Amy was an accomplished actress when we met in the 1970s and worked for a while as the resident heroine on The Goldenrod Showboat on the Mississippi River in front of the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

In fact, it was her experience as a heroine that led the Alton Little Theater company to bring her in as the resident professional for a summer melodrama production in 1977. They asked me to play the villain and the rest is history.

Also a part of history is the Goldenrod, which has fallen on hard times in recent years.

The video above is a short history of The Goldenrod that I found on YouTube.

The song, “Thunder Road,” is sung by the late, great tough-guy actor actor Robert Mitchum, who starred in the movie of the same name.

For fans of singer and former coffee diva Sally Walker, here’s a re-edit of some video shot of her during a performance at Oak Grove Pavilion in 2006.

Damn, I miss Cafe del Sol.

Wanna save America?  Here’s how.

Our favorite hamburger joint in the early days in Northern Virginia.

In 1986, while living in Arlington and working out of Washington, DC, we tried a new burger joint that had just opened in a run-down strip mall at the intersection of Glebe Road and Columbia Pike, not far from the Pentagon.

That burger joint, started by a husband and wife with four sons, was called Five Guys.

Five Guys sold burgers and fries based on a simple formula: Cooked from scratch food served quickly.  The tasty burgers and boardwalk-style fries.

We loved simple food places with fare served at reasonable prices:  Bob & Edith’s Diner on Columbia Pike, Hard Times Cafe — a chili parlor — in Alexandria, Whiteys on Washington Boulevard and — after just one visit — Five Guys.

From 1986 until we left Arlington in 2004, Five Guys expanded throughout Northern Virginia.  When I commuted from Arlington to Floyd in 2004, I could stop at a Five Guys in Woodstock for a bacon burger fix and a cup of fries or visit the Five Guys in Blacksburg near the Tech campus. Another opened on West Main in Salem but closed last year.

Now you can find Five Guys around the country at more than 500 locations.  It’s a franchise but the food is still fresh and the menu simple:  Burgers, fries, hot dogs and a veggie sandwich.  Nothing fancy, just good food.

We mourned the demise of the Five Guys  in Salem but Amada Codispoti at The Roanoke Times brought good news this week with the announcement that Five Guys will open new spots in the area: One at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke and an even closer location at Spradlin Farms in Christiansburg.

Ah, heaven — thy name is burgers and fries from Five Guys.

Shot the first two images while on assignment in Paris in 1987.  The third was in the National Mall in Washington in 2000. Lovers can be found everywhere.  The Paris scanned from slides shot with a Nikon F2.  The DC photo was a digital image shot with a Nikon D1.

Hikers on Blue Ridge Parkway near Rocky Knob.

Sunset. Poor Farm Road. Floyd County, VA.  Photo shot on Droid X smartphone.

Had to search high and low late Saturday night and early Sunday for clear sky but finally caught the Super Moon in a couple of places in Floyd County.  The photo above was shot Saturday night along Buffalo Mountain Road in the southern part of the county.  The shot below was in the early morning hours Sunday as the moon set on U.S. 221 south of Willis.  Both photos were enhanced in Photoshop.

The roar of motorcycles announced a new batch of Roanoke Valley Harley Owners Group’s famous “White Knuckle Chili” is ready for sampling at the annual Virginia State Chili Championship Cook Off in downtown Roanoke.

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