Driving north, Rte 15 through Virginia

Having a rare opportunity to drive north without the kids in the car to get bored, and hating the inane traffic between Richmond and DC on 95 with such a passion, I decided to go offroad and take Route 15 through Virginia. It was a big commitment, basically 250 miles on mostly 2 lane country roads, often going straight through small town downtowns, but I went for it.

As soon as I got off 85 in Oxford, NC, I knew I had left the metroplex.  Within a mile I was passing peeling paint and closed businesses.  But Oxford is a nice little town, and I found myself wondering where it was that my grandfather had owned an auto parts store, where it was that we had owned a commercial building until not too long ago.  I'll have to have mom roll up there with me some time and point it out.

15 hangs a left off of main street and passes along a row of stately residences, many of them in need of attention, like many small towns in NC have.  And then, on the right, Oxford Orphanage.  I hadn't forgotten all about that place. We used to play them in soccer and destroy them.  I can't remember if we ever came and played at their place, but I do remember that it was always a little sad, they sucked so bad, and deep in the back of our minds I think we sensed a slight if unjustified moral superiority because we lived with our parents, or at least one of them, and we weren't poor.  But the school looks pretty durned nice today, I hope it's nice inside too.

On up to Clarksville, VA, which I knew in name only from the Clarksville Station steakhouse in Roxboro, across Kerr Lake. As 15 winds along the north side of Kerr Lake, on the left I passed, as if an apparition, the Wylliesburg Public Library, which appears to be a converted old country store, a one-room library, maybe 5,000 volumes, plate glass, lit warmly inside on a rainy day. In the middle of nowhere.  Beautiful.  I needed to go to the bathroom and considered stopping in, because I didn't need gas or a soda or anything, and would rather make a contribution to a library then make a purchase to be polite, but it had come up too quickly on my left.

So I kept on, and shortly after 15 merges with 360 and become's King's Highway I stopped at a country store.  Outside a couple of black guys were stopped to talk.  One looked like maybe a preacher, or at least a deacon, wearing some slacks and a short-sleeved shirt with a tie, the other in jeans and t-shirt, but both pretty country. They were pointing at a picture on a flyer that said "Missing", and it depicted a middle-aged black woman.  And they both knew her.  "I can't believe she's missing....."