What can I say.... I've just been having to much fun to sit down and write anything, so it appears that there needs to be a little catching up here if I can remember it all.

   Friday started with a bit of a road trip over to the town of Wythville to meet up with a friend there. She had a meeting to go to in the morning so I just meandered my way over via all the little back roads I could find. It's kind of crazy back here for me because I just don't seem to be able to get my bearing most of the time. I'll be driving down a road thinking I'm headed northwest and look down and find that I'm actually going south or some odd thing like that. Makes me kind of humble as I don't seem to have that trouble most of the time out west. Must be a function of the clouds and overhead trees, and mountains in all directions. Or at least that is what I'm going with in way of an excuse.

    We had a nice lunch over at a local cafe in a little town nearby and then headed over to 'Shot Tower State Park' to check it out. Just as the name implies the park is dedicated to the 1st 'shot tower' built in Virginia. For those who don't know, a shot tower is a very tall tower, in this case a 90' +/-square stone tower built above a 75' deep hole in the ground right along side the New River. Hot lead mixed with arsenic and other materials would be poured through sieves at the top of the tower and would need to fall at least 150 vertical feet before hitting a trough of cold water. When done correctly the lead would have time to solidify and form nearly perfectly round shot or bullets that could then be used as ammunition in guns. The tower at this state park was mainly involved in producing small shot for 'fowling' purposes, essentially shotgun pellets. So the tower is still there, but the hole underneath, and the tunnel that connected it to the bank of the river, have been collapsed. Still, it was an interesting piece of history and I'm glad I got to see it.

   Stopped at another state park on the way back to Floyd and walked around some of the shoreline there. It is on a large lake and has a beautiful campground and swim beach, but I forget the name of the lake right off hand, and I'm to tired and lazy to go look it up.

   On into Floyd where every Friday during good weather locals fill the main street to listen to friends and family jamming in the little seating areas the city built in along the sidewalk. There were maybe 5-6 groups of 3-8 people all playing bluegrass or country music with a little blues and rock thrown in every once in awhile. We  grabbed some bar-b-cue chicken, coleslaw and beans to go from a local vendor my friend knew and sat and listened to 6 kids, from about 8-14 years old play and sing some pretty good bluegrass and gospel tunes. The banjo player was maybe 12 and he was pretty remarkable, but really all of them could play rings around anything I could do.

    Started to rain a bit after that so my friend and I went over and took a tour of this really, really old local cemetery. Kind of a neat experience with the rain coming down and the thunder and lightning all around. Didn't get out to read any of the gravestones because of the rain but it was nice to be there anyway and the look and feel of the experience will stick with me for a long time.

    Went in to the farmers market yesterday morning hoping to buy a couple fresh things and maybe eat another one of those wonderful blueberry, cream cheese croissants that I had last week. But alas, it was evidently not to be this time around. No fresh beet greens or asparagus, flowers or rolls. Not a big deal though, there was plenty to look at and I was simply killing time until my friend had finished up something she had to do.

    We had lunch in town at yet another nice little restaurant, 'Oddfellows'. Mine was a mexican themed wrap with chicken. Really good stuff, but huge proportions. We took a short road trip after lunch since it was once again raining outside. Lots of little back roads and a couple drops down to the edge of Phillpot Lake to show me some places where you could launch a canoe if you were smart enough to bring one along, instead of just bringing your life jacket and paddles.

     A short walk in the evening when the rain stopped for just a little while. Lot's of people in the campground even with the rain coming down, lots of them in tents and small trailers. I was very happy to be in a spot where I could be in out of the rain for the night. Made a really nice meal of Chicken Tangine, a recipe that I haven't used for 4-5 years. (I have it listed below). Still taste's pretty good and it is easy enough to even do it in the trailer, although it does take a little time to put it together. It rained pretty much all night again last night, but I didn't care. The skylight is still just barely leaking since I put the duct tape on and one of these days when it warms up and gets sunny I'll even do a more permanent job which I hope will fix it totally.

