Looking for LOVE, Still

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have periodically seen LOVEwork images popping up on my feed. Even though I haven’t been posting as regularly here on the blog, I have still been looking for LOVE signs. In fact, I visited some on my impromptu getaway back in June.

When I came up with the idea of visiting LOVEworks around Virginia, one of the “rules” I set for myself was that a picture was required. Not just any picture, an image I captured myself, or that someone else captured with me in the shot.

A couple of years ago, during one of my solo excursions, I went far out of my way to capture a shot of the Gate City LOVEwork. That’s in FAR southwestern Virginia, a five-and-a-half hour drive from here (highway driving). On the same day, I also stopped in Abingdon to capture a picture of their LOVEwork. I stopped at two places in Bristol, Virginia, too. It was HOT that day, like in the 90s (F). And I was on my bike, all suited-up, sweating my rear-end off. I was really unhappy to discover that the Gate City sign had been temporarily removed, not sure why, and that the Abingdon sign had been damaged and carted off to be repaired.

That first experience going to sites only to find the LOVEwork missing left a mark. I faced a similar dilemma last year, when I was on my way home from down south. I’d seen a LOVEwork listed at FloydFest in Patrick County. I had no idea what FloydFest was or where it was, but Google maps got me there. It’s actually a big outdoor music venue sort of adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway, not far from the town of Floyd.

I think there’s only one festival a year, in late-July, but it’s a big one, spanning multiple days. I was there in early May. The place looked and felt a bit deserted, but the gate across the driveway was open, so I went in and puttered around the very empty place, looking for LOVE, to no avail. I saw a man at the edge of the property, near one of the buildings, so I motored over to him. He gave me one of those “are you a deranged alien” looks and asked if he could help me. Once I explained my mission, he said the sign had recently been unloaded from a truck after being moved.

“Can I see it anyway?” I asked, explaining that I’d been driving all over the state taking pictures of the things.

“Sure,” he said. “It’s way over there behind the bandstand. You were bold enough to come in here, you might as well go back there, too!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that, saying, “The gate was open!” in reply.

He laughed back and I went on my way.

That’s how I managed to capture what I like to call “Scrambled LOVE.”

The large building in the distance with the green roof is where I encountered the man. I think we both ended that day with a semi-interesting story to tell our friends.

Here are pics from some of the other LOVEworks I’v captured over the last year or so…

 

 

 

 

 

If you wanna see all of the pictures I have captured to date, you can go directly to my LOVEwork Log Page or click the “LOVE in Virginia” link in the navigation bar at the top of this page and follow the link provided in the All of the LOVE in One Spot section.

I think it’s kind of fun to see all the different signs in one big list. I’ll be adding more soon, I hope!