New Year, New Moon and Afton Mountain…

Can you call it a tradition on only the second time?

Well tradition or not, we rang in 2014 in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, Afton Mountain to be precise in a cozy little cabin.

My husband and I headed out of Richmond and towards those gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains; first stop, The Southern Way Café in Crozét.

This place has quickly become one of our favorite spots. Good food, great local beer selection and a little lightning in a bottle; that’s right ya’ll, Virginia’s finest White Lightning Moonshine. The walls of the café are full of photos that tell the Virginia moonshiners history and struggles.

If you like things a mite bit spicy, you’ve gotta try the fried jalapeno slices and you won’t be able to pass up the BBQ in any form, all done in-house. Ask for the midnight moon sauce, your socks will jump off your feet all on their own.

Back on the road and headed to the cabin to unpack. After a stop at the Greenwood Gourmet Grocery for some “good beer” for later, unloading and unwinding, we head over to Wild Wolf Brewery to kick off the festivities. Lots of locals filled the dining area for a RSVP only party, but we found a little spot in the bar. Although the beer was good and the food was on point, the hostess and what appeared to be an owner/manager seemed a little too overwhelmed or frustrated to afford us a friendly hello or smile. But our bartender made up for all that and she was a pleasure to have severing us.

Filling our evening people watching and bands & brews we end up over at Blue Mountain Brewery to finish up our 2013.

Some good bands were playing all night and we had a very enthusiastic sever that really made our NYE, even decked us out with top hats and tiaras! And yes, we bought the whole bottle!

Headed back to settle into the cabin, stoked up the “fire” and we were fast asleep in no time.

Thanks 2013, HELLO 2014!