14- COVERED BRIDGES...Kissin' Bridges!

"Shhh, no one can see us...no parents, no neighbors....!", as the pair slowly rode in their buggy through the covered bridge. The muffled clopping of the horse's hooves on the old warn wooden floor planks was the only sound from inside, to the outside world.
"What about that big owl perched up in the rafters...or is that an...owl?"
This native Virginian, educator, author and Americana aficionado fell in like with those wooden bridges built over a 100 years ago long before Clint Eastwood spent a week in Iowa photographing them for National Geo and washing up for Merle Streep's supper. I've spent a decade or so saving their charms on film and in my mind, though.
Giles County, way out past Blacksburg, has three. And Shenandoah County north of New Market is home to two. Two of those are my faves.
The obvious quesion is why? Some believe that is was for a safe ride through, portal to portal, for horses, so that the babbling water wouldn't spook them. The most logical reason was to protect the wooden undersides from wear and weather.
You need to go on an ADVENTURE, exploring one of these wooden constructions soon and add to your list of things to do. My list of lifetime adventures began in college and continues today, marking off the ones accomplished or experienced. And adding more fresh ones that tweak my adventurous and challenged mind.
The bridges were designed and built by hand, with simple tools, long before current trends. And they just don't make them anymore. That's why we MUST value the wooden works of art and save them for posterity...we must.
The long Meems Bottom Bridge in Shenandoah County north of New Market beckons me whenever a trip to the Shenandoah Valley is on my agenda for photograpy and research. My Sociology classes, each semester, loved to end their "Culture Trip" on a 44-seat Oleta bus there, as darkness approached. I always told them the ghost story about the Rebel soldier...hmmm. When our school administrator decided, on his own, that our trip was not associated enough with learning, the fabulous trips were no more. It's great not to have to go through narrowminded administrators ever again! Hundreds of sosh! students remember the "Culture Trips" so well!
My fave, though, is a small covered bridge off Rte. 42. Picture perfect. The little gem sits in a small valley below the country road betwee the mountains, in Giles County. That's near Blacksburg...a romantic setting, by gosh, for my date.
Ready for "So...What Is Love?" II?...the next "the squire's way" blog, please.