Synchronicity. — Oh, G-Nation |

Jan 22

Jan 22 Synchronicity.

Before I get to what I've been doing in the past two days I want to address what I haven't been doing; marching. Not because I didn't want to or for lack of trying. I looked up sister marches the night of the 20th and I unfortunately was nowhere near one. So thank you to everyone who marched and voiced our opinions. You're all wonderful and make me even prouder than I was before to be a nasty woman.

Now, where were we. Ah, yes - blue grass. I happen to like it and lucky for me, Floyd, VA. was definitely the right place to enjoy it. If you do too then travel along Virginia's scenic byway, The Crooked Road. By the way, when I say "crooked" it's actually an understatement. It's Virginia's heritage music trail where live blue grass is always around the corner. Start to finish it's 280 miles long and takes you through 19 counties, 4 cities, and about 50 towns. I only experienced a fraction of that by spending a night in Floyd. The town has one traffic light and a population of maybe 500 people. There are a few restaurants, a couple shops, a general store, and a hotel. The Floyd Country Store is where the magic happens. On Friday nights it hosts a jamboree of live blue grass and it's packed wall to wall. It's easy to see why. Being by myself at a blue grass jamboree was definitely a new experience and oddly intimidating. Luckily, a nice gentleman named Robert saw me tapping my foot in the back of the room and asked me to dance. He reminded me of a country Santa - overalls over a blue plaid shirt, white hair, white beard and jolly as hell.

A few more dances, a beer next door, and a new friend later, I ended up at another local bar and met a man named W.L. Double my age and double the wisdom, we ended up having one of my favorite conversations to date. He told me how he's been to 49 states, almost all of Canada, and how his favorite places were Alaska and Colorado. He explained to me how traveling alone teaches you a lot about yourself in some of the best ways possible. He should know, he's camped in Alaska alone for two months before. Twenty minutes into the conversation he asked me if I believe in Synchronicity. I do. Now let me explain - it's another way of saying a "meaningful coincidence". In other words, things/events that have seemingly nothing in common that end up bringing something or someone together in a meaningful way. He thought that our meeting was 'Synchronicity' and I could not have agreed more.

That was my Friday night.

Since then, I've driven on an extremely foggy chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a few times actually, where I couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of me. I crossed over into North Carolina (yay!) and made new friends at a hostel in Banner Elk, NC. The three of us attempted and failed to get into the abandoned "Land of Oz" theme park at midnight last night. We literally drove up the side of a mountain only to end up at a barbed wire fence and security camera. Sigh. Did you know the park's address is on Yellow Brick Road and there actually is a yellow brick road that runs through it? People live all around the park too. When they get mail, it's addressed to 'so and so' on Oz Rd. I'm so jealous. Hands down the coolest address ever. After spending most of today with them exploring Blowing Rock and walking into the foggy abyss on the Mile High Suspension Bridge at the top of Grandfather Mountain, we parted ways and I headed further south to Asheville, NC. Going to stay a few nights and give Bertha a break. Talk to y'all soon. :)

- G.

Fun Fact: Forrest Gump ran around one of the bends of the road I drove on going up the side of Grandfather Mountain. There's a small sign that says "Forrest Gump ran here."

The Photo:
Floyd Country Store.
Floyd, VA.
1/20/17.