s also where many of my family members went to college or worked. It’s also where Bill and I got married in 2002.  Before the area was taken over by transplants from up north and out west, it was mostly settled by Scots-Irish Presbyterians.  According to 23 and Me, that is surely enough the lion’s share of my genetic makeup.  I was raised Presbyterian, too.

The video is interesting viewing for me, since my parents who are/were both from that area got married the year it was made.  Mom was 19 and Dad was 24.  They had lived in Rockbridge County their whole lives.  My dad finished his degree at Virginia Military Institute in 1956 and immediately became an Air Force officer.  The following year, he married my mom and they left the area for good, only to come back for visits.  My dad is now buried in the graveyard at the family church.  Originally,  he was buried on a hillside at the house where he grew up with his eight brothers and sisters, but my mom had him moved.  I guess she realized that house might not always be in family hands.

Another reason why that video is interesting is because it basically reflects the ethos of the 1950s.  The story is told from the Natural Bridge’s viewpoint.  It explains how the area used to be populated by “red men”, also known as Native Americans.  The Bridge explains that it tried to explain to the natives that it was created by God.  Alas, they worshiped the Bridge as a Pagan God, even though the Bridge tried to explain that it was the Christian God who created it.  The Bridge sounds almost grateful as it explains that white Christian settlers eventually moved into the area in 1737.  The white Christians “got it right’.  (I’m being facetious, here.)

Based on the video, a lot of great people came from Rockbridge County.  Even Sam Houston, who eventually went on to be the namesake of Houston, Texas, was born in Rockbridge County.  I never knew that.  It’s actually pretty interesting, given the impact Sam Houston had in Texas.  In fact, reading about Sam Houston is uniquely fascinating, given his family history in Scotland and Ireland.  I was just in Northern Ireland a few months ago and we stopped in Larne.  There is a plaque there commemorating the history of the Houston family before they moved to Virginia.

Sam Houston also moved on the Maryville, Tennesee when he was fourteen years old.  I have not been to Maryville, but I do have a couple of friends who attended Maryville College and one who moved back to the town after she retired from teaching at my alma mater, Longwood University.  I also lived in Texas for a year… and Bill spent several years there and graduated high school in Houston.  I’m amazed at how all of these places are interconnected with Rockbridge County, which even today is still pretty rural.  Although a lot of new people have moved there, there is still a core of people descended from the original settlers.

I’m not sure why, but somehow when I was growing up, I never realized or appreciated the deep connection my family has to Virginia, especially Rockbridge County.  I think it’s because I was a military brat, even though I spent most of my growing up years in Gloucester County.  Gloucester is another one of those places where people settled and stayed, much like Rockbridge County is.

There were several last names there that would always come up at roll call in school.  A lot of them were the children of people from England who had stayed after the Revolutionary War, which was won in nearby Yorktown.  In the early 80s, Gloucester was still so rural that people who moved there were “come heres” and never really got the sense of community that the locals had.  My parents owned at house in Gloucester for about 30 years, but it still doesn’t seem like home, even though it’s probably the one place in the world where I feel sure I could get help immediately if I ever needed it.  I still have a lot of friends who live there.

I didn’t appreciate Virginia when I was younger.  I used to fantasize about moving somewhere else, where the people and the scenery were different.  Now, as much as I like Germany, I’m starting to think about going “home” to Virginia.  Maybe I would only go there to visit, though… I’m not sure if I want to die in my home state or even if circumstances will allow it.

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There’s something fishy near Pforzheim…

Thanks to our local Facebook group, last week I became aware of a great place to get fresh fish.  Fischzucht Zordel is a delightful trout farm in Neuenbürg/Eyachtal, a scenic little hamlet not too far from Pforzheim.  Someone posted about this place on Facebook and, being a lover of fresh fish, I knew I had to try it.  My husband, Bill, is going away on business next week and has to leave tomorrow morning, so I told him I wanted to go there today.

We hopped in the Mini and drove north on a beautiful stretch of highway on the edge of the Black Forest.  It took about an hour as we made our way through cute little towns, over hills, and along a swiftly rushing river.  I was reminded of the drive to Colmar, France we took last fall.  We actually missed the turnoff for Fischzucht Zordel because we were enjoying the scenery and my collection of cheesy 80s rock so much.  But we managed to turn around and correct ourselves.  We drove along a lane with the hills in the background and a picturesque river rushing on the left before we came to a generous parking lot.

