May 2006
Wednesday
the 10th. These photos and others in our new
Mabry Mill gallery represent the last of our
weekend photos. Mabry Mill has the distinction of being the most
photographed spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway, our most visited National Park.
Few people drive by without stopping to snap at least one photo. Just do a google image search on Mabry Mill to see what I'm talking about. It's so
scenic in fact that it's been claimed by other states on postcards promoting tourism.
The readers that are familiar with Mabry Mill might have wondered how we spent three hours there on Saturday. The first reason is this; boys can spend an unlimited number of hours doing nothing other than sticking their hands in a flume of cold moving water. They can drop rocks in it, sticks in it, toys in it and just dangle their hands in it. Apparently it never gets boring. Second, there were cool things like snakes and brown trout to watch swim in the small pool below the water wheel. And the third reason is that Jackson is very interested in history. When we go to science museums, he would rather stop and study each history or science exhibit, than to run along from place to place looking for the fun stuff. At the Marine Center in Virginia Beach he was disappointed that he didn't get to spend more time in the Native American exhibit while everyone else was in a mad dash to find the sharks. So on Saturday we let him ask all the questions he wanted and read each and every sign to him. I explained how a grist mill worked and how it powered a sawmill. I showed him how the horse drawn plows and planters worked. But when we came to an old horse drawn wagon and I said "Before we had cars, people used to ride in..." Jackson cut me off and said in a bored exasperated tone "I know, I know, people rode in station wagons."
While we stood admiring the whisky still, a young man in a Sunday suit walked up and handed us a religious pamphlet.
And when we passed over a small wooden bridge, Ben tried to get Amy to play the part of "The Grumpy Old Troll Who Lives Under The Bridge" from Dora The Explorer. Amy said "But I'm never grumpy!" An older woman passing by at the time said "I'll go get my husband."
