ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605210012
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 44 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
"MOM! There's nothing to DO!"
Sound familiar? Next time you hear it coming from one of your youngsters, load them in the car (or hop on a bike ... heck, even waddle down the sidewalk if it'll entertain them for a while) and head for one of these ideas.
Take a hike
One of the cheapest, and in this area, easiest, activities around. Rangers from the Jefferson National Forest recommend these easy, short loops for kids:
* Pandapas Pond, a one-mile loop that circles the manmade pond. Appalachian hardwoods surround the water, and beaver dams form a wetland environment nearby. To get there from Blacksburg, take U.S. 460 West, until you pass Virginia 621. Turn left onto Forest Service Road 808, just before the Giles County line.
* The Virginia's Walk, a 1.5-mile loop that crosses into West Virginia, then back to Virginia again. Mountain Lake, the highest natural lake in Virginia, is close by. To get there from Blacksburg, take U.S. 460 West and turn right onto Virginia 635 for 17 miles. Turn right on Virginia 613, the entrance is on the left.
Recycle art
The Blue Door Creative Re-Use Center in Blacksburg provides donated materials and a work space to develop artistic creations. The converted double garage - which houses cardboard tubes, wooden blocks, wire and other recycled "junk" - is located at 2612 Ramble Road, off Industrial Drive near the Companion Animal Clinic.
Schools, scout troops and individuals can join the center for a fee, based on ability to pay and the number of people who would use the materials. Money from the memberships will be used to pay rent and electricity for the storage space.
The re-use center is modeled after the Reggio Emilia schools in Italy, which try to promote the use of texture in creativity using artistic and aesthetic concepts. For more information, call Lynn Hill, administrator for Rainbow Riders Child Care Center, at 951-3636.
Head for the library
No, really. The Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library provides World Wide Web access so your children can surf the Internet from several computers available to the public. Eight terminals are available at the Christiansburg headquarters, and similar setups are in place at the branches in Blacksburg and Floyd.
The Radford Public Library has one computer hooked to the Internet. To make reservations for a 45 minute (or longer) block, call 731-3621.
World Wide Web access for Pulaski and Giles public libraries are included in their long-range plans.
Happy Birthday to you
According to several expert partyers in Belview Elementary School's fifth grade, Fun Challenge is the place to go for birthdays.
The family entertainment center is located at 360 Arbor Drive, near Lowe's, in Christiansburg.
Its centerpiece is a 1,300-square-foot, 16-foot-high enclosed and padded play unit, which looks like a colorful, high-tech descendant of a playground jungle gym. But the business also features five rooms for private parties, a toddler play area and a restaurant. The center offers a teen night on Saturdays, complete with a disc jockey.
Groups can reserve the entire place, or just the party room, and "party leaders" are available to play games and run the whole shebang.
For more information, call 381-2208.
Go back in time
The Courthouse Square Cafe, located at 20 W. Main St. in Pulaski, features portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and other '50s icons on its walls, along with dozens of 45 rpm records and pictures of cars and other images of that decade.
The owner, French Miller, said he wants to attract the teen-age crowd, who "have no place to hang out, no place to go."
Besides eating, teens can entertain themselves playing one of the four video games in a room in back of the restaurant. Or, they can grab an ice cream cone, sit down and start that homework.
Hey, it could happen.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. One of the largest play structures inby CNBthe valley is set up at Fun Challenge in Christiansburg. color.