A welcoming sign… open every day from 8:00am until 8:00pm.

 

Bill and I noticed a number of couples walking around as we easily found our way to the fish grill.  Here, you can order trout soup, potato salad, a grilled trout stuffed with onions, and bread.  Beer, wine, soft drinks, and water are also available.  The menu is very simple and inexpensive.

A side look at the case where the trout is available for sale to take home.  They have fresh trout and smoked, as well as roe, filets, and condiments.  

Bill anticipates a good lunch.

If I weren’t going to be alone all week, we would have bought some fish to go.

 

We decided to order one trout, a cup of the trout soup, a side of potato salad, and two beers.  I’m really glad we shared everything.  That was plenty of food and cost just over 18 euros.

 

I loved the piping hot soup.  It’s a bit salty and made with smoked trout, peppers, and a hearty broth.  

The rest…

We had a bit of a wind today, which made holding on to all the plasticware tricky.

That fish was very fresh and delicious.  The potato salad was also very good.  This was a simple but very satisfying lunch!

The view from where we were sitting…  Can’t you just hear the water rushing?  An indoor seating area is also available for when the weather is bad.

As we were enjoying lunch, an older gentleman came by with what looked like a big empty bucket on wheels.  A few minutes later, he passed us again, this time with a bucket full of fish destined to be processed.  I ended up making a very inappropriate joke that I probably shouldn’t repeat here…  I actually felt a little sorry for the fish, even though they are definitely delicious.

Obligatory shot of Bill looking disinterested.

Once we were finished eating, we walked around the grounds and I took lots of pictures. As you can see, the surrounding area is beautiful. 

Fish in the ponds waiting to be harvested.

This picture reminds me so much of Goshen, Virginia… It was like being home.

A friendly looking horse was enjoying a snack of carrots and bread.

This house is beautiful, right down to the trout carvings on the balconies.  I envy the people who live here and run this business, though I’m not sure I’d really want to deal with fish processing.

As the weather gets better, these tables will fill up…

 

For fifty cents, you can feed the fish.  A few kids were enjoying feeding the fish in the first pond, so I went to the one being ignored a ways down.  It was a lot of fun feeding the fish because they are eager to eat and will jump to get the food.  A word of warning, though.  The fish food smells a bit like a mixture of dead fish and ass.  You will definitely want to wash your hands after you feed the fish.  Fortunately, there is a generous three stall restroom available perfectly suitable for washing up.

I’m not sure what kind of fish these were… they were huge.

Poor fishies… so close to freedom.

A couple of resident mallards…

I was dying to pet this horse.  Another one was in a nearby paddock.

These fish were jumping for the ass smelling fish food.  I had fun delivering, until I noticed what my hands smelled like afterwards.  I would advise using one of the plastic cups offered to catch the food as it comes out of the machine.

We really had a great time at Fischzucht Zordel today.  I bet we’ll be back, especially as the weather improves.  It’s a lovely place to have a simple lunch and enjoy nature.  I highly recommend it!  Kids seem to love it, too.

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Our big trip to Virginia, part one– Hummingbird Inn review

I have already written about our air travel from Germany to Washington, DC and our one night stay at Embassy Suites near Dulles Airport.  Now for the rest of the story…

Bill and I opted to stay at the Hummingbird Inn in Goshen, Virginia.  This bed and breakfast is located near Goshen Pass, which has a very special place in our hearts.  I think it’s kind of where we fell in love.

The Hummingbird Inn right after a rare November snow…

Backstory… skip this if all you want to read about is our experience this year… 

My first memory of Goshen Pass was from childhood, when my family had a big birthday party there in June of 1978.  For years, I thought the party was for my benefit, but actually it was for a few family members.  My beloved Uncle Brownlee’s birthday is the day after mine, and there are also many other June birthdays to celebrate among cousins.  Anyway, that year, I turned six and we had just come back to Virginia from Mildenhall Air Force Base in England.  It was the first exposure to my enormous family that I can remember, though I’m sure there were other gatherings before our three years in England.

Goshen Pass

Many years later, Bill and I had one of our first dates at Goshen Pass.  The year was 2001 and the month was September.  Bill had just moved from Leavenworth, Kansas to Alexandria, Virginia.  He was working at the Pentagon.  I was in graduate school at the University of South Carolina.  We came up to see my Granny, then 95 years old, for Labor Day weekend.  It was Bill’s first exposure to my family and, fortunately, he fit right in.  Uncle Brownlee was cooking eggs in his underwear and asked Bill if he wanted one.  He added in his hilarious southern twang, “I mean it.  I’ll knock a hole in one for ya!”

