This week’s picture of the week is from a little adventure we took over the Memorial Day weekend.  Holly and I and two of our friends, Sarah and Jackie Mathis (pictured), headed over to Abingdon, Virginia on Sunday afternoon.  After checking in to our hotel we ate dinner at a local Italian restaurant, who’s name escapes me at the moment, that the hotel clerk recommended to us.  The food and fellowship were great!

    The next morning we made the short drive in to Damascus where we had found a company called Adventure Damascus that rents bicycles and also provides a shuttle service.  If you’re not familiar with the Virginia Creeper trail… let me just tell you that this is the way to ride bikes for the day!  The company shuttles you up to Whitetop Station and then it is downhill for 17 miles on an old rail bed.  You literally coast all day!  We took our time with it and stopped a few times to look around and just generally dilly dallied all day and it took us about 4 hours to get down.   Towards the end we stopped off and had a late lunch and ice cream and then finished the last 100 yards or so.  You can actually continue on all the way to Abingdon if you want, however there is currently a bridge out so we called it quits when we reached the bike shop again.  This is the kind of thing the whole family could enjoy!  We would highly recommend doing it, and we plan on returning in the not-so-distant future!

–Dan Thompson