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! |