We passed many farms on the way, and some looked to be a little out of use.
Hopefully the resurgence in demand for local farm produce will save and rejuvenate what's left. It will be a shame if they were to disappear...
When we got to Conway, we found ourselves just in time to join a healthy crowd lining the main street for a good old fashioned, ragtag parade...
...replete with classic cars, P.T.O. contingents and souped up lawn care equipment.
Oh and fire trucks, of course.
Conway has a cozy center of town, with the main structure being an oddly conspicuous, copper-domed(?) library.
The afore-mentioned local produce was on display, and the wholesome smells of apple cider, fried dough and pie hung in the air...
In the town hall were exibits of fine local arts and crafts. It's always good to see such old-time skills can still be beheld.
I often wonder how many of those skills will, or can, be passed on to the present crop of Guitar Heroes; can they ever pause the phone-texting, tweeter-writing, and facebooking long enough to learn such slow, subtle arts..?
But that's probably been the similar lament of every crusty old-timer (like me), since time immortal...
The main festivities were taking place down in a broad clearing near the town center.
Lots more arts and crafts booths here, along with other organizations and groups showcasing their wares and services. One group specialized in orphaned wildlife rescue and rehabilitation...
There was plenty of stuff to do and see, especially for the kids; such as various puzzles and games, a hay maze, a petting zoo...
...and for the more extreme elements among the elementary crowd, there was rock climbing.
There were also a load of events scheduled for the afternoon, and the biggest draw during our time there was easily the skillet toss.
The skillet toss consists of a large group of spectators tightly crowding around a small marked out rectangle...
...and then a succession of participants with virtually no experience tossing a heavy iron skillet as far as they can, ideally within that rectangle.
"Heads-Up!" was a common utterance around the perimeter.
Suffice to say, safety standards might be a wee more lax up here, in the rarefied air of the hill towns...
The other big event during the afternoon was the duck race. It started about a mile upstream and ended at a bridge near the center of town, so we were able to catch the leaders as they rounded the bend for the final stretch.
It was a heated contest with the ducks jostling and jockeying for position in feirce rapids. But the field crossed the finish line safely, some solo and some in groups...
...and thankfully, no duck was left behind.
We learned that the proceeds from the entire Festival of the Hills event, and the duck race, was primarily for scholarships for the local school system. But, first prize for the duck race itself was a cool 500 bucks, won by these two happy campers:
...fun and profit to be had, in yonder hills...
But looking through some books later, I found that they were actually probably Chinkapins. The Chestnut was nearly wiped out at the beginning of the 20th century by a blight probably introduced from the Chinese Chestnut tree. That once mighty and widespread tree now rarely grows bigger than 20'-40' and rarely bares fruit.
Then this main road ran out of pavement and turned into this:
This spillway probably hadn't seen water for a very long time.
