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Roanoke - Star City of the South

Roanoke's history began in the 1740s when Mark Evans and Tasker Tosh came from Pennsylvania and took up land close to the salt licks where the Indian and animal trails crossed in the center of the valley. The first village in the Roanoke Valley was called Gainsborough (1834), and soon after became known as Big Lick. Roanoke County was formed out of Botetourt County in 1838 and had a population of around 5,000. In 1852, the railroad came into the valley, but missed Big Lick. So, the town moved itself close to the tracks and took the name with it. The previous town of Big Lick became Old Lick, and, in 1874, the new center was chartered as the town of Big Lick. Seven years later, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad came into the town and Big Lick was then renamed Roanoke. The name came from the Indian word "Rawrenock", which was a name for the shell beads that were worn by the Indians and were traded regularly.

By 1882, Roanoke had become a crossroad for the railroad, which soon changed its name to Norfolk and Western Railway. Because of its rapid growth, it was chartered as the City of Roanoke in 1884. Roanoke is still a center for transportation, distribution, trade, manufacturing, health care, entertainment, recreation, attractions, and conventions, and has been awarded the title of "All-American City" on three occasions. Roanoke's population (which includes most of the surrounding cities and towns) has grown to 283,218.

Roanoke has also been named the "Festival City" because of the many festivals held here throughout the year. Some of these are Festival in the Park (which is offers a little bit of everything from concerts to sporting competitions that take place all over the city), Downtown Roanoke's Railway Festival, Henry Street Festival, Vinton's Dogwood Festival (state flower, you know), The Virginia Championship Chili Cook-off (which, sadly, I missed this year and will miss next year as well...Chase has been looking forward to this one for a long time), and the Strawberry Festival (which happens around the same time as the Chili Cook-off so you can normally get some chili and strawberry shortcake all within a short walk of each other).

My favorite part of the city is it's most visible attraction...the Mill Mountain Star. It's a 88.5-foot-high illuminated steel and concrete star that was placed high atop Mill Mountain in 1949, and is considered the World's Largest Man-made standing illuminated Star (even though those blasted Texans tried to outdo us). It uses 2000 feet of neon tubes and 17,500 watts of power. It stands there as a "symbol of the friendliness, industrial and civic progress of Roanoke". Press releases began to identify Roanoke as the "Star City of the South" because on some night you can see the star's glow for a 60-mile radius. I have come to love this star over the years (as my parents and Chase can tell you) and my signal after many long drives to Roanoke in my 14 years of being away, that I am finally home (that is, if I got in before midnight because that is when Roanoke "goes to bed" and turns off the star). Again, blogger is being picky about which pictures it wants to upload, so please check out pictures of the Star at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Mountain_Star .

By far, the best thing in Roanoke, though, are my parents. :-) I will miss them VERY much while I am galavanting through Europe, but will try as hard as I can to return to see them at Christmas time.

Where do rocks come from?

This is a question many of us have pondered. Or, few of us...well, just Chase. Thank goodness my stepdad works at a rock quarry! He gave us the nickel tour, and we got to wear hard hats (which I look fabulous in, I must say...lol)! You can always know that anywhere you have to wear a hard hat there's going to be a good time.

We got to see where they were drilling holes for the day's 'shot'. They drop dynamite down the holes, and blow up a large section in order to excavate the stone that is freed. Large bulldozers pick up the stones and drop them into giant two-story trucks called 'eucs' which can carry up to 60-tons each. The eucs take these large stones to the 'jaw' which crushes them.

All of the crushed rock falls from the jaw onto a long conveyor which carries it out of the quarry. It falls onto a large pile. There the larges sizes of rocks are collected, and the smaller bits fall through to another conveyor. This conveyor carries the smaller rocks to another pile, where they collect and smaller pieces fall through to another conveyor and so on and so on. It goes through this NINE TIMES. Did you know there are nine sizes of rocks? Well, there are. And the most expensive rocks are the smallest. Neato! In addition to that they also use these mineral aggregates to manufacture lime, topsoil, and other various and sundry products you never imagined could be made out of crushed rocks.

Guys in big dumptrucks drive up to a pile of rocks, such as 4's, or 7's, and they fill'er up. Then they go to the scale house, where they get weighed. That's where my dad works. He weighs trucks all day long. Then those dumptrucks carry the crushed rock to places like, umm, railroads, and driveways, and umm, well I'm sure there are lots of other places that need crushed rock because that places stays busy.

