Photo by Ken Odor
Steve Bassett (left), Aynsley Fisher and Calinda Benham watch a video of the song Bassett and Fisher wrote for the project, “Run the River Road.”

0 Comments Email Article Tweet This Share

About 15 Goochland business owners and other interested parties met last week to explore forming an association to promote tourism in the county.

Tentatively called the 35-Mile Drive Association, it takes its name from the distance along River Road West from Tuckahoe Plantation to Columbia. The group hopes to bring more tourist dollars to Goochland.

“It’s always been here waiting to be discovered,” said Aynsley Fisher, who along with Wayne Dementi led the informal exchange of ideas at the meeting at Javajodi’s Coffee Cafe.

Dementi said with the economy in recession, the time is ripe to promote “a getaway strategy” that focuses on day trips as inexpensive excursion opportunities.

And the effort has some financing behind it too, said Dementi.

Two thousand dollars of a $6,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Tourism to the Goochland Chamber of Commerce is available to help the new group promote Goochland tourism.

Dementi said he sees the 35-Mile Drive Association as an extension of the efforts of the Tourism Committee, which is composed of the Goochland Chamber of Commerce, the county department of Economic Development and the Goochland Historical Society.

The Tourism Committee recently produced a brochure “A Day Well Spent,” promoting the attractions of the county.

Fisher said she got the idea for the drive from a visit to Pebble Beach in California, where a 17-mile tour is offered promoting the area.

“River Road West is one of the prettiest things in Goochland,” she said.

Fisher said after hearing singer Steve Bassett at the North Pole in Crozier she approached him with the idea of a song promoting Goochland and he volunteered, provided she would write the lyrics.

“They’ve got the Dave Matthews Band,” Fisher said of the Virginia Tourism Bureau, “We’ve got Steve Bassett.”

That’s how “Run the River Road” was born, a song that shows signs of becoming the unofficial county song of Goochland, just as “Sweet Virginia Breeze,” a collaborative effort between Bassett and fellow Richmond songwriter and performer Robbin Thompson, has become for many the unofficial state song.

Dementi said another organizational meeting would likely be held at the end of the month, with hopes of coming up with a charter or mission statement.

Public events may follow, an art exhibit being one idea under consideration.

For more information
Contact the Goochland Chamber of Commerce at http://www.GoochlandChamber.org or 556-3811.

There are no comments for this entry