Pat and Sari's Honeymoon Bike Ride

Monday, March 10, 2008 - Wait for Bike Parts Day

Having a whole day and nothing we needed to do, we decided to see what South Hill, VA had to offer. The street on which our hotel was located didn't offer much more than a lot of restaurants, a few other stores, and a 3-movie cinema. We walked toward the center of town and were encouraged to see that there was a tourist information center and museums advertised. Things were looking promising. Along the main road leading to the center were a lot of small, nice-looking houses that doubled as businesses - insurance, real estate, barber shops, gift shops, jewelry, all kinds. The town center had a few larger stores including one very nice antiques store. As we turned toward the tourist center, we saw a large building that was being renovated. This turned out to be the Colonial Theater (more about this later). Down another little street was a Tobacco Farm Life museum, but it was not open on Mondays so we only saw it from the outside. It looked to have a log-cabin type curing shed and a drying area outside of the museum proper.

Close by the old theater was the tourist center. It was a nice brick building with a Norfolk and Western train car out front. Inside. besides the Chamber of Commerce and a car decal sales desk, there were 2 small museums. The doll museum was one room packed with a large assortment of dolls, once the private collection of Virgina Evans. The other was a train museum - a vast expanse with various model trains skimming along in different settings. One whole area of the train set was a depiction of South Hill in the 1950s. The Colonial Theater (see, I said it would come up again!) was there, across the street from a fancy hotel that had been torn down to build a Leggett Dept. Store which had since gone out of business.

We managed to pass a lot of the day wandering around the town and seeing its sights. After that, there was always the grass growing to watch.

Tomorrow, we hope to get the parts we need early enough to install them and get back on the road again!

The South Hill water tower

We stayed at the America's Best Value Inn; Brian's was a very good restaurant
right next door. This was the street we lived on for 3 nights

This is the view looking east from our hotel

Grass in front of our hotel - beginning of day

The South Hill, VA downtown sign

A hopeful sign of interesting things to come

Shops along the main street

Shops along the other side of the main street

The Colonial Theater, being restored

The Tobacco Farm Life museum building, with the drying area and log cabin in back

The front entrance to the visitors center

The Norfolk and Western train car in front of the visitors center

Part of the doll collection including antique doll carriages

Another small part of the doll collection -
these 2 pictures show only about a quarter of the dolls on view

One section of the train museum set

Another part of the elaborate train set

A model train going under a bridge

A model of the main street with the Colonial Theater on the back right and
the Hotel Nordan on the left (red building, green roof)

A close-up of the Colonial Theater model

Grass, end of day, not much to show for it