This is a pretty town. it's very hilly, and there are lots of old, well maintained buildings and houses. There is also a College in the middle of town, with gorgeous old trees. On a Sunday night there wasn't much to do.
After some dinner at a local Sushi restaurant, I had a beer before turning in and heard an interesting story:
This area used to be called Asylum and apparently you can still find that name on old maps. There was an old-fashioned insane asylum here at least through the beginning of the 20th century. Below is a picture of the main builidng. It's now all boarded up. (By the way, the pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the landscape here).
Later in the 20th Century one of the State Universities took over the Asylum and it was then named a hospital for the mentally impaired. Eventually many of the patients were released into the community. With limited skill sets and income, many of them ended up in the local flop house downtown.
Then, a number of years ago, that flophouse was bought to be renovated and turned into a swank downtown hotel. The new owners gave the occupants $6000 and a scooter to get them to leave the hotel. Why a scooter is not revealed in this story.
"So now", as the local bartender who told me this story said, "we have a bunch of people who are quite crazy and run around on scooters". Like the lady who will always tell you, as a first sentence, that she has lost her umbrella. Or the guy who will always tell you that he's too busy to talk to you now, but please, could he get back to you later. We've all met people like that, but on scooters? That's pretty odd.
Overall a good day driving through gorgeous country. I'm vaguely thinking of abandoning the Quebec idea and coming back down here to spend some time exploring the Shenandoa Valley and Southwestern VA. We'll see.
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