After the tour we got to go to the very top rim of the quarry and watch the shot! There was a loud siren, then we saw a lot of smoke and dust and a rockslide, then we heard a kaboom! A loud, earth-shattering kaboom! We caught a picture of it, which is actually the first picture that you see.

All in all, the quarry was quite fascinating. Chase would probably like to go get a degree in geology so that he could work with my dad, but that would take another 4 years, and we've got other stuff to do.

Farewell PB Youth!!

Tonight was the final night that the youth from Project Badi are in town, and so they gave their last performance at the Bahai Center. I will definately miss them! I love you joonams!

More juicy Micah

This afternoon, Bahar and I went to visit Pooneh, Mahan, and Micah Ghiassi one last time before Chase and I leave for the Czech Republic (Pooneh and company will also be in Memphis for the month). All I can say about these pictures is #1: Check out the mother/son admiration; #2: Check out the hair!; #3: Check out me getting to enjoy the juiciness of a sleeping baby on my shoulder. He is truly a beautiful child! :-)

Project Badi in the 'Boro!!

So, tonight was the final fireside held by the 11 youth from Project Badi who have been in Murfreesboro (which is about 30 minutes from Nashville) for the past two weeks. These youth have sacrificed a full month out of there fun-filled summer to do service projects throughout Florida (Gainesville, Tampa, West Palm, and Ft. Lauderdale) and Nashville. There are a total of 55 youth who are participating in Project Badi, and who started their journey a little over three weeks ago when they traveled to West Palm, FL, to start their training. During the first week, the youth all remained together in West Palm to learn how to conduct Reading Circles, which are small tutoring circles conducted in low-income neighborhoods and are aimed at helping children with their reading skills. The children who participate are also taught such principles as love, honesty, respect, truthfulness, and many other virtues. After that first week, they all split and are sent to different regions...and we were blessed with 11 of the finest! I might be a little biased in my opinion, but oh well...I love these guys! I am sad to say that tomorrow is their last day here, and my last day to see some of the youth that I have grow to adore over the past year. They are holding a performance tomorrow night at the Bahai Center (they do skits, a rap, some puppet shows...MAJOR entertainment) and I am sure I will shed some tears. These youth are strong, radiant, and the amount of love that flows from them is something that is undeniable. They love everyone, unconditionally...and you can feel that just by being around them. THAT is hard to find. I admire them, and they are the essence of what I hope my children will be.

Who wants to be a Superhero?

Last night, Chase and I discovered what has to be the most humorous show on television...Who Wants to be a Superhero? It began with 11 people dressed in their best superhero costumes arriving at a home where they were contacted by Stan Lee who, for those of you who don't know, is the mastermind behind such superheroes as X-men, Fantastic Four, and many others. These "superheroes" must endure many tests to show that they are worthy to gain the ultimate prize...to become immortal! They will have their own comic book and movie on the SciFi channel...all from Stan Lee himself! If you have the chance to check this out, it comes on Thursday nights on the SciFi channel at 9/8C. (In case you're wondering, I do have my favorite....I am cheering for Creature and her crazy white dreads)

Sorry for the delay...

...but lots is going on here with our upcoming move to the Czech Republic! We have been working on finalizing everything and basically selling almost everything that we own! In the process of doing that, we have also had to go through a MASSIVE amount of JUNK that Chase and I both seem to have accumulated over the years. I can tell you that we have about 5 full trash bags in our living room right now, and I bagged at least 8 garbage bags full of things (mostly clothes) to take to Goodwill. Now, for me, this has been extremely freeing! I have begun to love the phrase "out with the old, in with the new"! We have even managed to sell both of our computers and, with the money we made, buy a brand new laptop which is a million times better than our computers combined. I am typing on it right now, I might add, and have developed quite a relationship with this beautiful electronic device. We continue to pray that our trip will go smoothly and that our life in Hluboka will be as amazing as we dream it will be...we hope that you will keep us in your prayers as well! God is truly leading us on a path of adventure!

We have also been blessed to have the youth from Project Badi here for the last week and a half! I am always so thrilled to see my joonams from all over the south, particularly the ones who I grew extremely close to while I was in Florida (namely Adelia and Jordan). These youth are truly amazing in every sense and I am always so inspired by their entoooosiasm (that's for Yasha) and love of the Faith. They get all the "afarins" that I can give! They were here just last night for a fireside that we hosted...but, alas, I have no pictures to show you now...I will try to fix that tomorrow. I will work on putting some pictures up from their performance this weekend as well...

Sooooo, since it is way too early in the morning and WAY past my bedtime...I must say goodbye. Goodbye.