Days 4-7 in a Nutshell

We're home. Got home yesterday afternoon in time to rehearse with the praise band at Redeemer.


Here are some photographic highlights of the rest of our trip:



A foam dinosaur sculpture outside a diner near Natural Bridge.




Our first view of the Mountain Top Cabin at Rugby Creek.




We met a lot of friendly animals at Rugby Creek Rescue, including Huey, a 16-week-old donkey.

We got a full tour of the entire facility and met almost every single animal there, hearing every single story. All of the animals are like a big multi-species family. They all seem to know that they are loved and cared for.

Popeye, above, has only one big blue eye, but he does just fine.

We went boating on the New River. This is the first of two Great Blue Herons we saw.






The front of our boat and the route 93 bridge. Down the road to the right is the North Carolina Border.



We went up to the Grayson Highlands State Park, intending to hike. From the Sugarland Overlook, we were able to see our cabin! Five minutes later, a huge thunderstorm passed through. This rather spoiled our hiking plans, but provided awe-inspiring views of the curtains of rain as they crossed the valley to our west.



For the last two days, the mountains were assaulted by winds that must have gusted 40+ miles per hour. After the storms passed through, there was some pretty spectacular sky.

I also discovered the exposure and F-stop functions on my camera. I don't know what any of it does yet, but fiddling around with it did allow me to take some pretty cool pictures of the sunset.

Our last view of the cabin.

Vacation is over, and now it's time to get back to business. Will Power to Youth Richmond's Romeo and Juliet opens today. Richard II starts rehearsal in a week or so. The Training Department is about to announce its Fall schedule. I'm looking to play a big gig and record a live album in a couple months. And I'm really feeling the need to finish my musical by the first of the year. Let's get to work!