Perfectly Amazing Small Town Visit

On the Blue Ridge parkway in early April, the nights were still pretty chilly & the campgrounds closed. So I booked an Airbnb in Buena Vista, Virginia. "I've never heard of Buena Vista. Does it have a nice view?" my brother said jokingly. I laughed, "I don't know yet, but if it doesn't, I'm asking for my money back." It's a small town, right off the parkway, not far from where I was born, but I hadn't heard of it before either.

If you've read my previous blogs you can guess by now, pre-planning is not my favorite thing. I just usually have a destination in mind and go. Once I was happily settled in my cozy Airbnb room, I looked for the two most important places in any town, local bookstores and coffee shops. Luckily, they had both in a historic downtown area less than a mile away. It was a perfect spring day, so I walked.

I saw a HUGE red house on top of a steep hill and a school with concrete wall around the parking lot. I didn't stop to investigate as I was starving and on a mission. I saw the Leaf & Lore Plant Studio & Bookstore first. It was closing in about an hour, so I stopped there first. The plants for sale were immediately to my left as I walked in & I forced myself not to look too closely at them. Plants don’t enjoy traveling in a car for days. The bookstore was everything I hoped it would be. The back left corner was a place to sample & buy locally made tea & ceramic mugs & in the back right corner, journaling supplies.

When I didn't see what I was looking for, a man who had been reading in the chairs just to the right of the entrance jumped up & asked if he could help me find anything. "Yes, do you have a local author section?" He showed me the bookcase, just in front of where he had been sitting. He talked a bit about each local author. I chose "How to Slay a Lion" by Jen Carpenter, then picked out another book that caught my eye in the fiction section.

The coffee shop was closed for the day, but Straws, a soda shop, was still open. It has a really fun drink selection, so I got a "Salty Dog" Gatorade blended with tropical flavors. The sign said, sandwiches "available 11am-2pm (or if it's slow)." I looked around & said, "it doesn't seem slow, so I'll just order a snack." She said, "No, we'll make you a sandwich." Most of the tables were occupied, so I found a spot at the end of a couch, near a plug to charge my phone.

Someone's stuff was on the couch opposite me, eventually a young man returned to his stuff & asked if I minded if he sat there. I thought, typical southern small town, imagine anywhere else where someone would ask your permission to sit in a seat he had obviously claimed long before you got there. Although I'm making progress in my 2026 goal of starting conversations with strangers, Benny, the young man who sat down across from me, spared me on this occasion by me asking questions. We had an uncharacteristically lively (for me) conversation while I enjoyed my sandwich & drink.

Then, I walked around exploring the town. According to a sign on a building, the population is 6002 people and 3 old grumps. Regardless of the old grumps, you can tell the residents take pride in their small town by the colorful street decorations, murals painted on buildings and curbside repairs in progress.

I made sure to walk by the huge red building on the hill. After spending the day exploring the Blue Ridge parkway, I didn't have it in me to walk up the hill. But I definitely regret that decision since looking up the history of the building to write this blog. It was built as a hotel during the 1890's railroad boom. Sadly, it seems like Buena Vista went from boom to bust pretty quickly as the hotel was only open for a few years. It was sold to women's college around the turn of the century and became known as "Southern Seminary" till it closed in the 1990's. It was bought by the Latter Day Saints and is now Southern Virginia University. You can read more about it in this article. https://www.gardenstogables.com/queen-anne-exuberance-the-buena-vista-hotel-in-buena-vista-virginia/

Originally Built as a Buena Vista Hotel in the 1890’s, now the main building of Southern Virginia University.

It occurs to me now that I never did find out why that school had the tall concrete wall around it. But after reading the book, "How to Tame a Lion" I did look into the history of the library. But if I tell you about it, I will spoil the big reveal at the end of the book. I will say I'm pretty sure the rock in front of the Buena Vista Library that says, "You don't have to be perfect to be amazing" is a direct quote from the book or maybe the author, stole that line from the rock. I don't know, but I'll include a link . You can try asking her yourself and tell me what happens. https://www.instagram.com/iamjencarpenter/

Buena Vista, Virginia is definitely a town I would like to visit again & recommend to anyone looking for a safe, friendly & quiet small town in the mountains, easy to get to from both I-81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway.