Peevish Pen

Ruminations on reading, writing, genealogy and family history, rural living, retirement, aging—and sometimes cats.

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Location: Rural Virginia, United States

I'm an elderly retired teacher who writes. Among my books are Ferradiddledumday (Appalachian version of the Rumpelstiltskin story), Stuck (middle grade paranormal novel), Patches on the Same Quilt (novel set in Franklin County, VA), Them That Go (an Appalachian novel), Miracle of the Concrete Jesus & Other Stories, and several Kindle ebooks.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Franklin County Park

On my way home from Lake Writers today, I decided to stop by the newly opened park on the Franklin County side of Smith Mountain Lake. After parking the PT in the lot that had maybe eight other vehicles, I had to decide: could I make it down the path to the water? Yeah, I could.

The park has restrooms, which would be to the right and behind where I stood to take the picture (below). There was a kiddie playground further back from the restrooms, but it was in the sun with no shade close by. Those big plastic tubes (I call them "booger tubes"—How do they clean those things, anyhow?) that kids slide through and leave their germs for the kids that follow must be hot as blazes.


The problem with the hike: high noon and no trees shaded the gravel path. They'd been cut back for a wide right-of-way. Well, if I'm halfway there, I can make it the rest of the way.


Finally, the picnic pavilion (above left) was in sight. On the right is the fishing pier. In the picture of the pier below, the tiny blue speck above the trees to the far left is Smith Mountain.


I walked halfway out the pier to get a shot of the Virginia Dare passing by. A couple of women sitting in the covered part of pier said I should have been here yesterday—a big houseboat that looked exactly like a big house went by. They'd never seen anything like it before.

The shade and the breeze down by the water refreshed me for my walk back.

I'd really like to have seen that houseboat, though. House boat? Whatever.

1 Comments:

Blogger Amy Hanek said...

Ewwww! Booger Tubes? That is so disgusting. Just wait till Thursday, I will be yelling at my kids, "Get out of the slide!!"

Yeah, the kids will all be holding their hands in the shape of a "C" over thier heads - for "crazy!"

Nice pics. I love that park. My kids were three of the bunch in the paper, The Lake section, Franklin News-Post, and SME during the dedication. We were the only kids with our own fishin' lines that day. Everyone else really came just to hear people talk about how the park was built and cut a ribbon. We wanted to fish!

Amy

6:09 PM  

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