COUNTRY, AND HISTORY, ON THE WAY TO VIRGINIA (Cheri)

Last week I posted about a striking international watercolor exhibit that I attended, just across the border into rural Virginia.

This is the country, and history, that I saw on the way.

We travel this direction frequently, as the Piedmont Arts Center brings in a lot of striking traveling exhibits, and we like to go to the Shenandoah Valley for a variety of reasons.  I'm even trying to convince my sister to finish her career in the Valley, but we'll see how that goes.

I'd noticed this building before, but didn't have to get Mark to stop or turn around this time, since he wasn't with me.  (Admittedly, it's never an issue when he is driving.)

I actually drove back a mile or so from a store I'll show you soon; I was finally going to stop here!  No clue as to its history.

The cabin (tobacco barn?) below was basically across the road from the concrete brick building above.  The street signs indicated that this might be the center of Pine Hall, North Carolina, an unincorporated community in Surrey County.

I would like to come back and take several pictures of this later in the year, when all of the vertical lines that you see are live vines, trying to bring the building even further down.

I wanted to learn more about the area's history, but there wasn't much to be found, other than a book that the local Quaker society had produced:  Walk with Us: Pine Hill’s Heritage and Hope.  (There are quite a few Quaker communities in the region, even an archive at Guildford College, which is about 45 minutes from here.)

It was this truck and market that actually got me off the road to begin with, though.  The owner drove up as I was taking pictures, and I told her that I would return, with my husband, another day.

I don't know if this is an extension of the Market, or a residence.

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Once I had stopped, this Music Hall was actually what intrigued me most of all!  Wouldn't it be great to have a neighborhood music hall where you could spend time with your friends, and maybe have some comfort food?

Mark and I took an extraordinary six-part class on the roots of North Carolina Music through Wake Forest University's Lifelong Learning program a couple of years ago.  Who knows, we might come back and find out that we have a regional jewel within easy driving distance.

I saw the fuel facility below while I got gas in Danville, VA.  (You saw the tank/billboard at the top of this post.)

Getting the gas was a real experience:  I came to Buck's Fuels because it had the lowest prices in town, and was absolutely not expecting to get full service.  (Happy customer here!)

I took a lot of pictures of this little business compound - also in Danville - but realized that probably nobody else would be as interested as I was.  I really can't tell if it's currently in use, but decided that the primary business was automobile-related, based upon the smell of fuel as I neared the front, shown here.

This is another structure that will "green up" as the kudzu comes to life again.

Very close by, I found this one-of-a-kind windmill.  I'm not really sure what it was to begin with, and it was very difficult to photograph well because the blades were constantly in motion, but it intrigued me.