Natural wonders

My mother is visiting from Kansas this week, which is nice because she will be here for Mother's Day this year. I'm working as a temp so I don't have vacation days to take, and consequently I'm not being a very entertaining host. We have done most of the nearby historical sites on prior visits, so mostly she is helping me get some things done around the house and yard. But yesterday we did get away for a drive down I-81 to Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge is interesting in a couple ways. It's an unusual and rather beautiful natural landscape feature. It's not the Grand Canyon, but it's something that you won't see in the Grand Canyon either.

It also has an interesting cultural aspect. It is privately owned and always has been. Thomas Jefferson was the first owner of the property, I believe. It has developed into something of roadside attraction. Much like all the sideshows that litter the roads around Disney World, a number of second or third-rate tourist attractions have sprung up around Natural Bridge. There is a wax museum and toy factory that are included in the rather steep $18 admission price. There is a nearby cavern, and a zoo, complete with a drive-thru animal safari.

Far and away the tackiest attraction, however, is Foamhenge--a rather tongue-in-cheek recreation of Stonehenge made out of large blocks of styrofoam. Its best feature is the free admission. You pull off the road through a cattle gate onto a poorly maintained parking lot and walk up a short but steep hill.

The interpretive signs indicate that the creator certainly has a sense of humor, e.g. "Construction of Foamhenge was the work of 4-5 Mexicans and one crazy white man"; a sculpture of Merlin the Magician is presented as one of the theories of its origin; and the sign admonishing visitors not to deface the "stones" warns that the owner may be hiding in the bushes prepared to do the same to your parked car.

But of course we didn't really drive to Natural Bridge just for the tourist experience. We went to meet another natural wonder, Bolt. Shown here is my mother (right), meeting Bolt's savior, Linda Dewell (left). Linda has brought me many nice dogs, most recently Copper (now called Cooper). She's the only person I'll take a dog from without seeing it first. She knows a nice dog when she sees one and she has never misrepresented a dog to me in any way.

Bolt is a Great Pyrenees, with the emphasis on the "great". He weighed 115 pounds at the vet today and he's not a bit overweight. He's a young guy, about 15 months old, very friendly and also pretty mellow for a dog that age. He was working as a guardian of a flock of sheep and was found munching on a placenta with the lamb still attached. Now, I would be inclined to give this dog the benefit of the doubt and assume that the lamb had been born dead, but the owners did not and they surrendered him to a shelter far down in southwest Virginia. Although he had been neutered and was supposedly vaccinated, his coat is one big matted mess and will need to shaved off. Bolt will be better off when we find him a proper home.

I've never had a Pyr, this boy is sweet, so it will be interesting to see what it takes to find him a home as a pet rather than as a sheepdog. Fortunately, he's an easy keeper, at least so far. He hasn't jumped the fence, he seems fine with other dogs, and he doesn't bark. Right now I'm looking for a groomer who can buzz off that matted coat.