Monthly Archives: August 2011

My first full day off in awhile, so we decided to go to Grayson Highlands State Park near Mouth Of Wilson, Va. This is a nice state park on the top of Mt. Rogers, but what makes it special is the wild ponies that roam the ridges in the area. They are Shetlands and are truly wild, grazing the balds and high pastures in the park. The weather was really windy with the feeder bands of Irene blowing over, making it chilly, damp, and VERY windy. Caleb finished petting one of the ponies and turned away quick to move on towards the rocks and the pony nipped him in the chest. The nip bruised him pretty good, but all Caleb said was, “Ouch.”  Later, he said he wanted to shoot that horse for biting him. We moved on to some rocks (which Caleb loves) and climbed around a bit. After being blown around the rocks, we picked up some “fans” on the way back down the trail. We petted the ponies for a bit then headed back to the Jeep picking and eating blackberries along the way.

Grayson is a great place to backpack for beginners and fun for the kids because of the ponies. We had a great day!

Wow! I woke up this afternoon about 1346 hrs (I work nights) and the whole house was moving! No drugs were involved, I wasn’t dreaming, it was moving. It was a little disconcerting for sure. My daughter came home from work and said, “Dad, there was an earthquake!” and I assured her it was just a tremor, but she then filled me in on the details about the 5.8 earthquake in Virginia that was felt from New Hampshire down to Atlanta. What a way to start your day!

Visiting our friends in West Virginia today, we went on our customary Jeep outing. Since we had to be back in NC Sunday night, we set out on familiar trails to the “Wagon Wheel” which is an ATV camp north of Bramwell, WV. We found a trail last winter and wanted to find out where it went, figuring the water would be low enough to get through. This is the same trail that Sara (my Jeep) went swimming in last winter. Water was literally washing over the hood before I backed it out and deemed the hole too dip to ford. There was still plenty of water on the trail, but if it was too deep to ford, we found a way around it. Following the creek through the mountains, we didn’t get any steep hill climbs, but the mud and rocks were abundant. The creek crossings did a good job of washing the mud off our tires and underneath the Jeeps. We started out leaving the hard top right past Pinnacle Rock state park and found our way back to civilization just outside of Northfork, WV. We then drove into Princeton for supper, and finally home. All in all, it was a good time. And to think a guy on a 4 wheeler told us at the beginning of the trail that the mud holes and water was too big and too deep for our Jeeps.