The best of the New River Valley must naturally be the best in the world.

After all, this is the greatest place you could possibly live, right?

Sure we’ve got problems. We’ve got profiteering developers, drunk college students and a high-dollar bridge that doesn’t go anywhere. We also don’t have a good barbecue joint.

Even when you can rack up all the drawbacks, though, this is still the place to be.

I’m not sure I can tell you the big reason that’s true. But here are 50 or so little ones that appeal to me:

> Eating a chocolate-dipped cone from the Custard Corner in Christiansburg at one of their roadside tables.

> Sweet tea from a sweet waitress at Hales in Shawsville.

> Walking out of the Lyric Theatre on a warm summer night and finding that downtown Blacksburg is still awake.

> Climbing a mountain and looking at the view and trying to figure out what’s what.

> Wading, swimming or tubing in a creek, river or pond.

> Jumping off a boat into the dark waters of a Claytor Lake side channel.

> Folks who decide not to develop the heck out of their property.

> Toads.

> Driving on Seneca Hollow Road in the winter and seeing the longhorn cattle and the donkeys enjoying a bale of hay.

> The cow or cows with windows in their sides at Virginia Tech. (It’s a research thing.)

> Hills that don’t have houses on top.

> Clambering on the rocks at Rock Castle Gorge.

> Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant.

> Pembroke’s woodstove-heated Ben Franklin store.

> Buying candy at the Shawsville Pharmacy.

> A whole library of brand-new books in Shawsville.

> Knowingly telling out-of-towners about which parts of “Dirty Dancing” were filmed here and which weren’t.

> The golden days when most of the Tech students have gone back from whence they came.

> The Tech students who end up staying here for good.

> Giles County, except for the gnats.

> Chinese pancakes from the Oasis international grocery in Blacksburg.

> The elaborately carved chairs at Fairlawn’s Thai restaurant.

> Floyd County’s Indian Valley Road. Giles County’s U.S. 42. Montgomery County’s Alleghany Springs Road. Pulaski County’s Belspring Road.

> Pembroke’s two Little Giant stores.

> Finding U.S. Forest Service signs that say “Foot Travel Welcome.”

> Pearisburg songwriter George Clappes.

> The Newport Fair’s log-splitting competition, horse-pull and canned vegetables.

> Taking the road that goes past Mountain Lake Hotel all the way down the backside of the mountain.

> Pumpkin farmers.

> The Little River. The North Fork of the Roanoke River. The stretch of the New River that runs through the arsenal.

> Driving up a tiny little back road and finding out that a whole lot more people, goats and llamas live back there than you ever would have guessed.

> The multicultural crowd playing at the Blacksburg Library’s children’s area.

> Lion Dogs at the Dublin fairgrounds. Hot fish and cold slaw at the Mount Tabor Ruritan’s summer fish fries.

> Kettle corn at Sinkland Farm.

> Downtown Cambria.

> The Bolt Brothers bluegrass band. The Hoorah Cloggers. Scott Fore.

> Montgomery County’s Falls Ridge nature preserve.

> Giles County’s Glen Alton.

> Taking the lower trail to the Cascades. Going past the Cascades to the Little Cascades.

> Shawsville’s Fourth of July parade and celebration.

> Deep-fried biscuits with honey from the R&R convenience store in Radford.

Tom Angleberger has been hanging around the New River Valley for 35 years and writing about it for almost 10. He writes the weekly Field Guide column in Sunday’s Current and What’s On Your Mind in Friday’s Virginia section for The Roanoke Times. Some of his favorite places are gone now -- the Pembroke soda fountain, Softcovers used bookstore and the little store part of the way up the road to Mountain Lake -- but that just makes getting out there and finding new favorites that much more important. You can tell him about your favorites by e-mailing tomangleberger@yahoo.com.