Party Like It's 2000

The wife and I are planning on leaving the area in 2007. In preparation for the move, I'm trying to relive a few of my favorite places and moments in the New River Valley. Since we didn't really have any plans for New Year's Eve, I talked the wife, Ella, and my friend Sean, who was visiting from Charlottesville, into reliving December 31, 1999 with me.


I've mentioned New Year's Eve 1999 before. For our last trip of the milennium, we went to the Roanoke Star and Miniature Graceland for the first time. It was a nice day, if a little overcast, and we had a wonderful time tooling around Roanoke.

December 31, 2006 was a little different.

To say it was overcast is like saying that France's military is a little incompetent, or the Dutch language is somewhat harsh, or Keven Federline is a moderately untalented scuzzball hack who prostituted himself for cash and a shot at fame. It wasn't just overcast; it was a three-dimensional diorama of Paris Hilton's thought process.

The cloud cover started something like three inches off the ground. Everything was gray, and visibility was approximately twenty feet or so. It was like being in Limbo.


It perfectly suited our moods.

We should have been scared to drive around in this muck, but we were amazed at the beauty of it all. It was a little clearer on the interstate, but the highway seemed to disappear a few hundred feet in front of the car, and every mountain's edge looked like a gateway to nothingness. In Roanoke, the cloud cover was a little higher, but Mill Mountain was still covered. It was like Mount Fuji, Southwest Virginia style.

We got a little lost on the way to the star, but ultimately found it. Right below the star is an overlook that, usually, has about a 60-mile view. Here's what it looked like on December 31:


That's my sister, Ella, dressed like an immigrant, circa 1906. Here's George in a similar costume:


As always, we had to take "Russian Heroic" pictures of ourselves at the star. Here's Ella, looking like a Soviet recruitment poster, circa 1947:



After we spent a little time looking out over the cloud cover shrouding the city of Roanoke, we went to Miniature Graceland. Surprisingly, we were able to find it very quickly. Every other time I've visited, I've found it overgrown and very shabby looking. This time, it was a different story. The Elvis statue had been cleaned up, and looked pretty sharp:


And the owner's son has done a beautiful job with Graceland itself. He's installed a little wall around it, and is in the process of putting in a replica of Elvis' gravesite. Overall, it looked pretty great. Here's Ella and George menacing it with their best monster looks:


And here's Sean doing his best one-man re-enactment of the history of Rock Music, circa 1976:


When we got home, we had a great Chinese dinner, then returned to the house to ring in the New Year. The next day was clear and bright.

I'm taking the weather as a portent. 2007 is going to be good.