NIMROD HALL TRAVEL LOG
Day 7 – Around Nimrod
My husband and I spent the day in Clifton Forge (visiting Alleghany Highlands Arts and the C&O Railroad Museum) and in Hot Springs (at the Bath County Art Show). To get from one to the other, we drove Rt 606. Writing was never far from my thoughts.
In “War and Murder at Nimrod Hall” (forthcoming in February, 2016, in the next volume of Virginia Is For Mysteries) Clara and Major Bruce arrive at Millboro Depot on the Virginia Central Railway.
And in my novel Nettie’s Books, people were always “in the C&O”–meaning the hospital in Clifton Forge–or going to Clifton Forge for banking or shopping.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll write more fiction set in this area. Just yesterday I was wearing a T-shirt that says, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.” A woman in a parking lot stopped me to say she’d first misread it as, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my navel.” IMAGINE THAT!
The road we traveled was full of hair-pin bends, switchbacks, and S-curves–not even a full two lanes wide. It reminds me of Kentucky roads of my childhood. I imagine Nettie and Roy (in my 1930s novel) would have considered this road a superhighway!
Tonight we had dinner in Hot Springs at The Golden Pigs–small, but excellent food. We liked it so much last night that we returned tonight.
And it came to my attention that The Homestead doesn’t have a lock on the steam from the springs!
Nimrod Hall, established in 1783, has been providing summer respite from everyday stress since 1906. It has been operating as an artist and writer colony for over 25 years. The Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program is a non-competitive, inspirational environment for artists to create without the distractions of everyday life. The 2015 Writers’ Workshop writers-in-residence are Sheri Reynolds, Cathryn Hankla, and Charlotte G. Morgan.
Nimrod Hall Travel Log Posts