College Town - Blacksburg, Virginia

 Ed and I drove from Bluffton, SC to Blacksburg, VA.  I was glad he was driving because it was getting dark by the time we arrived and checked into our hotel.  It was a longer day of driving than I would have done had I been on my own. 

I chose Blacksburg because it was approximately halfway home from Bluffton.  It was easy to figure it out, because I plotted a map to home and found that google maps put a label right on the center point.  I looke for the town name under the label, then searched for the closest yarn store, which turned out to be Blacksburg.  According to google, the town also had a bicycle shop or two or three and several bookstores, being a college town. 

First stop was supposed to be the downtown bicycle shop, but google maps directed us to turn into a parking lot and we couldn't see any bike shop.  We did see a lot of students, on foot, we must have arrived during class change time. 

There are a couple of other bike shops in town, but they were a couple of miles away, definitely not in walking distance.  

 So, onward to the yarn shop.  There wasn't any parking in front of the store on on the side street, but we did find a place to park around the block.  

 

Inside the shop, the first thing I saw was the artful button display. 

 

The wall facing the entrance held a display of locally-dyed wool.  

 

The store was an art store as well as a yarn store.  The back half of the store was devoted to paints, brushes, canvases, and other art supplies.  The owner was a former Virginia Tech student, who had graduated and briefly moved to New York City and managed an art supply store, then returned to the mountains of western Virginia to manage a LYS.  When the owner decided to sell, Jessica chose to invest and opened New River Art and Fiber. 

I chose to walk to the nearby bookstore.  It was a cold, windy, gray day. Ed elected to return to the car.  Therefore he missed seeing one of the 16 frog sculptures strategically located around town.  

 

Once I returned home, I looked up the frog and found that there is an entire website devoted to the sculptures.  The one I saw was named "Harvey" and you can read about the person he was named after, Harvey Black,  here, one of the founders of Virginia Tech, which was then called Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.  

I arrived at my destination a block or so later.  Unfortunately, the bookstore was apparently closed in spite of the hours posted on the door.  

 

I saw snow in the parking lot when I returned on foot to the car.  It had been a week since I'd seen snow! 

I also noticed   a bit of litter, mostly beer cans.  I suppose it is the inevitable result of being in a college town.  

When I reached the car, we decided to return home.  But first, on the way out of town, we stopped at the local Goodwill where I purchased a couple of disposable wine glasses, having already broken one of the ones I purchased earlier on the trip.  

 

Bluffton, South Carolina

A few miles inland from Hilton Head, Old Town Bluffton South Carolina exudes a cozy charm.

I hadn't really planned on coming here, but my "get-er-done" husband did not want to spend 4 days travelling from Florida back to Ohio.  So I re-routed, and found Bluffton about 5 and a half hours from Vero Beach, where we celebrated his brother Clyde's 70th birthday. 

 In Bluffton, the "old town" section is very walkable.  My only regret is that my husband and I chose a chain hotel about 10 miles from the Old Town, when we could have stayed right downtown at the Old Town Bluffton Inn for essentially the same price. 

We arrived in time for dinner.  We chose Captain Woody's Seafood Bar, which has been serving visitors and locals for over 45 years. It was hard to find, the weathered front faded into the neighborhood.  It looked like it had been there for many years.  We both had seafood, it was delicious.  

After dinner, we returned to the hotel.  In the morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we started out to explore the town.  First stop was the yarn store, Low Country Shrimp and Knits.  

 

It was located on the back side of a parking lot set off from the road.  We arrived a little early, so I took a walk around the neighborhood. 

I passed by the street where our restaurant from the previous night was located.  

 

I noticed the sod around the planting on the street.  The grass looked very healthy but it was clipped very short.  Not a weed in sight! 

 

The sidewalks were wide and spacious.  

 

Some of the buildings had that weathered look I had noticed at the restaurant. 

When I returned, the yarn shop was open.  

The shop featured a local dyer, Freckled Frog Yarns.  

There was also a wide variety of other yarns available. 

 

In the back room, this shawl caught my eye. 

 

The shop owner had helpfully labeled the shawl with the pattern name and designer.  It is available on Ravelry here.

  

These cute little gnomes hiding in the corner of a shelf caught my eye. 

 

The project bags on this display were sewn by a local seamstress. 

 

There was a cute display of baby items near the entrance.  

I ended up choosing one of the locally-dyed skeins of yarns for my purchase, and also a souvenier luggage tag. 

After the yarn shop, I convinced Ed to walk across the street and around the corner to visit the bicycle shop. The owner was very friendly and chatted with us a bit.  He had a repair stand just inside the door.  He does sell and rent bikes, and can get e-bikes for rental with a day or so of notice. 

Next up was supposed to be a trip to a bookstore, but I couldn't find one close by.  I decided to go to the local thrift store a few blocks away (we drove) at Goodwill, where I purchased some "disposable" wine glasses, and I was thrilled to find a tin sign with the ITU alphabet for my ham radio shack.  You never know what you will find.    

