Venture 9: Keysville Drive-In



I bet you didn't know there was a drive-in theater located about 30 minutes away. This drive-in, located in Keysville, would be a fun and affordable road trip to take a date on or to go to with a group of friends. Tickets are only $6 for adults and $3 for students and these tickets are for 2-3 movies rather than just 1. Another plus is that for every 2 adult tickets that are bought, the buyer will receive a free large popcorn. However, you would really need the free popcorn, because the concession prices are also pretty affordable. I've listed them below

Popcorn...............SM-$2.00 MD-$3.00 LG-$4.00 XL Tub-$5.00
Nachos..(available with cheese, chili, and/or jalapenos)......$3.50
Pretzels..............................................................................$1.50
French Fries........................................................................$2.50
with chili & cheese...........................................................$3.50
Corn Dogs..........................................................................$1.50
Hot Dogs............................................................................$2.00

Soft Drinks................................SM-$1.00 MD-$2.00 LG-$3.00
Pepsi Products,Brisk Iced Tea, Pink Lemonade
Bottled Water......................................................................$1.00
Coffee and Hot Chocolate...................................................$1.00
Kool-Aid Jammers..............................................................$0.75

Cotton Candy......................................................................$2.00
Candy......................................................................$0.25-$2.00
Ice Cream...........................................................................$1.00

Directions:

The address is 134 Three Sixty Highway.

-from Main St., you get on US-15 S for 16.5 miles,
- then you merge onto Kings Hwy/US-15 S/US-360 W (the ramp to S Boston/Clarksville) for 1.6 mi.
- You will then follow the signs for 360 and the drive-in is located on the right at a large blue building.

Venture 8: PAINTBALL! at ZwackerZ



If your bored with doing your usual thing around Farmville one weekend and want to venture out to a new place to do something fun, why not take a day trip to ZwackerZ to paintball. This place is about a 30 minute drive (23 miles) and has places to shoot outside and inside. The location is on a property with alot of land has a country scenery ideal for running around and shooting paintball. It's tons of fun if the weather's nice. They have an indoor speedball field, an outdoor speedball field, a brush field, a barn for scenario play, and a hostage rescue/S.W.A.T. building. They have all of the rental equipment available that you'll need, snacks and drinks, and a picnic area.

When to go:
They are open on Sundays from 10AM-5PM, open on some Saturdays, and by appointment on weekdays. However, on Saturday and weekdays you must schedule for groups of ten or more and contact ZwackerZ at anna@zwackerz.com or (434)983-3259 to make arrangements.
If your involved with any organizations on campus or like planning events or parties for friends, they're also willing to host these things as well and will work with you to schedule a time.
Their home website below includes more information about the place and their pricing
http://www.zwackerz.com/Home_Page.html

Directions: (Coming from Griffin Blvd. to ZwackerZ at 1807 S. Constitution Rte, Dillwyn, VA 23936 )

1. Head west on Griffin Blvd toward Appomattox St
2. Continue onto Oak St
3. Turn left at W 3rd St. for about 3.5 mi
4. Take the U.S. 15 N S ramp to Culpeper for 0.1 mi
5. Merge onto US-15 N for 17.9 mi
6. Turn left at S Constitution Route/VA-20 N for 1.8 mi
7. Turn left at Rd A

Zwacker Z will be on the left

Venture 7: Take a Hike The Cold Mountain/ Mount Pleasant Hike


If you'd like to take a day trip on a really nice day, this trail isn't to far away and well worth the ride it takes to get there. The view of the mountain range is amazing and will take your breath away.It's a nice place to hike to with a boyfriend or girlfriend and have a picnic or something when you get to the top. This particular trail is about an hour and a half away from farmville.

The directions to the trail are below:

-From Oak St. in Farmville-turn left at W 3rd St(US-15 BUS N/US-460 BUS W)
-Continue to follow US-15 BUS N/US-460 BUS W for 3.3 mi
-Take the U.S. 15 N S ramp to Culpeper for 0.1 mi
-Merge onto US-15 N for 16.5 mi
-Turn left at W James Anderson Hwy (US-60 W)
-Continue to follow US-60 W (36.2 mi)
-At the traffic circle, take the 1st exit onto Lexington Turnpike( US-60 W)for 17.7 mi
-Turn right at Coffeytown Rd (State Route 634)
-Destination will be on the right (39 ft)
-Go northeast on Coffeytown Rd/State Route 634 toward Ramsey Hollow for 1.6 mi
-Then take a Slight right at Wiggins Spring Rd (State Route 755)
-Continue to follow Wiggins Spring Rd
-Hiking Trail will be on the left

Venture 6: High Bridge Trail State Park

This is a nice trail to go on if you enjoy site-seeing, hiking or biking, and it's only located about 10 minutes down River Road when turning off of Main St. in Farmville. The Bridge was built in 1854 and had significance to the Civil War. Both the Unions and Confederates tried to set the bridge on fire at one point and the Confederates succeeded. The bridge is still there and they've built this trail to accommodate it, however the only downfall is that the actual bridge is in poor condition and gates have been put up to block access from walking on it. I think that having access to the bridge would definitely enhance the quality and experience of this walking trail and plans for this are in the making. Ric Losey, a member of the Virginia Biking Federation spoke with Park director Hougland, who explained that High Bridge itself has been made a separate project with it’s own funding. A $2 million federal grant aimed at developing the area made this possible and Hougland said that he expects this to be done 18 months from now.

