Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper

(Even if you don't like clicking on links, do click on the next-to-last one to see me in a new environment...)

This morning we had an elegant and delicious breakfast at our Lynchburg B&B -- fresh fruit salad, just-baked orange cranberry muffins, sausage, individual cheese omelettes, and a garnish of strawberries, served on fine china in a lovely dining room.

At lunchtime, we stopped at a retro-styled Denny's (a national chain with reasonable food at reasonable prices) in Christiansburg, where I was enchanted with the good life reflected in the poster from which today's blip was taken. I ordered a chicken, apple, and cranberry salad and Phil had an avocado chicken sandwich, and we enjoyed chatting with the manager, who had recently finished a 14-year stint in the Marines.

We then took a major highway, followed by a narrow, twisting, two-lane road over three mountain ranges, with great views but no pull-outs in which to take photos, to Tazewell, today's final destination. Our supper venue was the Wardell Store, famous for its only product -- country ham, which I love (it's dry-cured, smoked, and aged from four months to three years) -- and reputed to have a wide variety of bottled beers and tasty ham sandwiches.

Times are tough in southwest Virginia, and this was reflected in the small group enjoying the limited beer choices and teasing each other when we walked into the store, which looked as if it too had fallen on hard times since it was built in 1874. That said, my country ham sandwich was sublime, and the conversations were certainly wide-ranging and spirited!

We'll get some exercise at last on Saturday, exploring two cemeteries and photographing gravestones of my maternal ancestors, and visiting a a museum and pioneer park.