Mountain Teaching

By mid-February, I had completed my first batch of training with my new job and was on the way to Franklin County (Moonshine Capital of the World) with Megan for my first teaching assignment. On our way out to Franklin County, we opted for the country roads and scenic route, which happened to follow Lee's retreat to Appomattox Courthouse. We were at first excited to "retreat," but realized that it got into too much of the minutia -- even for us. We did stop to visit the site of Lee's surrender where we found some little plastic Civil War soldiers (of course we bought them!) to play and plot with. It took us a while to get to Rocky Mount, the city in which our hotel was located, and had an early night. The next day was my first day of teaching, which I enjoyed. (photos: Lee's Retreat; and cows on the hills of Franklin County)


However after teaching, the time we have is quite flexible and Megan and I had planned some activities in the area to keep us busy. One day we went to the Booker T. Washington National Memorial (the farm on which he was born and raised), which was cold, rainy, and lacking many visitors. The park rangers got over their initial shock of seeing two people actually wanting to tour an outdoor site in the cold and rain and Megan and I headed outside to see their animals and all. There were some new baby pigs, as well as the ginormous adult hogs and a slew of other farm animals. We visited the tobacco barn and ended up walking their hiking loop, on which we came across some deer in a meadow. Another day we went to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum to view their moonshine exhibit (being the Moonshine Capital of the World). Wednesday evening, we headed out to a small country store we'd found online to hear some bluegrass music. It felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, but the people were extremely friendly as they offered us a seat and talked jovially about politics. Megan and I went for barbecue on Valentine's Day and then to a café for coffee and a live band. The band, however, paled in comparison to the bluegrass band from the night before. We had a ton of fun that week and I very much enjoyed just starting to teach (There's a website of photos of Rebel Roy the plastic soldier on his travels coming to his own website. Stay tuned for updates). (photos: Huge hogs at Booker T. Washington; a baby hog; deer munching on the meadow; coolest sink ever at a restaurant in Rocky Mount; and Megan approving of a great book we found at a café.)





(photos: The lobby of an insurance company in Rocky Mount, complete with ridiculous amounts of taxidermy; Jacob Dillon and Phantom Grass (Jacob Dillon being the 13-year-old boy; see my YouTube page for video); and the moonshine exhibit at the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum.)



A couple of weeks later, I taught by myself in Covington in Allegheny County for four days. It was a foggy/rainy drive out almost to West Virginia. The kids were wonderful in Covington, though I felt like my week consisted of me constantly searching for food (there were a couple of restaurants that were supposed to be great but were unexplicably closed). There wasn't much to do in that area other than visit more scenic sites and byways or explore nearby towns. There was some hiking that I'd wanted to do, but I'd also recently sprained my ankle and had wanted it in prime shape for when I went on vacation to the Pacific Northwest the next week. When I got home from teaching, I had to almost immediately repack to get ready to go to the out west the very next day. (photos: A foggy drive out to Covington through the mountains; Crabtree Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains; country life in the Alleghenies; Humpback Bridge, the only arched covered bridge in Virginia (and most of North America); a country road in the mountains; and I stumbled upon the birthplace of Texas in Virginia.)