    Today, Sunday, was kind of interesting, I got invited to attend a Quaker Meeting this morning. So in the interest of trying to do and experience things I've never done, or outside my comfort zone, I said yes. Turns out that I actually enjoyed it very much. A very nice, excepting and inclusive group of people even to someone who was there for the very first time. Of course there was also the pot luck afterwards with all kinds of yummy food and good conversation. So I'm not saying I would be willing to give up a day of contra dancing or fishing with my family and friends in order to go again, but it would be something I would be willing to do once in awhile for sure.

   Drove over and hiked to the top of 'Buffalo Mt' this afternoon. Not too bad of a hike, but you did eventually end up on the highest point in the county. At an elevation of 3,971 feet above sea level it made me very aware that I have been living pretty close to sea level for the last 9 months or so. It also showed me that while contra dancing is good enough exercise that a hike like that doesn't kill me, I really need to start doing a lot more cardio work. A walk like that everyday would be just about perfect.

    Tonight I took in a local choral performance in Floyd. Made up of some of the local adults and some of the local high school choral group it was a short performance of only and hour or so but it was still very enjoyable to listen to and the price was certainly right.

    One last thing of note from today and tonight. As I was driving back down to the campground from Floyd this evening it occurred to me that I should of made a few phone calls that needed to be done while I had been in town and had decent cell reception. I did know that there seemed to be some reception along the way at the little town of Woolwine, so I pulled in to the fire station parking lot there in the rain and gave it a try. Had good enough reception to make a couple of calls and at least leave a couple messages at a few others. So I was there maybe an hour total while I jabbered on, what I didn't realize was that I had left my lights on when I pulled in. There was a bright sign there for the fire station that lit up the ground in front of it and my truck was pointed right at it so I never realized the lights were on. Long story short is that when I went to start the truck to get on out of there all I heard was that angry 'growly' sound you get when there is very little juice left in the battery. Knew immediately what had happened and was wondering how long it was going to take for AAA to get someone out there to jump me on a Sunday night in the rain. Was also feeling pretty stupid about the whole thing, but that isn't an uncommon feeling with me so I'm kind of use to it now. :)

    Anyway, I did what everybody would do which is to get out of the truck in the rain and open the hood up. Not sure what I expected to happen by doing that, maybe a magic genie would appear or something.... and then one did. Evidently a couple of the guys in the fire station had noticed me parking there and when I got out of the truck they must of thought I might need some help after all. So three strapping young fellows came out to see what was going on and to hear my tale of woe. I think it was mainly to get me out of their driveway where the firetrucks would have to pull out in an emergency, but one of them said to hold on and he would go get a vehicle and give me a jump. With three of them working it probably took all of 3 mins to get all set up and for me to fire the truck back up. I of course thanked them profusely and offered to pay them for the jump, but of course they didn't except. So it's times like that when I realize just how nice the vast majority of the human race are and just how lucky I am at times.

  But now it's time to finish up and get some sleep. Off to Roanoke in the morning if it all works out okay. Only a few more days to go here in this area and there is still so much to see and do.

Chicken Tangine with Sweet Potatoes

·        3 lbs Chicken Thighs

·        Salt and freshly ground pepper

·        ½ Tbls ground cumin

·        1 large onion, thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups)

·        3 ounces raisins (2/3 cups) or mix half and half with chopped up dried apricots

·        Pinch saffron threads, crumbled (Nice to have, but you can do without)

·        1 teas ground cinnamon

·        1 teas ground ginger

·        Two cups low sodium chicken broth or water

·        1 lb sweet potatoes (yams) peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        ¾ lb Celeriac (celery root) (or just use celery), peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        1 Tbls honey

(You can also add in a couple garlic cloves with the onion if you want, I think it helps the taste a little bit)

Rub the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and cumin.  (If you have time, let stand for 1 to 2 hours).  Heat the butter in a large casserole or Dutch oven and cook the chicken in batches until golden on all sides, 5 – 8 mins.  Add the onion and cook for 2 -3 minutes.  Add raisins, saffron, cinnamon and ginger and pour 2 cups of chicken broth or water into the casserole.  Cover and cook the chicken 30 minutes over low heat.  Add the sweet potatoes and celeriac and a little salt  and pepper.  Simmer the stew, covered, over low heat until chicken and vegetables are done, about 20 mins more.  Carefully stir in the honey, making sure you don’t mash the vegetables.  Serve with couscous, rice or crusty bread.  May add toasted almonds for garnish.