I had the best lunch today. My friend here in Floyd, met up with me at a new place that she thought I might like. Micky G's, an Italian restaurant, is nothing to look at on the outside, being stuck back in a small strip mall just outside of town, but oh the food!

   It's really nice having someone local who knows all the good places, and in the case of this small town, nearly everyone in it. After getting a place to sit the waitress asked about our preferences and told us the specials for the day. My friend wanted some kind fish for lunch and the waitress found out that the the fish truck had just made it's delivery. Knowing the main chef, she just asked the waitress to ask him to make up a dish for her with only a few minor ingredient requests. It sounded like a great idea to me so we just ordered up two separate dishes and left it up to the cook to surprise us.

    My dish was a wonder fish steak that was similar to yellow fin tuna in texture and look, but tasted much finer. A light sauce of butter, olive oil, garlic and capers with some caramelized onions and garlic slivers on top and all atop a bed of fresh greens. Yum'

    Hers was a whole fish, which might of been fried a bit, but I think it was mostly baked as there wasn't any oily taste to it. This had a light olive oil-butter sauce on top with sun dried tomatoes. All served with a nice dish of fresh cooked pasta. On the side we also had a small appetizer that consisted of a bit of mozzarella cheese enclosed in a small ball of mashed potatoes and then, I think, rolled in panko bread crumbs and lightly fried until brown and the cheese had melted inside. Now how can that be bad?

   We had a great time eating and talking and left feeling fully sated and happy. What really amazed me was that the price was so reasonable that I thought at first it might of been a mistake. Anyway; I'm grateful that my friend has been able to take some time off periodically and meet up with me. I wish it could be more time as she is very good at finding the kinds of things and places I like to visit. It's kind of nice to have a personnel travel guide around. What has been really nice is that when she can't be around to show me cool things, she always has plenty of recommendations for things I can go see on my own.

   So that is what I did for the afternoon. Headed on over to Martiansville to take in the Natural History Museum there. A fun little place with some pretty neat exhibits. It was the 1st week of a travelling dinosaur exhibit they had come in, so I got a chance to really explore that. A couple exhibits about the geology of the Virginia area as well as plant, animal and fossil exhibits. Nothing really there that I haven't seen in some other museum somewhere else, but it was well done and a nice way to spend a couple of hours this afternoon.

    Went and did some grocery shopping afterwards since I was in the 'big city' for a change. Didn't really get a whole lot as I'm trying to use up a lot of what I have so I can really clean the place out once I'm back in Colorado. But one still has to eat in the meantime.

    Worked on some misc photo's this evening. These are just a few I picked from running around these past couple of days.

Misc Photo's taken in and around Floyd and Roanoke Virginia May 2013

A little scenery from a walk along a local river with a friend of mine. Made me wish I had brought one of the canoes along with me this year. Maybe next.

This little jewel flew into the trailer last night when the screen door swung open for awhile. It wasn't the only one, but it was the one that stayed put long enough for me to take a picture of two.

A closer view showing more of the color and texture on the wings and antenna. Note the tear in the bottom half of the left wing. You'll be happy to know that I managed to capture it and set it free outside with no apparent harm.




Noticed this wall while wandering around the streets of downtown Roanoke. It seemed a bit whimsical to me. 

A friend of mine took this photo of me. While generally not happy with most photo's this one was okay after some cropping. Still not great, but acceptable.