Many families are choosing to stay closer to home this vacation season. With gasoline costs rising, one-tank trips are becoming a more attractive alternative for summer travelers.
One way to enjoy the warm weather months is a bike ride along the Virginia Creeper Trail, a retired railway corridor of the Virginia-Carolina Railroad that stretches from Abingdon to the North Carolina state line near Whitetop.

There are many sites to enjoy along the Virginia Creeper Trail from Whitetop to Damascus.
Bikers can visit Green Cove Station, a restored 19th century railroad depot that currently serves as a U.S. Forest Service visitor center and trailhead for the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Creek Junction offers a good spot for fishing. Waterfalls are picturesque. 

Slumped in the waiting room chair, I dreaded the receptionist calling my name. Actually, I was hoping and praying she would not call my name, that somehow I had the wrong day or the wrong place, that the whole thing was a bad dream. I was there for a root canal. A root canal is a dental procedure used to salvage what remains of dead or dying teeth, or to extract information. Concerning discomfort, it falls somewhere between a beheading and having a hot needle poked in your eye.

The Floyd County Humane Society raises awareness for their cause.

In these economic times especially, Lowe said she wants to make everyone aware there are ways to save on groceries.

The bottle on my desk is blue and white with bold red print. It contains 8 oz. of a mysterious liquid, the ingredients of which I can hardly pronounce much less reprint here. I have never seen a product label exactly like this one. It reads “Wash Away Your Sins Hand Cleanser.”

When the minister arrived at the nursing home, he found his parishioner sitting alone in her room. “I am worried sick,” the 95-year-old woman explained. Trying to pinpoint the source of her anxiety, her minister began to question the woman.

“He’s got the whole world in his hands…” Laurie London first recorded this popular spiritual in 1958; it eventually went all the way to # 1. Simple lyrics coupled with a melodious tune have sustained the music’s popularity through the years. Most of us find it comforting to think that the world and our very lives do not simply spin unfettered in space, but rest firmly in the grasp of the almighty. However, I wonder what the song sounds like in Cantonese. I wonder if they have ever sung it in China. If so, do they still?

I was born in Bristol, Tenn., and spent most of my youth in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina. I also lived in several places in the Deep South growing up and, after college, spent five years with my Wytheville-born wife in New York City.

There is a new church in Wales. Founded by two cousins, Barney and Michael Jones, it is the Church of Jediism.