Week Four, Day Three:
Arrived last night the slow way – a gorgeous drive along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, trees rampant with autumn color three thousand feet below us. Yesterday was a day in the middle of a pause in our trip between teaching, showing, interviewing. Now we were absorbing, seeing, relishing, breathing in deeply – replenishing the well.
We arrived in Roanoke, Virginia, at dusk, surprised to discover yet another thriving downtown scene replete with art and craft galleries, upscale restaurants, sidewalk markets, chic boutiques, a prosperous city that seemed to be in the midst of major downtown renewal.
We took the pedestrian bridge over to the majestic Hotel Roanoke, passing walkers and bicyclists going in the opposite direction.
Wandering through the lobby of the impressive Hotel Roanoke we imagined ourselves guests, perhaps the California contingent of the just arriving RenewAmerica convention “dedicated to bringing a Christian education to every American child. ”
We ended our evening drinking beers, eating pulled pork and fried okra, and talking economic revival with the bartender, comparing notes on the various city centers we’ve seen on our journey, and heading back to our cheap hotel before the evening Karaoke began.
