This is an aerial picture of  Philpott Dam and Lake which is located just outside of Martinsville Virginia that a friend was nice enough to provide for me. As you can see the photo was taken in the fall of the year and the scenery is beautiful in the area. I particularly like this lake because it is not built up and cluttered with houses, leaving it to it's natural beauty.

Philpott was built around 1950 by the Army Corp of Engineers and is still owned by them. It has several campgrounds, as well as hiking trails, boat ramps, and public access beaches. It covers around 3000 acres and has about 100 miles of shoreline. The fishing is great here, especially for largemouth bass, and it has more walleye than any other reservoir in the state of Virginia. The area is beautiful and definitely worth a visit.

If anyone is interested in a quality print of this drop me a line and I will put you in touch with the photographer.

Virginia microbrewery

Virginia is fast becoming well known for it's abundance of microbreweries and Franklin County, historically recognized as moonshine capital of the world, is no exception. Pictured above is Sunken City Brewery http://sunkencitybeer.com/ in Hardy Virginia, just a few miles west of Hales Ford Bridge at Smith Mountain Lake. They have a tasting room, pub, and a retail store.

 Another microbrewery close by to the Roanoke area (in Roanoke actually) is the Roanoke Railhouse Brewery.  http://www.roanokerailhouse.com/visit.html . They feature 3 different beers as well as seasonal brews.

I for one, think this is a very cool thing because I really like buying local all I can and keeping money in the community, and tax dollars in the county. Beer is no exception to this now in many parts of Virginia.