Then we headed for Hilton Head to take a look around.  We parked in the designated area for Coligny Beach Park and then walked to the beach.  It was a little chilly on the day we visited, we were wearing light winter coats, and so was everyone else! 

It was a nice walk and very relaxed vibe.  I really would like to plan a vacation here some time.  We'll have to find a place to eat that is not for the tourists, though, because on our way out of town we found a restaurant on the main street out of town.  Selections for my dietary restrictions were limited.   We spent almost $80 for lunch.  Wow.  

My souvenir yarn was named "Stay off the Sand Dunes" and was a mix of 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon.  The colorway does remind me of the dunes and the beach.  

Urban modern Florida in Clearwater

I swung by the Tampa International Airport on my way to Clearwater.   When I left Apalachicola, I had a long stretch on a beautiful highway next to the Gulf.   I was worried about the 6-hour drive to the airport, knowing that my trips usually included stops, so the "ETA" that Google maps promises may stretch.  I allowed about 60 minutes extra to allow me to stop when needed and possible traffic situations.  

Once the road veered inland,  there was a long stretch of two-lane highway with a solid yellow line down the middle, and I was following a black SUV that was dawdling along at 50 mph in a 55.   We were the only two cars on the road.   When I finally came to a spot where I could safely pass, I pulled into the left lane and punched the gas.  As I pulled back into my lane in front of the SUV, i.looked into the rear view mirror and was dismayed to see flashing lights.  The speed limit had dropped to 45, and the SUV was a police car.   I was lucky, he gave me only an informal warning, not a written one.  I think he realized he was going too slow.  

With traffic delays in Tampa, I arrived at the airport minutes before my husband's plane arrived.  

We met his sister and her boyfriend  for dinner at the Rumba, it was good.  

The next morning, she was working, so I ventured out to look for yarn stores.  The closest was in Largo, several miles away.  We drove along busy highway interchanges and on access roads as we made our way past strip malls, auto dealerships, pawn shops, fast food, and car washes.  When we got to the neighborhood with the yarn shop, though, the vibe was more relaxed.  The outside of the store reflected the name of the store, Creativity. 

 

I found buttons at a great price, and I bought some locally-dyed yarn that claimed Clearwater, Florida and Ohio as the source.  

With some time to kill, we visited a bike store close to my sister-in-law's house.   

Had dinner at Guppy's on the Beach.  It was great.  

Clearwater was definitely a car town.  It was not walkable for me. The distance from the yarn store was way too far from the bike store. There were bike trails, but you had to drive to get to them.   Since we were visiting relatives, I didn't really have time to explore the city looking for a bookstore or public garden, but the overall vibe was of a quickly growing urban environment, not "cozy" at all.   You never know until you visit! 

 

Sand and sun in Apalachicola, Florida

My next stop was in Apalachicola, Florida.  

This town is along the Gulf Coast.  I was greeted by a fantastic sunset as I approached. 

 

After I checked in, I searched out a restaurant.......I found the Owl Cafe was open.  Across the street was a bar that was also open judging from the lights and music, but I was looking for something a little quieter.

The hotel let me store my bike in the laundry room, as it was one of those with no elevators up to the second floor.

In the morning I drove to the downtown area, which was filled with quaint shops and widecstreets that were very walkable.  In fact, I think I saw more foot traffic than cars. 

I parked on the diagonal in front of a bank, and took my bike off the rack. I rode a block out of downtown 

and ended up at what seemed to be a municipal park right on the water.

There was a path and a dock along the way for a short while.

As I rode around town,  I followed another woman on a bike.  She was not wearing a helmet, which seemed to speak of the slow pace of the town. I eventually came to the Gibson hotel/resort where she deposited her bike in front into what looked like a bank of bikes provided by the hotel. 

Continuing my ride, I stopped to take a photo of the Spanish moss hanging from an oak tree, when a dog came out of a house and started barking at me.   Two middle-aged, stocky, bearded men also came out and were watching me.  I apologized to them for upsetting their dog and moved along. 

Next I came to what might be the bike shop in Apalachicola.   There were bikes every where.  In the yard, on the fence, in the tree.

When I got to the corner I saw that the place also appeared to be an antique and curiosity shop. 

A few blocks later I came back into the downtown.  I stopped at a coffee shop. (They also had chocolate, but it was too early in the morning for that.  

I drank my coffee and headed for the bookstore which according to their website was also a yarn shop.  I thought I would be killing two birds with one stone.   

I explored the store,  looking for the yarn.  All I found was a cat!

But it turned out that the bookstore had been sold recently and the yarn shop was now in the art gallery next door. So I headed for the art gallery.

They had a space dedicated to yarn, including a lot of cotton yarns, not surprising in Florida.  I tend to knit more with wool.  I ended up buying a sale book on knitted fabrics by Jean Frost.  

I asked the clerk where ight be the best place in town for lunch, and she suggested I ride my bike out to the marina across from the state park, where was a restaurant with a patio overlooking the water. 

I never had oysters before, so I scratched off a bucket-list item.

After lunch I rode back to the bank, loaded my bike onto my car, and headed for the next destination, Clearwater, Florida, where my sister-in-law lives.