Radford, Virginia

We made a stop in Radford, Virginia, on our way south to see B's brother. We stopped here because we wanted to see a niece who is working on her PhD, close to here in Blacksburg.

Since we have been away from the trailer for awhile, we needed to move some of our things back into it. We had picked it up from storage on our way from DC. After a long day of driving, getting lost because our GPS sent us astray making us late meeting up with our niece, we decided to lay over a day.

One of the things that B wanted to do was to get a hair cut. So the next afternoon we went into town and found a barber. We decided to take a drive along the river, the New River, back to the trailer. While we were driving I saw a two story log cabin down in a flat field closer to the river. As we went further down the road we say a sign. On it was written: The Ingles Farm 1747. The cabin was on the farm. We tried to go in to it but the gate was closed.

Now that wouldn't have meant anything to us if it hadn't been for a book, "Follow the River," that my sister gave us to read when we were at her place last spring. It is the story of Mary Ingles who was taken captive, along with two of her sons, her sister-in-law,and another man, by Indians at the start of the French and Indian war. She and another captive escaped in late September and made her way home, over three to four hundred miles.

We knew that we would be close to where she had lived but didn't realize how close we would be. Today, it is hard to imagine that this area was the frontier. It is also hard to imagine what she went through to get up the New River, through its gorge, and back to her home. I'm glad that I live now.