Shot by Dan

If you haven’t been over to Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke’s West End neighborhood lately, you owe yourself a visit.

Owners Mike Whiteside and Robert Kulp have assembled a huge menagerie of strange, wonderful and eye-catching architectural elements, furniture, artworks , signs from the past and bric-a-brac.

It’s the best gallery in town, by far, and there’s no entry fee.

Saturday, my son Zach and I stopped in there, and fortunately I had my camera.

To view the gallery, click on the bold blue “Next” beneath each photo (on vertical pix the link will be on the upper right).

But keep in mind this only scratches the surface of the treasures under Black Dog Salvage’s  40,000 maze-like square feet.

To see the whole deal you’ve gotta head over there yourself. (Fyi they’re closed on Sundays).

Next

There’s lots of action happening in a lot of places here with this “Occupy Wall Street” stuff, and it’s coming to Roanoke’s Elmwood Park Saturday morning.

Certain right-wing talk show hosts have portrayed the crowd as dirty hippies and anarchists. There are some of those, and many other normal-looking folks in protests that are growing around the country.

In the spirit of the Tea Party gallery we ran back in 2010, here’s a gallery of some interesting “Occupy” folks in other cities. Most of these were shot by a photographer in New York named David Shankbone. To go to the next picture, click on “Next” underneath each shot. (If it’s a vertical pic, the “Next” button will be on the upper right. Enjoy!

New York City | David Shankbone | Wikimedia Commons

Next

Zach Casey, 12, carries his bike over -- and under -- some trees that fell across the Greenbrier Trail in West Virginia during Wednesday night's storm. The storms in West Virginia didn't cause anything near the havoc that happened in Alabama, Georgia or Virginia. But thousands of West Virginians were still without power late by late Thursday afternoon, the conclusion of our 4-day, 112-mile mountain biking/camping trip.

We’re back!

Zach and I left Monday on a 4-day trip along the Greenbrier Trail in West Virginia. We started in Caldwell, WVa., just west of White Sulphur Springs, and rode up to Marlinton and then back to the car. We finished Thursday afternoon.

The plan had been to camp each night in beautiful trail-side primitive campsites. We camped the first two nights but a park ranger warned us about the severe weather slated for Wednesday night, so rented a cabin in Renick, W.Va instead. That turned out to be a great move.

The trail is an old C&O Railroad logging, passenger and freight line that was in operation through 1978. It’s 77 miles long and stretches from Caldwell to Cass, W.Va. We rode to Marlinton (milepost 56) then turned around and rode back. Here’s an article I wrote about the trail back in the 1990s.

What follows are pictures from our adventure. Zach’s been listening to my bike trip stories for years (I’ve been bike tripping since 1976). This was his inaugural bike trip — and he’s already planning the next one. Read more »

We’re trying something a little different today, folks: a kind-of slide show based on some gorgeous pictures a reader offered, that he shot Sunday at the scene of a brush fire down on the New River at McCoy Falls.

Richard Cobb is the talented shutterbug. I’m presenting 11 of his beautiful photos here. At the last one, I’ll have a link where you can look at the rest. Scroll down past the photo and click on Next to view his shots one by one.

And thank you, Richard!

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next

By Richard Cobb

Next