Good news: Dignified Transfer of South Boston has begun limousine service to and from the Raleigh-Durham airport several times a day. Price is $55 each way. Trips to the Danville casino are $45. Details are here: https://www.dignifiedtransfer.com/copy-of-special-services-divsion
I wasn’t keen on Pickett’s idea to open a bed & breakfast. Strangers wouldinvade our house. I would have to stop leaving my shoes and socks in the living room. When I travel, I prefer hotels, where I don’t have to interact with people.
But what was I going to do? Forbid it? Then it would be, “So long, Mike!”
So our summer home in Cluster Springs opened to guests in 1988 as Oak Grove Plantation but later changed to Oak Grove Bed & Breakfast. The visitors stayed in two rooms on the second floor but had to come downstairs to use the bathroom that we shared with them.
That isn’t what guests want these days, so she had a second bathroom built on the second floor. I remember helping Pickett clean the newly built sink just as the new guests arrived. That’s OK—I’m good on deadline.
In those days, people found out about us through guidebooks, a much simpler forum than today’s online reservation systems. We tried lots of gimmicks: a cooking class weekend, a wellness camp, family friendly activities. Not much worked when we were trying to get people to come to a farm in the heat of July and August.
But she was bent on expansion: the former office was converted to the Library, lined with books and my grandfather’s 1880s typewriter. When a falling tree destroyed the little rental house next door, she remodeled it as a cottage for the B&B.
I can’t fix anything myself, but Pickett was great at recruiting repair and construction help, including Joe, a 52-year-old who was a preschool student of hers in Washington, D.C., 50 years ago.
Then we made the best of a bad situation. We were terrified spending most of the year on the 14th floor of an Arlington apartment building in 2000 when covid hit. We moved to Oak Grove temporarily but decided to stay.
Open year around, we could get steady business especially in spring and fall, when the weather is better. A major source was VirginiaIinternational Raceway.
I’m not much of a host, but I’m an experienced professional busboy. I was good at helping out at breakfast and chatting with the guests. Some of the fascinating people we met were good sources for news stories. I was especially interested in a guy who rode a bike across the state. He wrote back that his visit was the highlight of his trip.
Best is coming across musical people who asked to hear me play the piano. I have accompanied several singers and made videos with one of them. She is coming back again this fall.
We often say, “We don’t travel a lot. People just come to us.”
Thomas Day House Open to All
One of the area’s finest attractions is finally open for visitors five days a week. What? Did a new Disney park open up here? Six Flags, maybe?
No, I am talking about the Thomas Day House, the restored home and workshop an African-American man who was North Carolina’s largest furniture manufacturer before the Civil War.
Southside Virginia is filled with his works, including some at my house in Cluster Springs. He made tables, cradles, coffins, mantel pieces, stair brackets, newel posts and door frames using curves around elongated scroll shapes.
Just across the border in Milton, N.C., the museum used to be open only by appointment. Since mid-May, there has been a staff of five to maintain the house and show people around from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Tours are held at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. $2 for adults, $1 for children, seniors, and military, no reservation required.
So you can just walk in now and look at Day’s work in the middle of town. The site is already receiving lots of visitors, including seniors’ groups on buses and many from Virginia International Raceway, less than 2 miles away. The town is 28 miles southwest of South Boston and 12 miles southeast of Danville.
But you should visit the museum now, because the place will be closed for most of 2026 for renovations. They will include a parking lot, elevators and converting the old bank across the street into a visitors’ center.
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For details, see: https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/thomas-day-state-historic-site
Are you a singer? Mike can accompany you on the piano in our cozy parlor. That’s what he did with several of our guests last weekend, including Melissa Gergen of Sandy, Oregon. Click on the link to hear them.
A huge new casino has just opened in Danville, less than 30 miles away. The $750 million Caesars Virginia includes a 587,000-squarefoot casino resort with more than 90,000 square feet of gaming space, including nearly 1,500 slots, 79 table games, a WSOP poker room and Caesars Sportsbook.
The resort is also home to a 320-room hotel tower, 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space that also serves as a 2,500-seat live entertainment venue, full-service spa, pool and a wide variety of dining, including Ramsay’s Kitchen by multi-Michelin-starred chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay and the 500 Block Food Hall by local developer Rick Barker and local restaurateur Steve Parry.
The 500 Block Food Hall features Southern Slices — a pizza eatery, Mill Burger and The Garage, serving barbecue. That section is designed with nods to the 500 block of Craghead Street, which Barker has been redeveloping over the last several years.
Other establishments in the resort include Threads — a bar offering cocktails, light bites and live entertainment — Starbucks, Dan Dan Noodle Bar and Three Stacks.
(Mike’s story): As a child in the California suburbs, I certainly never dreamed of helping to operate a bed & breakfast in Southside Virginia.
But things just happen. When I was living in Washington, D.C., I met this great woman, Pickett Craddock, who had a farmhouse with 400 acres in in Cluster Springs. She had no intention of ever moving to California.
I first visited the place in summer, 1981, an engineering friend told us the old building was a “bottomless pit” of future repairs.
But slowly, over time, she found the right people to help her fix it up, including Joe, a former preschool student, now in his 50s.
She had always wanted to open a B&B but was dissuaded on our honeymoon in 1985, when she saw how much work was involved at the Mainstay B&B in Cape May, N.J.
