Following U.S. Route 58 for 500 miles across Virginia, Beach to Bluegrass takes a journey across Virginia - from the Chesapeake Bay to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. With a mix of history and legend, this illustrated trail of tales explores the Civil War stories at Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville, and Suffolk; haunted hotels of Virginia Beach, South Boston, and Abingdon; the waterfalls, covered bridges, and mile-high mountains of the Blue Ridge Highlands; and the bluegrass music of Galax, Bristol, Mabry Mill, and other sites along The Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail.
Weird, odd, and intriguing legends also lie along this 58-chapter journey - including Virginia Beach's famous "Witch Duck" incident of 1706, the April Fools Day joke at Mount Trashmore in 1992, a UFO in South Hill, Danville's "Wreck of the Old '97," a tiny hamlet known as "The Real Mayberry," Nat Turner's slave rebellion near Courtland in 1831, the origin of the mysterious Lake Drummond at the center of the Great Dismal Swamp, and why "Virginia is For Leaping Lovers."
Beach to Bluegrass spins tales of nudity, snakes, and a milk cow at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon; tells the truth of where Hank Williams died as 1952 turned into 1953; unfolds the story of Johnny Cash playing his final shows at the world-famous Carter Fold in 2003; and explains how the "Offset" came to exist on the Tennessee-Virginia border near Bristol.
Many stories, too, follow the footsteps of famous Americans, including Daniel Boone, Jefferson Davis, Douglas MacArthur, Gregory Peck, June Carter, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Eleanor Roosevelt, R.J. Reynolds, and Adolph Coors.
A bibliography, list of resources, and detailed road directions are included, along with more than 100 original photographs.
