Scenic Loop Drive to Floyd Country Store Jam via the Blue Ridge Parkway…

Our last day North Carolina finally arrived. We added one more night in Moncure because Katie wanted to spend one last night with us. Although we didn’t have time to do much we did immensely enjoy each others company that evening. We played a few games of cornhole with our West Virginia neighbor, Dave then enjoyed barbacoa, cheesy potatoes and pinto beans Katie brought for our dinner. It was a wonderful dinner and a fun time with Katie.  The next morning Katie left for work and we packed up the rig for our trek north.

We hit the road around 10:30 am and made the leisurely drive into the state of Virginia where we stopped in Martinsville. We had a great site on the banks of the Smith River at Indian Heritage RV Park. We are only here two nights but if I had done my homework we would have stayed longer and made a kayak run down the river. Our site is adjacent to a boat/kayak put in spot just below the Smith River dam.

We had time to run to the local grocery store and stock up a bit before enjoying happy hour at the rear of our site while gazing out on the Smith River. We saw several groups of kayakers put in while we were enjoying the sound of the water rushing by. It was nice to take in some pretty scenery after sitting a month in Moncure with not much to look at there.

While looking for things to do in this area I found out about Floyd Virginia  which hosts a lot of bluegrass jam sessions. Seeing several occurring during our stay we opted to drive over and check out the jam at the Floyd Country Store. All the other events were in the evening and since we were 50 miles away we decided the afternoon jam session was the best one to attend.

To make it more interesting we plotted out a 100 mile driving loop that would take us to Floyd as well as allow us to explore some more of Virginia we haven’t seen before. Included in this loop would be several miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The drive over was very enjoyable as the “spring green” was still lingering in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Temperatures were in the 70’s as well which offered a nice respite to the heat we have been in lately. Once on the Blue Ridge Parkway we spotted the Mabry Mill with a small trail which took us through an old time town complete with park interpreters doing things such as black smithing, looming rugs and making baskets. What a treat it was to stumble upon this unplanned excursion.

Floyd is a tourist town and one that has little to offer us except for the music scene. We found parking and made our way over to the Floyd Country Store. The stage is in the rear of the store and we sat and listed to a solo guitar act playing mostly folk music. He was okay but I had hoped to see some bluegrass.

We found out the musicians each play for an hour so we wandered around town and visited the Floyd farmer’s market while waiting for the next set of musicians. The next act turned out to be two gentlemen strumming guitars. The first two songs were blues and they were pretty good but the next two were a Beatles tune and a song made famous by Willie Nelson and since they pretty much butchered them we left.

The drive back was not as nice as the drive up but since we were back early we stopped in Martinsville for a round of disc golf. The course we played was short but had a lot of elevation shots making it challenging. We had a blast playing this short course and finally headed back home.

NOTE: We will add one extra day here then head north to Martinsville, VA for a couple of nights before moving to Harrisonburg, VA where we plan to stay at the Rockingham Fairgrounds there.