Venture 5: Big Dogs Karaoke Night

courtesy of Mike Thompson/Big Dogs Restaurant


Sometimes I've caught myself getting bored with the same Saturday night routine at Longwood and have wanted to try out something different. Although I enjoy what I normally do on weekends- I was kind of interested in seeing what this "Big Dogs" place was all about. I would often drive by there and wonder but never actually go in and check it out.

When I looked at their billboard I saw that Saturday night was karaoke night and I absolutely LOVE karaoke (especially when there's more than one kind of crowd around singing). I thought this would be alot of fun so, some friends and I decided to go on in and see what it was all about. To say the least, we had a blast. Yeah, it was a completely different environment than what I'm used to, but it was alot of fun. There were alot of people that lived in the town, but there weren't many students there at all. The crowd from the town sang mostly country music, with some rock and pop- but it was pretty entertaining. Then,when karaoke was over, people went out on the dance floor which seemed like a pretty nice place to dance.

I'm surprised more students haven't went to hang out here, but hopefully with time that'll change. The group that's putting together "Senior Challenge" has started making some senior events like "100 Days until Graduation" at Big Dogs which I think will help in drawing in a bigger crowd.

What I was interested in finding out was if any of you guys been to big dogs? If so, What did you think about it? Do you think there would be anything special they could do that would draw in more students?

Venture 4: Twin Lakes State Park

I've been to Twin Lakes State Park a few times since my freshman year at college. Its a really fun place to go to when it's warm outside and another great place to get some good natural sun. There's sand all around the lake and it makes a great place to lay a towel down to soak up some sun. When you're driving into the park it's actually a campsiite as well, with a big wooded area, volleyball court, and public restrooms. My first time coming here was during family weekend freshman year. My friends parents had a picnic for us at the fairly large picnic area right in front of the lake. We brought good music, food, and a cooler. Then, after we ate we ventured around the lake, played volleyball, and took some funny pics on the campsite and playground in the sand. We even got in the lake too (which I don't think we were supposed to at this time of year) but we went ahead and did it anyway. It's definitely a fun little 10-15 min road trip and worth it when the weathers right, so we definitely planned a couple more trips back after that.


Location:
-Take a right on 3rd St. coming from Main St.
-Keep going straight and you will pass Sunchase on your left
-turns into 460 E Bus. which you will stay on for about 1.5 miles
-you will take a right onto Co Rd. 696 (for 5.2 miles)
(*There will also be signs to help direct you)
-take a left at Co Rd. 612 (for 1.7 miles)
-take a slight right at Co Rd. 613 (for 2.6 miles)
-take a slight left onto Co Rd. 629) (for .8 miles)
-Then you will turn right onto Goodwin Lake Rd. (for .3 miles)
-Twin Lakes State Park will be on your left (.2 miles)

Venture 3: Briery Creek+ Recap on Ventures 1 and 2

In Venture 1, My roommate and took the trip out and I made sure to have the camcorder at had for the whole ride. I got some pretty good shots and was pretty excited about it until I actually got there and found out it was flooded. The biggest part of that trip is the trail you can walk on when you get there, and although I still tried to make it still happen- it didn't work. To say the least, I ended up getting caught in some thorns in the woods while trying to make my way back onto the normal trail. When I ended up leaving, I was pretty disappointed but thought I could go ahead and use the shots anyway (because it was actually kind of funny). So, I uploaded them to my hard drive for another class and then they mysteriously got deleted. So that was that.

Then Venture 2 was also affected by the lovely snowstorm we had. However I do plan on putting up videos of these later.

Now, let me get to the Briery Creek venture. Briery Creek is a fun little place to go to if you want fish or if you just want a quiet get away place to go to to think about things or hang out with some of your friends on a warm day.That's what I end up doing sometimes. Some and my friends and I actually went up there Freshman year and laid out at this hill right beside the lake. We took a cooler and lunch with us and it ended up being a pretty fun time. It's takes about 10 minutes to get there and it right off of Main St. You'll end up passing Sheetz on your left and continue down the road for about 9 minutes or so. It's a street called Briery Creek Drive on your right about 4 minutes after you pass the turn for Hampden-Sydney College.