Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015 - 6

E

From the
Editor

L
Letters

Moving
My wife and I got to
take a brand new
hike the other weekend, in a little town
about 50 miles south
of where we live, in
Roanoke. It was a delightful hike,
along an old, slow river, up along
one of its feeder streams where I
used to play decades ago, and up
into the neighborhood and past the
house where my grandparents lived.
A few days later, on another walk
- this one here town - I came upon
a former colleague who went to college in the town.
"Geez, William," I said. "You

remember that Radford Riverwalk
there just below the university?"
He didn't. And the reason was that
it was not there when he was. Yes, he
said he hasn't even been in Radford for
a decade, but the point remains: Town
after town, city after city - they're putting in new ways for us to get outside.
Here in Roanoke, there's an economic development push behind it, or
maybe ahead of it. Aiming to market
the Roanoke Metro Area as an outdoor
destination.
The nifty thing about that effort
here, and about the thrust of many
towns and cities in that direction is the
sort of put-up or shut-up biproduct:

Moving On
I was devastated to read Elizabeth
Hunter's last "From the Farm" column (November/December 2014).
That was my go-to page with each
issue that I received over the last
many years. I have often saved a column for the content and/or the style
in which she wrote. I have bought
Blue Ridge Parkway books because
she wrote the text and made things
come to life again for me. As a transplanted Southerner (born and raised
in Roanoke, Virginia but living in
New Jersey for 50 years), I will continue to love reading your magazine
but will feel there is something missing in what I have enjoyed for so
long. I wish good things for her in
her world of nature and in her life.
Keep on publishing such an
enjoyable magazine that always
brings back memories of living in my
beloved South. -Rozella Bower,
Cinnaminson, New Jersey

-Kurt Rheinheimer

Lincoln a Tarheel?  Firefly Lightshow  Little Rail That Did

BlueRidge
C O U N T RY

VDOT on the Move

Exploring the Mountains of the South

MOUNTAIN
TRAVEL
GUIDE
2015

It was sad to read in
the November/
December "Mountain
Report" about VDOT's
(Virginia Department
of Transportation) lack
of respect for the
enviornment in planning the Coalfields
Expressway. As long as
Maryland/
West Virginia
Virginia's politicians
WEEKEND
use VDOT projects to
placate their campaign
donors, this type of
faisco will continue.
VDOT is about as
independent of political influence as a tortoise of its shell. -E.R. Connor,
Catharpin, Virginia

Repairs
* The blossom image on page 11 of
the January/February issue ("The
Hike") is of course bloodroot.

6 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

More outdoor stuff to do! The number
of trails at our reservoir, surrounded by
the second-largest municipal park in
the nation, continues to expand a rate
you can barely keep up with. Our busyall-the-time Roanoke River Greenway
is now on track to reach a 21-mile
length within the next two years or so.
Point being: It's spring. It's time to
get outside, and I bet there's new stuff
around you to be explored. Here in our
town, it's no small task to keep yourself current and having-been-on every
new piece of trail and recreation area
coming on board.
What a wonderful problem to have.

RIDE
HUSKIES
with the

plus 9 More
GO 'N DO
Adventures
for 2015

& OUR 12-MONTH
ParticipationFESTS GUIDE
Classic North
GEORGIA DINING

* Our apologies as well for the misspelling of the Tennessee town of
Jonesborough in the same issue's
2015 Travel Guide feature. And our
thanks to readers who caught the
errors.
http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015