We didn’t swim this time, but it sure is pretty…

The weather on that Saturday before Labor Day was absolutely gorgeous.  I told Bill I wanted to go to Goshen and see it again, even though it had been many years since my last visit.  He agreed, so we went, parked on the side of the road, and enjoyed a positively awesome day swimming in the Maury River.

The rest of that weekend was equally amazing.  It culminated when Granny, the family matriarch, told me that she liked Bill.  She said I should marry him, adding that she wished my cousin Suzanne would find a guy as nice as Bill, too.

A week later, Bill was in the Pentagon working.  It was 9/11 and his office was in the area that was hit by the jet airliner.  I didn’t know if he was alive or dead all day.  At that time, we were still calling ourselves friends, but it was pretty obvious to everyone that we were beyond friendship.  When he later came on the computer to tell me he’d survived, I told him it was probably time we went more public with our relationship.  He agreed.  A few months later, we were engaged and the following year, we got married.  It’s been all good since then.

Bill’s mother, Parker, booked us two nights at the Hummingbird Inn for our honeymoon.  At that time, the inn was run by the Robinsons.  I don’t remember if the husband half of the couple was British, but I do remember the wife was.  She was an amazing cook.  We stayed in the Teter Wood room, which was on the first floor and had its own private entrance.  I left the inn vowing to learn how to make a cheese souffle, which I did.

Now we’re in the year 2014…

So this year, after considering all of the hotel properties in the Lexington/Rockbridge County area, I decided we should go back to the Hummingbird Inn.  I chose the inn because it was priced fairly reasonably compared to the two star motels in Lexington.  Also, we just celebrated our 12th anniversary.  I booked on Expedia.com for four nights, paying about $600 or so.  This time, Bill and I stayed in the Robinson room, which was named after Jeremy and Diana Robinson,  the very same couple who owned the inn when we stayed there in 2002.  Apparently, they were the ones who got the Hummingbird Inn back in business.  Our room was where they lived and it was sort of interesting, because it had its own little foyer area.

The bedroom

 

The sheets on our bed came from Comphy, which is a company that makes sheets for hotels and spas.  They are super soft!  Bill and I were both raving about them.  Those who like the sheets can arrange to order them through the Hummingbird Inn.  I probably would have ordered a set myself if I hadn’t just bought new sheets that I love.

Foyer

Bathroom.  Has a shower only.

Foyer going the other way.  

Bill settling in…

The Hummingbird Inn is now owned and operated by Dan and Patty Harrison, a couple of California transplants who have enjoyed quite a variety of different life experiences together.  I really enjoyed getting to know the Harrisons, who are very personable and hospitable.  They scored extra points with me for leaving chocolate in strategic locations around the house.  We also appreciated the free WiFi, though it’s a bit on the slow side.  Given how remote Goshen is and how big the house is, that’s not a surprise.  A “public” computer with Internet access is available to those who didn’t bring their own.  There are also books, board games, puzzles, and movies aplenty to occupy your attention should you not find anything to do nearby.

My sister, Becky, joined us for three nights.  She and her cat, Oliver, stayed in the Teter Wood room, our “honeymoon” suite from 2002.

Goshen is not all that close to our family festivities– it’s about 30 miles as the crow flies from Goshen to Natural Bridge, Virginia, which is where our “homeplace” is.  But the drive there on route 39 is simply gorgeous.  There are plenty of places to pull off and take photos if you are so inclined.  If you’d rather not take a winding road, you can get to Goshen via Interstate 64, which is about ten miles from the inn.

It was snowing as we drove in, which created some magical scenery…

Breakfast is served every day at 9:00 and we found it to be substantial and quite tasty.  Each day, we had a fruit starter, then an egg dish with a meat side and potatoes.  One day, it was quiche.  Another, it was a delicious fritata.  Another day, we had a bacon and feta cheese casserole.  We missed breakfast one morning because we had to leave before 9:00.

Those who need something before 9:00 can help themselves to fresh baked pastries, coffee, and tea.  To be very honest, I wasn’t too wild about the coffee at the inn, though I was glad to see they had real half & half available.   The coffee offered at breakfast was a little too weak for me, though there is a Keurig available during the rest of the day. The tea was good, though, and made a sufficient substitute.  I also really liked the orange juice we were served.

