Went and did it again.... took off on Monday for several days at Virginia Beach and completely forgot that I had taken the computer out of the back of the truck and had put it in the trailer once I landed at my friends place in Floyd. So I apologize for not posting anything for the past few days, it was unplanned actually... on the other hand, I really enjoyed being unplugged from everything for a few days or so and just enjoyed my days out.

   So maybe a little catch up for any of you out there, but more importantly, so I can get it down on paper before I totally forget everything that has happened. I left off last Saturday on my way to Floyd Virginia and I am happy to say that I made it all the way into town and out to my friends place about 10 miles outside of it. We both arrived within 5 minutes of each other so it was nice to have her help in finding a place to back Esmerelda into where she would be out of the way for a few days. Rima, my friend, has about 22 acres of mixed forest and pasture ground that sits on top of a hill that sits above a very pleasant little stream. Of course the streams here in the east would be a decent river out west where I'm from, but that is totally beside the point. The point is that I managed to find a place to park the trailer, not too level, but level enough, but basically out of the way at least.

     It being late in the afternoon.... actually more like early evening, we headed into town for some food where we could just sit and talk while someone else did all of the cooking and cleanup. A nice meal at a local restaurant called Natasha's. A wonderful little place where the food is much better than one would expect in a town the size of Floyd. Good food and pleasant conversation while the sun was going down in the west. A fun couple of hours and then back to her house for a mug of hot tea before finally turning in for some much needed sleep.

    I slept late of course and then had an amazing breakfast made for me that included local farm fresh eggs along with locally smoked bacon and cups of steaming hot tea. Rima had big plans for the day for us that included going over to the 'New River' for an afternoon of canoeing. I think this was just payback for making her paddle with me while she was out visiting me in Colorado. Either way she knew a guy who had a place and we soon found ourselves dropped off 7 miles up river from this guy's place with the instructions to float on down and not pass by and miss the take out. Oh; he also casually mentioned the 4 class III rapids along the way and the several other lesser rapids we had to make it through. A beautiful, clear fall day with wonderful water and scenery along the way. This was the first time Rima had been on moving water with me let alone running rapids. She did really well however, even if she did yelp a couple of times, close her eyes and stop paddling once or twice. But only until I told her, in a very controlled manner, not a yell at all, to start paddling again. We had a really fun time of it and really did very well considering we had no idea what any of it was going to be like. Should of gotten out and looked over every rapid of course, but we didn't. Instead she foolish believed I knew what I was doing and just went along with whatever I told her to do. In the end we made it through them all with out shipping too much water into the boat. There was the one time my end of the boat got hung up on a ledge of rock and we had to 'rock' ourselves off, and there was the one ledge we hit perfectly, dropping over a little 2' drop and right into another ledge at right angles to the first one. It was a matter of doing a "hard" left turn and then a 2nd "hard" right to get around it. Thought at one point we might dump it right there, but we persevered and got through the whole thing with just a little spray at the bow. Along the way there were also long, quiet runs to float along on or practice paddling. What fun!

    Rima had to work a bit come Monday, but she made me breakfast before taking off for a few hours. Now you may be thinking that I'm a bit of a slug for 'making' her do breakfast for me while I lolled around until it was ready. But the truth is that Monday was my birthday and as much as I like to ignore the fact that I'm getting older, it is easier these days for me to appreciate little things like that, when someone wants to do it. A nice relaxing morning before we had to both get busy and packed up and headed east towards Virginia Beach where she had a 4 day conference to go to.

    About 6 hours of steady driving down out of the mountains and onto the coastal plains of Richmond, Norfolk and into Virginia Beach. We checked in and headed out for our first walk along the beach and boardwalk before finding something for dinner at one of the local places. Good food, I had fish, and very pleasant company. All in all one of the nicer birthdays I've ever had.

   Unfortunately Rima had to work come Tuesday morning..... but I didn't. Got up early enough to go out to breakfast with her at least, before dropping her off at her conference before continuing on to my adventure for the day. I drove the hour or so back up the highway to Old Colonial Williamsburg for the day. What a unique and fascinating place to spend a whole day at. Starting at a reproduction of one of the old plantations that would of been in the area in the late 1700's, complete with all of the out buildings, gardens, animals and slaves. It was a bit disconcerting to approach and talk to young black men or women, in period costume, who were also 'in character' as a field or house slave's would of been. It brings a whole new dimension to any discussion of a common days work and how things were done back when people believed it was okay to actually 'own' other people.

    On into the main part of Williamsburg where other people in costume, some in character, were happy to explain to you how wagon wheels were made or repaired. How food was grown and cooked and how some of our most famous forefathers once strolled these exact streets discussing the beginnings of our own democracy or our eventual succession from England.  Six hours was not enough to see it all, which is why when they told me they had a special deal going on for 'old' people, that allowed me to come back any day I wanted too until the end of the month, I jumped at the chance.

    Back to Virgina Beach that afternoon in time to meet up with Rima and wander the beach for an hour or so. A really beautiful place all in all, but the ambiance was marred somewhat by scores of F-18 jets flying right over town all day and evening from 8:00 a.m. to exactly 10:00 p.m. at night. And these jets were all flying at less than 200 feet above the ground as they were taking off or landing at the local military base just outside of town so they were really, really.... no really, 'LOUD'. It was hard to talk whenever they were in the vicinity.

