Douthat Didn't Want Me, but I Was Welcome Elsewhere

Roller's Smokehouse in Iron Gate presented me with this gem.

A bright, hot, clear, clean summer-like day called me north today and I wound up in Bath County at the front door of Douthat State Park. Where an officious ranger told me it would cost $7 for me to park my car for a moment to take a photo. I decided against parking my car and drove back from whence I came. No loss for me.

I had already stopped in picturesque Eagle Rock where I shot the enclosed photos and in Iron Gate where I found a 5-star barbecue sandwich at an unimposing little roadside dive called Roller's Smokehouse BBQ. What it lacked in curb appeal, it more than compensated for with its almost awe-inspiring food, which includes a dropping-juicy, 3/4-pound hamburger with a slab of country ham on top of the cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, pickle, etc. THAT, boys and girls, was a burger.

I mentioned to the grillmaster that his barbecue was superb and that I was a BBQ cook, too. I allowed that his was better than mine. He smiled at my lie.

The food was worth the drive. It was all that Douthat was not (including welcoming).

Farm Supply Store in Eagle Rock has that Old West look.

The obligatory stop in tiny Eagle Rock, where the "downtown" is a bank of old, empty, decaying buildings sitting next to the Bank of Botetourt, which looks like Jesse James might have done some business there. It is definitely a 1950s Western movie set and photographing could be a full-time job.

Here's my impression of the day (which also included stops at the Heritage Family Market in Fincastle for garlic bagel chips and at the Daleville Goodwill--GWLtd--where something is always drawing my interest).