My Mist-covered Mountains
Grayson Highlands area also fantastic. Blustery wind, cool but not too cold. Still had to put on the rain gear for the mist.
Much of SW Virginia was settled during the colonial period by Scots, Celtic and Welsh, who found the terrain similar to home (well, for a southern state). I attended nearby Radford University my first two years of college. The mascot and theme of the school is quite Scottish. Gallic festivals are held in the summer, and there is a symmetry between the local old time music and celtic songcraft.
Unlike my eventual alma mater (Va Tech), Radford had a smaller student body (a quarter of Tech), smaller campus, and a close-knit community feeling larger schools can't foster. It's where I first came to appreciate old time and bluegrass, offshoots of the agrarian and mining cultures that immigrated and blended in this region. This terrain lends itself well to the spirits of the music. Despite catching the Seldom Scene in Old Town Alexandria (my original home town) or listening to recordings of Dave Obey and the Capitol Steps my sister-in-law played, one has to hear that music away from the metropolitan areas, and in genuine locales like my favorite, the general store in Floyd -- a true one light town with a very sincere and earned Americana flavor.
These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
...
There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones
-M. Knopfler