Last weekend, my dad and his wife, my sisters and their families, and my brother stayed at River's Bend Ranch in Stanley for the weekend. We had the get-together that we'd been planning since my grandmother passed in February - we'd originally intended to go to the Eden/Stoneville area in NC, but that didn't work out. I think everyone enjoyed the alternative accommodations.
Here are a couple of links - first, to the ranch itself; second, to a previous post from an earlier visit, last October:
They booked the bunk house, taking six rooms - there is the capacity for more visitors here or elsewhere on the ranch. The photos scattered throughout this post are of the horses and cows on the ranch, hopefully with the scenery coming through in the background.After everyone got settled on Friday night we went out to eat at Sonny's Place up in New Market Gap - we arrived late, but our big party was taken good care of, and there were plenty of menu choices to satisfy every taste in the crowd of 13. The live music was good too.
On Saturday, we started out on a busy day. Errands to the Luray Farmers' Market for steaks and vegetables, then to Mill Creek Pottery - a future post on this one to come, and ultimately taking the kids to SNP to hike Dark Hollow Falls (which was very crowded, as shown in the photos).
I should mention the catering for dinner, which supplemented the cookout. We got some barbequed chickens from Mickey, along with cole slaw and potato salad. I'm forgetting some items, I'm sure, but we put together a summer feast.
After dinner, we retired to the firepit and sat around, reminiscing together. A nice evening overall, with thunderstorms rambling on the horizon in several different directions, the deer coming out and mixing in with the horse herd, and the fire crackling away.
It had been a very long time since we tried anything like this, and although dad was hoping his siblings and their families might join us, this was as good a start on a family reunion tradition as you could ask for, and hopefully we'll be able to keep it going in the future.
For my part, I enjoyed being able to show them Page Valley. From a scenery perspective, I was very surprised at how beautiful the little stretch of the South Fork is there along the ranch, just downsteam from Newport - the last photo here.
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