Creaky old bones: The beautiful Shenandoah Hills

Our last night of travels brought Alice and I to the Bent Mountain Lodge just outside Roanoake, Virginia.
We drove a paved road with lots of switchbacks to get up here but it was worth it. This is the view from the deck of the lodge.

And this is my friend Alice and one of her crazy Dachshunds. She refuses to allow herself to be photographed so it's the best I could do.

Since we didn't have dinner the night before we weren't going to miss it a second time. We asked our host where to enjoy a marguerita and he said Roanoke was 16 miles in one direction and Floyd was 16 miles in the other. The route to Floyd was flatter and marginally straighter so it seemed like a better route to drive coming home in the dark. We had dinner at a mexican restaurant in which the food was not good but the atmosphere was jumpin'. They did not serve hard liquor, only beer...so much for the marguerita; but the fact that it was Friday night Jamboree made up for everything. This was a true old time jamboree. People formed small groups, played together for a while, broke apart and joined other groups. It was like standing in the recording session for the soundtrack of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. The folks graciously allowed us to take their pictures and Alice even recorded a bit on her iPhone.