In 1839, when a second college began operations, Farmville became the first town in America to have two schools of higher education.

When I planned out this trip, I had only two things that I wanted to do in this area: 1) Visit Appomattox, which we accomplished yesterday. 2) Bike the High Bridge Trail.

The High Bridge Trail is a 30-mile long rails-to-trails bike and hiking route. The main attraction is the historic High Bridge. Originally built in 1850 as a railroad bridge for the South Side Railroad to span the Appomattox river and accompanying deep and wide river valley, it played a pivotal role in Lee’s retreat. Although Lee’s army partially destroyed the bridge to keep the pursuing Union army from using it, Grant’s army still got across, allowing them to get in front of Lee and forcing Lee’s surrender.

After the war, the bridge was repaired and then rebuilt again in 1914. The South Side Railroad eventually became part of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Norfolk abandoned the line in 2005. The bridge and the railroad right-of-way became part of the High Bridge Trail State Park, a 30-mile narrow park not much wider than the railroad right-of-way. The trail officially opened in 2012.

We used the trailhead in Farmville to access the trail because it was only 4.4 miles from the bridge. The trail surface, limestone as many rails-to-trails bike routes are, was in great condition. Our ebikes made easy work of the ride. The bridge was impressive. It is 2400’ long and 125’ high, commanding a grand view of the river valley far below.

We rode on for another 6 miles to the tiny village of Rice. We would have gone farther, however, rain was forecast and the sky had started to darken. Including the return trip, we logged about 20 miles of bike riding. As soon as we loaded our bikes in the van, it started to rain. Good timing!

A map of the 30-mile High Bridge State Trail.

The trailhead at Farmville, where we started our bike trip.

Above: The original train depot. Below: A scene near the trailhead.

The picturesque trail has an excellent crushed limestone surface.

When vines invade, they take over everywhere.

Approaching the deck of High Bridge. It is impressive and affords a wonderful view of the Appomattox River and valley.

Above and below: Yes, the two photos are nearly identical, but the bridge is so awesome I had to put both in.

Farmville had two interesting facts: 1) It was the first American city with two colleges. Founded in 1776, the private Hampden-Sydney College was established. Currently, it is a liberal arts college for men. Then in 1839, the public Longwood College was added. It became a university in 2002. It is one of the oldest public colleges in the country. 2) The Green Front Furniture empire. Dickie Crallé, a young graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, took over his dad’s small furniture store.

Dickie turned the business into a massive furniture outlet. Taking over 12 large old brick warehouses, formerly tobacco warehouses, Dickie jammed them with 80,000 square feet of furnishing from floor to ceiling, attracting shoppers from across the country.

Green Front Furniture is Farmville. According to Farmville lore, Dickie’s formula for success was to sell higher quality furnishings at a discount. We checked a couple of the displays in one of the buildings. Although we only saw a tiny fraction of what they sell, it seemed mostly traditional run-of-the-mill stuff. I don’t know much about furniture pricing, so I couldn’t verify just how discounted they were. What did impress me was how nicely they repurposed the old brick tobacco warehouses.

This 1950s diner next to the bike trail greets bikers with car-hop Americana burgers and fries. The eating counter and swivel stools are the genuine 50s throwback. Below: The sign claims that the diner has been serving since 1952, my birth year.

When you walk by this happy guy he starts spewing out all kinds of funny one-liners like, “do I know you? I can’t remember because me head is stuffed with straw.” He cracked me up.

Green Front Furniture had to be Farmville’s largest business. It is one of those authentic American success story.

Above: A black ‘n’ white photo of the original brick warehouse before Green Front took it over. Below: The photo I took of the same warehouse today. Green Front bought up all the large brick warehouses in Farmville and repurposed them into furniture stores - pretty cool.

Other warehouses Green Front took over.

Although not brick, this is another large store front for Green Front Furniture. We went into this building to see what Green Front was all about.

While most of the furniture displays in the store were typical, these love seats were unique to say the least.

So far, Virginia has a zillion craft breweries, a few wineries, but no distilleries. I guess that craze is yet to arrive here. I am confident that it will. Unfortunately, it is my goal to shed the weight that my sister so deliciously bestowed upon me, so I am avoiding craft breweries and restaurants with pie. It is working. I have lost well over 20 pounds. Of course, all of our hiking in the Appalachian Mountains also helped.

It mostly sprinkled on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is predicted to be our first all-day wash-out since the very first day we arrived at Big Meadows Campground. While the mornings have been chilly, the cloudless and windless days have rebounded nicely giving us delightful weather. With rain predicted tomorrow, we will look for a laundromat.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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