Day Four; piggies, springs, snails, frogs.

Day Four.

Ashley and I got up extra early on Monday so that we could see the pigs eating. We were introduced to all the pigs and even got a brief story about many of them. After another quick walk around the property we headed back to the house for breakfast.

We were served grapefruit and pancakes with soy sausage. I have never been a grapefruit fan but it had been years since I had tried one. I took a breathe and dove it! Minutes later, it was gone. I really enjoyed it. The pancakes were light and fluffy with nice blueberries in them as well. The breakfast was one of the best meals of the trip and a great way to start the day.

Soon after breakfast we headed west. We stopped at a cafe in Lexington Virginia for lunch but I was in potato-head mode and forgot my camera in the car. Then we were off to try and find Falling Spring Falls.


Falling Spring Falls was another late addition to the trip plan. It is not in a state or national park. It is simply at on overlook off a rural route in the mountains of George Washington National Forest. This may have been the most impressive falls I have ever seen. It was amazing. Despite a rugged, ill conceived trail, we hiked to the bottom as well. Shelled snails littered the rocky travel to the bottom on the falls.


We spent several hours enjoying the beauty of the crashing water and the rolling water of the rocks below. We both climbed our way into the falls (which was freezing cold) and even saw a huge crawfish. There was so much mist coming off the falls that it looked like it was raining.
 



Serene would be a good word for this place. Sometimes pictures do not really do a wonder like this justice.When we finally decided to leave we were confronted with several hours of driving around very winding mountain roads all the way to Blacksburg Virginia. Ashley had found a few nice spots for vegan treats starting with a restaurant called Gillie's. This was a strange place. It was advertised on the sign outside as vegetarian but they had a lot of seafood on the menu.

It was a bit of a struggle to find the vegan options but our server was very nice and we believe he did his best with a difficult kitchen staff. Eventually, we got our vegan items. We shared some nachos with vegan cheese, Ashley got Seitan Gado-Gado with a caesar salad and I settled on a seitan and rice veggie burger. I was slightly grumpy since getting a veggie burger seemed like it was not memorable as I had wanted. Luckily, the nachos we fantastic! We tore them up. We also got a slice of their chocolate mouse pie to go, as a bedtime snack.

We rushed out of Gillie's in time to reach Chocolate Spike. They had many varieties of vegan chocolate. I got all sorts of weird shaped chocolates. Turtles, storks, cowboy hat, frog, etc.


We stayed in Blacksburg that night before taking the drive to south east Kentucky the following day. I took us a little while to find a place that we were comfortable with but we managed.