THE ANNUAL ROANOKE, VA
HARVEST FESTIVAL

October 4, 2008

Welcome to our beautiful downtown! Come and visit and walk around town. See all the beautifully restored and renovated buildings.

Partial view of the Market Square

The International Food Court & Specialty Shops.
They reopened today after closing for 2 weeks of cleaning, painting, upgrading.

The main level of the food court - food vendors along outside walls.
That's our Mayor in the white shirt on left.

Taken from the upper level. New tables and chairs replaced the old seating. Unfortunately, the unusual neon lighting decorating the ceiling is gone.

Making kettle corn

Full view of pop corn maker. I've never seen one previously in my 16 yrs here

Watch video of popcorn maker

Music provided by Acoustic Impressions

Bales of hay provided comfortable seating for the entertainment

A refurbished John Deere ice cream making machine

Here's my "John Dear" who bought some ice cream for us to share

The Market canopy. It's L-shaped covering two blocks of tables for vendors.

Our Mayor, David Bowers with his girlfriend. He is from Syracuse, NY! W e New Yorkers are all over down here now!

Horse & carriage rides are always a favorite

WOW! Ever seen a John Deere like this? Painted pink in support of Breast Care Awareness. The 1947 "Country Girl's Dream", is owned by Lori Feazell who battled breast cancer a few years ago.

Our mounted police. Look at the size and height of that horse!
I stood next to it to show how tall it is. I never realized they are so large! It was staring at me making me nervous.

This is bracket fungi found growing on the sides of trees and stumps. It helps with the process of decomposition of dead trees. This box is filled with fungi right from a tree.

Artist Penny Lane takes these pieces and after several processes included baking, she then paints them, making earrings, necklaces, barrettes. Here's a sample. She makes many colors and also paints designs on them.

I bought the pair on the lower right but had her change the posts to silver. Penny can be emailed at: pennylane@swva.net for info as to her next showing or her merchandise.

I'm baaaack! That's me on the same tractor as last year! They gave me a John Deere hat to wear this time. Turns out that the owners of these two tractors live near us on Jae Valley Road near Sterling Rd.

This is the smaller tractor of the two with spokes on the wheels and that's one of the owners standing with me for a picture. I'd love to drive a tractor!

John picking out some tomatoes at the market because the stand we frequent was out of them for this year. There's always great produce and great prices down at the Market.

A member of our Police Department Bike Patrol.

I saw this man coming down the block on a motorcycle with this little dog! I stepped out and put up my hand to STOP him because I wanted a picture! :)

Check out the special little goggles made to fit the little dogs head. So cute! His right back leg is stretched out bracing himself against the man's chest.

These buildings were under renovation last year. They are all finished now and look beautiful! The one on the left says 1904 at the top.

A watering fountain for all animals. One side for the horses, the other side for birds, and both ends for dogs. The gold lettering above my head and on all 4 sides says "He prayeth well who love well both man and bird and beast"

One of the hitching posts around the fountain

View of part of downtown from the top of the parking garage on Williamson Road. Hotel Roanoke in the background to the right. The green roof in the middle is the food court. The tower was originally the Dominion Tower when built in 1992.

Looking north on Williamson Road. White building on right in the background is the Roanoke Civic Center. Pointy glass building to top, left is part of the new Art Museum opening Nov. 8, 2008.

Looking across Rt. 581 to the Norfolk-Southern railyards

Going home, we were so surprised to find "Country Girl's Dream" on her trailer parked just before our driveway! They have a farm over there. I had to go sit on the trailer with this pretty tractor!