Highland Games at Mount Laurel, Virginia

Our dear friends, Bluebird and Roz, who live down in Patrick County, invited us to join them for a day of watching nearby Highland Games. So Mrs. Fuzzy and I made a thermos of tea, charged the camera battery and meandered down Skyline Drive until we turned off at Squirrel Spur and descended perhaps 800-1000 feet into the valley below and another few miles down the valley to Mount Laurel, the one time home of the famed Confederate General, J. E. B. Stuart. The last name should be a clue - he was of Scottish descent.

Here at the foot of the mountains we were captivated by feats (truly) of strength and agility. The normal games were there- caber toss, weight throw, hammer throw, sheaf toss... and also two others. One involved lifting a perfectly round 340 pound (yes, you read the correctly) stone above your head. The weight is,















of course, one problem, but getting a good purchase on a round stone is nearly impossible. The other category was a simultaneous dead lift of two stones whose combined weight was 770 pounds. There was to be another also involving a rather weighty stone but the second competitor broke the chain!

Like all good clan gatherings, there were clan registries and a pipe and drum band. In attendance were several heiland coos, as docile as our felines and looking quite regal. All in all, it was quite an outing. Thanks, Bluebird, for inviting us! We found the very next best place to Fifeshire - Floyd County, Virginia, and the proof is in the haggis... are we happy or what?