I didn’t get a chance to walk around the inn to see the creek that runs in the back, but I did hear it.  I also heard trains.  There are lots of them and they run right in front of the house.  They didn’t bother us while we were there this time, but I did notice them during our first stay.  Maybe it’s because we were newlyweds!

Bill and I enjoyed hanging out with the other guests in attendance, too.  We met a very nice couple from the DC area… well, they weren’t really from there.  They live there because the husband is a retired colonel taking advantage of his years in the military in the form of a decent job.  Bill talked shop with the male half, while the female half and I compared notes on being retired Army wives.  It was a lot of fun!

We also met a gentleman who came up from Georgia to see his family.  He said there were over twenty of them in attendance, but his eyebrows raised when I said we have over 80 at ours!  Turns out he lives in the same area as a number of my relatives do, too.

We had a great stay at the Hummingbird Inn, a place that seems to be very popular with hunters.  There were a couple staying there during our weekend there and I remember one or two during our first stay in 2002.  I’m not sure when we’ll get back to Rockbridge County, but to anyone else heading there, I’d recommend a stay with Patty and Dan Harrison at the Hummingbird Inn.  It’s a great place to go if you need to unplug.

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A mostly effortless trip across the pond…

Bill and I arrived at Dulles airport on Tuesday night at about 5:00pm.  We were pretty tired.  Our day got started very early Tuesday morning in Germany.  Traffic getting to the airport in Stuttgart was pretty heavy and we moved at a snail’s pace on A81.  To make matters worse, my bladder decided to kick in about halfway through the trip, making me need to pee something fierce by the time we parked and hiked to the terminal.

I decided to pee after we checked in, which was probably a mistake.  The automated check in process for us via Air France’s kiosks didn’t go so smoothly.  I answered a security question “wrong”, so we had to have an agent issue us tickets.  The guy standing in line ahead of us had overweight baggage that he thought he’d already paid for, so that slowed us down a bit…  Meanwhile, my bladder was becoming more and more demanding and urgent for relief.

Once we were checked in and I paid a visit to the ladies room, we went through security.  An unsmiling guard was barking orders at me in German.  After removing all the non essential clothes and electronics, I paused to wait for an adorable little toddler whose mother was beckoning her to walk through the metal detector.  It was a pretty cute moment as the girl was more interested in watching everybody else.

My shoes had metal staples in them.  My bra also had metal hooks, which meant I had to be very thoroughly wanded by a rather ripe smelling lady who seemed very practiced in the art of frisking.  Once we got through security, we waited for our flight to Paris, which would deposit us in an even less user friendly airport.  I was kind of impressed by the weird modern art looking furniture in the terminal that looked very well used.  I remember spending a hellish 12 hours in CDG back in 1995 before I moved to Armenia for two years.  It does look like they’ve done some work to make the airport a little less unpleasant.  Still, I wish I’d been able to get WiFi.  They apparently offer it at CDG, but I never could get it to work or even charge my electronics.

The flight to Paris was quick and relatively painless.  The Paris hop planes have 2×2 seating.  Bill and I each had an aisle seat on the same row.  Fortunately, we had nice people sitting next to us and a gentle landing.  I know a lot of people take the train to Paris, but I have to admit the quick flight there is amazing.  I like Air France, too.  Of course, the woman sitting in front of me was the only one on the entire plane who felt the need to recline.  I thought it was funny that I had a recliner in front of me on a one hour flight, but the guy who sat in front of me to Washington, DC didn’t recline at all!

I was hoping to grab a quick lunch at the airport in Paris, but unfortunately, there weren’t really any restaurants in the terminal where we got our flight.  Bill bought me a Coke and a chocolate croissant. Ordinarily, that would have been okay, but I was needing protein in a big way.  Bought myself a Snickers bar and silently vowed to bring a bag of nuts with me on my next long haul flight.

The flight to Washington was long, but basically quite pleasant.  I was very impressed by Air France; in fact, I think I liked them better than Lufthansa, which we flew to Germany in August.  The seats were, I thought, pretty generous even for a stout girl like me.  The flight attendants were very professional and pleasant.  In fact, one guy seemed especially solicitous.  After a champagne apertif, he brought out our meals.  We had a choice of parmesan risotto or chicken with sherry sauce.  I chose the risotto because I thought it might not have evil mushrooms in it.  Bill asked for chicken.  At first, the flight attendant said they were out of the chicken, but then he found one and brought it to Bill.  Good thing, too, because the risotto did have mushrooms.  Bill kindly gave me his chicken, which was actually edible and even tasted pretty good!  The flight attendant asked me what I wanted to drink I showed him that I had syrah.  He asked, with a big smile with a delightful French accent, “Is it enough?  Would you like more?”  I giggled and he brought me another, different type of wine!