But she persisted and opened a summer-only B&B, Oak Grove Plantation Bed & Breakfast, in 1988. She even took the Mainstay’s recipe for California Egg Puff and made it into her signature dish, Cluster Springs Egg Puff. The B&B was open year-around (without the plantation name) when we moved to Cluster Springs permanently in 2021.
When I travel, I am more prone to stay at a Marriott or a Motel 6, but I went along with the idea and have found numerous benefits.
We don’t have to travel as much: people come here instead. Some of them were great news sources for articles. I savored talking to a guy who rode his bike across Virginia, stopping at inns along the way. There was an emergency room doctor, a race car driver, a musician who jammed with me as I played piano.
There have been a few bad experiences along the way. We warned a couple not to go into the attic, but of course they went anyway. It used to be a children’s school over 100 years ago, and it had weird drawings on the wall. Terrified, the couple fled during the night, figuring the house was haunted. They even demanded a refund.
One woman had very strict dietary guidelines in a two-page sheet of paper. Any Parmesan cheese had to be from either Italy or France. When Pickett was gone for a few days, I met this lady’s requirements for breakfast, but her sister didn’t like this food and wanted something different. So I made her French toast, which was awful. And I spilled a glass of water on her friend. We got a terrible review. “Fried bread” is what she called my dish. I have not been asked to cook breakfast since.
Apart from such disasters, there are heartwarming moments when you feel good about hosting guests.
A couple driving a Hyundai electric car from South Carolina called on Saturday night asking to use our Tesla destination charger. The wife, in tears, said the Christmas parade blocked the route to the Microsoft charger, and they had trouble using the Tesla supercharger at Sheetz. They were going to miss their grandson’s concert in Farmville. “We have called a tow truck. Can we charge at your B&B and spend the night?”
We were busy with a big event the next day at our house. Normally we have a two-night minimum, but hey…this is the Christmas season!
So we had a nice conversation with them later about the benefits and drawbacks of electric cars. People we never would have met.
Then, a lady called and said she was having trouble finding a room because of the opening of the casino Danville. Pickett scrambled to clean a room, and the lady is sleeping upstairs.
We don’t have a manger, but yes, there was room at the inn!
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Reasons for the visits vary all over the map: Weddings, funerals, reunions, genealogy searches, house hunting, car racing. Pickett does all of the cooking but she has someone help clean once a week and others to mow the yard. Me? Well, I help clean up after breakfast but can’t do much besides write press releases.
Business is better now that we are operating year around, with a lot of guests in the spring and fall (but not winter.)
What happens when we are too old to run this place? Your guess is as good as ours.
We just love navigating Halifax County’s Tobacco Heritage Trail, a four-mile path of crushed stone that is great for biking, hiking and horseback riding. Here’s why:
1. It’s rarely crowded.
2. The people are friendly.
3. The trail is kept in good shape.
4. Trees on both sides keep much of it shaded in the summer. There are picnic tables, horse stands and even a bathroom, rare on most trails.
5. Wildlife is abundant. There are deer, squirrels, rabbits, small turtles and occasional snakes.
6. The trail was extended from the 2 ½ miles constructed in 2006 to 4 miles in 2018.
7. It’s a great place for community events, such as 5K runs.
8. Parking is easy. The simplest route to get there is west on Edmunds Street and south on Railroad Avenue.
9. Its history is remarkable. Just off the trail is a Diamond Hill Memorial, a cemetery for slaves and others who worked at Berry Hill Plantation.
10. When Jefferson Davis fled Richmond for Danville at the end of the Civil War, he traveled right over this trail (well, not on a bicycle!)on the train.
Of all the locations for a new Spanish tapas restaurant, why Southside Virginia?
“I really liked the area, bought a farm and decided to open a restaurant too,” says Francisco “Paco” Arrocha. Located at 306 Main Street in South Boston, it’s called Paco’s Restaurant & Lounge.
There’s no questioning his credentials for Spanish cooking. Arrocha operated or cooked in restaurants in Spain for years before coming to this country, opening his own in Miami in July 2000 and another in 2006. He sold those and came here with his wife, Miriabal Fragas, who helps at the restaurant.
So far the response has been quite good to many of his dishes, not normally served in Southside Virginia: Ceviche, cod fritters, piquillos peppers stuffed with beef, octopus and Spanish omelette and some traditional American favorites too.
Says Denise Hudson, “the bolinhos de bacalhau is reminiscent of those I have enjoyed in Spain and Portugal. Grilled octopus is off the chart and perfectly done. Mushrooms with garlic, pork cheeks braised to perfection, beautifully sliced jamon and more. “
Says Alejandra Martinez, “The food we tasted was all phenomenal. Can’t wait to go back.”
The spacious restaurant is full of light, with a long bar not part of the dining room. Spanish paintings adorn the bright walls. Pin lights are hung over each table.
Pickett spent a year in Spain as a college student and adores Spanish food. She kept in touch with Arrocha and got him to cater three parties at our bed &breakfast for her former classmates. The paellas he served were delicious. And the flan. Ahh! The group that studied in Spain said that his paella was the best they had ever had. I knew the restaurant would be a success.
Arrocha has brought in three chefs from the Andalusia section of Spain. The serving staff, though, is mostly local, including some high school students. The phone number is (434-471-7025).
Our dining room cabinet is filled with a collection of fines china from Mike’s and Pickett’s families. When Mike told his mom years ago that he wanted to use her china for her 90th birthday, she responded: “Oh, no! I am saving it for something special!” Was she holding out for 100? Well, she almost made it–to 98.
Well, we are saving this china for something special: You. Come and stay overnight and eat with us!