I don’t enjoy transatlantic flights at all, but that one goes down as one of the better ones.  Hopefully, the flights back to Germany will be decent, too.  I am definitely sold on European carriers over American ones.

Anyway, we are now in Goshen, Virginia… and yes, we did get caught in the storm yesterday, which made driving down here challenging.  But we were rewarded with this…

Goshen is sooo beautiful!

I will be writing reviews of our lodging and more trip details as they evolve.

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Our Virginia trip is all booked…

We will be leaving on Tuesday, November 25th, spending a night at the Embassy Suites in Herndon, Virginia, right near Dulles Airport, and then renting a car and driving to Rockbridge County.  I had some trouble picking our lodging for the Rockbridge part of our trip.  For many years, my family stayed at the Natural Bridge Hotel.  My uncle used to run it and we got insanely cheap rates.  In the years that he ran the hotel, it was in fairly decent shape, even if it was also a bit dated.  In the years after he left, the hotel sort of fell into disrepair.

The last time I stayed at the Natural Bridge Hotel was in July 2007, when my 100 year old grandmother died.  I booked a room there because it was pet friendly.  Bill was deployed to Iraq at the time and I didn’t have the time or money to arrange to board the dogs.  I ended up having a fairly miserable stay, mainly because the hotel was sort of in disrepair and the family dynamics were kind of weird.  Anyway, after an uncomfortable night, I ended up leaving early in the morning on the day after Granny’s funeral and vowed that would be my last stay there.  Although now that it looks like the hotel is in better hands, I might reconsider.  The Natural Bridge is about to be turned into a state park anyway.

Since the Natural Bridge Hotel is pretty much the only game in town in the Natural Bridge area, besides a really disgusting motel and a campground, I looked at getting a room in Lexington.  But Lexington’s offerings kind of suck, too.  I mean, there are plenty of two star motels and there’s a Hampton Inn, which is a bit overpriced.  They just reopened the Robert E. Lee Hotel, which is right in downtown Lexington, but that was going for about $200 a night.

Ultimately, I decided to book us at The Hummingbird Inn in Goshen.  The Hummingbird Inn has the distinction of being the very first place Bill and I stayed as husband and wife.  Bill’s mom paid for us to have two nights there post nuptials.  At the time, the Inn was run by a British couple… or maybe they were half British.  I know the wife was from England and she was an excellent cook.  A few months after our stay, they sold the inn to the people who own it now.  As our anniversary is also in November, it seems kind of fitting that we’d stay there for Thanksgiving.  It’s not as close to the festivities as Lexington is, but at least it will provide us a good way to stay away from the drama.

The Hummingbird Inn is a beautiful old house next to train tracks.  It is liable to get noisy.  But it’s also right next to a rambling creek.  Goshen is kind of a special place for Bill and me, anyway.  We went there during Labor Day weekend in 2001, the week before 9/11.  At the time, I was in grad school and Bill had just started a job at the Pentagon.  It was kind of our second in person date…  remember, we met online.  Our first in person date was in Columbia, South Carolina, which is where I was in school and Bill was doing TDY.

Goshen Pass is a really beautiful gorge and I had fond memories of visiting there as a child.  I suggested to Bill that we visit and go swimming.  We proceeded to have an amazing day enjoying a very natural swimming hole with insanely gorgeous scenery.  We had no idea that the world would change the following week.  We had no clue that Bill would actually be in the Pentagon on 9/11 and see up close and personal what terrorism looks like.

So since we’re celebrating 12 years in November, and we got married in Lexington and honeymooned in Goshen, it seems right to go to Goshen for Thanksgiving, even though it’s not so close to Granny’s house.  I think we will be pleased with our choice… and at least we’ll get a good breakfast out of the deal.  I hope we have decent weather so I can take some photos.  In the meantime, do yourself a favor and Google Goshen Pass.  It’s a very pretty place.

Meanwhile, we may also go somewhere in Europe to actually celebrate our anniversary, too…

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