    But we found the most wonderful little American Bistro restaurant to eat dinner at. Named 'eat', it is at the north end of the strip in a little unassuming building. We shared an entrée and picked a couple of appetisers to round out the meal. Our entrée, a NY strip steak stuffed with mushrooms, red peppers and herbs along with these perfect French fries. They matched up well with the summer soy bean salad and hot bread. What a great little meal, made only better by the warm blonde brownie served with ice cream a carmel wafer and blueberries.  

    Wednesday found me staying in town for the day where I spent several hours walking up and down the boardwalk and looking at all the kitschy stores that line the streets. A couple of those hours were spent in exploring the very first Coast Guard, actually the 'Life Saving Service' at that time, Station in the U.S. Lot's of old artifacts to look at including the actual building which is still standing there facing the beach. A fun time losing myself in reading about the first years of the service I spent several years in. The only thing that could make the day better was picking Rima up after her day at the conference and heading up the coast a couple of miles to see the very first public works project in the country.  We had to check ourselves in through the front gate at Fort Story Army Base in order to go in and visit the very first lighthouse built in the United States, Old Cape Henry Lighthouse.

     We had only an hour or so to climb up to the top of the 1st light house and look out on the entrance channel to Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk and Suffolk harbors. The lighthouse we were in no longer actually works. That job has been taken over by a newer second lighthouse about 300 feet away form the first one. There will be pictures of both at sometime though.

   Had to go back to 'eat' for dinner again. There were just to many good things on the menu that were still to be tried. That night it was the special; rabbit fricassee ravioli with some special sauce the chef made up. Along with that was a warm spinach salad with goat cheese rolled in panko crumbs and then flash fried along with pork stuffed dumplings and French macaroons for dessert. Yum!

    Thursday found me on my way back to Williamsburg to see some of the many things that I didn't have time for the first time around. Spent time in the very first 'Capital' for the colony where the English would have their Representative and family live while they were administering the King or Queens business. Later on Thomas Jefferson would be one of the first Governors of the new colony of Virginia and would live there until they moved the capital up to Richmond instead.

   Also took a tour of the Wyeth House, Mr. Wyeth being a prominent businessman in the early colony. He was also a lawyer and had a hand in teaching a young Thomas Jefferson in some of his studies. What was most interesting, and yes, even a bit thrilling, was knowing that the window seat I sat on in the room that would of been one of his class rooms had probably been sat on by Thomas Jefferson himself more than 200 years ago. How cool is that?  (I am such a geek!)

    I picked Rima up at about 4:00 and we drove south in search of a beach that didn't have jets flying over it every few minutes and didn't look like it got raked and combed every morning before the sun came up. We ended up on one just north of one of the state parks and spent a couple of happy hours there looking for shells and wading in the water. To cap it all off we had a pod of dolphins swim by just out past the surf line where we could see them coming up for air and cavorting with each other.

   The last night in Virginia Beach and we had dozens of places we could of gone for dinner but we once again found ourselves walking into 'eat' once again. The wait staff were already starting to recognize us and we did manage to meet and say hi to the owner and head chef as we headed out after our meal. He seemed pleased that we liked his creations so much. For us however it was just a joy to try yet another batch of food off of the menu. Another special this evening, grass raised leg of lamb from Washington State. To go with it we had grilled asparagus speers and my favorite, summer soy bean salad again. We also had to have one more go at that blonde brownie with ice cream. We left totally satiated but a bit sad at knowing there were still many dishes that remained to be tried. Perhaps we will make it back there again at some future time. For now though, I would very highly recommend any of you go and seek this place out and give it a try.

    Only a little more than half a day on Friday for Rima. I spent the morning reading the paper on a bench over looking the beach and taking a short nap after lunch. We started back west around 3:00 and promptly ran into Friday afternoon traffic out of Norfolk and through Richmond. We stopped in Charlottesville around 6:00 and had a nice meal in their old downtown area. Mediterranean food for the evening including pita and hummus and a nice leg of lamb dish with candied carrots and gratin potatoes.

   We stopped by the local Charlottesville contra dance afterwards and danced for the first half of the dance. Nice to dance again after several weeks of not dancing and what was really nice was actually knowing a few of the people there. We didn't stay for very long after the break though, it was already after 10:00 and it was another 3 hours before getting back home. A long drive for the rest of the evening, but really quite pleasant listening to some good music on the i-pod and talking about the past week. Sure felt good to finally make it home and fall into a real bed again.

    I slept late yesterday morning... who would of guessed. Finally up and about around 10ish. We ate some breakfast and then headed into town. First stop was the farmers market where we picked up a few fresh items from the local farmers before heading on over to the Floyd 4H fair to check out this years winners. Lot's of sheep and a few cows as well as some display animals including chickens, ducks and baby goats. The goats were just adorable to look at and pet, but they did certainly smell like a goat so I don't think one of them will be joining me in the trailer. Not yet anyway. We went on over to the Floyd General Store after sitting and watching several young girls doing their version of 'Cowboy Ballet'. For lunch we both had a hot bowl of pinto beans and cornbread on the outside porch while the rain was gently falling in front of us.

   Just hung out at home last night. I made dinner this time, yes I do actually cook. This time it was roasted root vegetable's that I first browned in olive oil in a 12" cast iron skillet, before throwing them in a really hot oven. For the entrée, we had bistro cooked steaks done in another cast iron skillet, along with browned sliced onions and morel mushrooms. It all came out much better than I thought it would and we both ate it all before settling in for some reading with a hot cup of tea.

    So I have spent several hours this morning catching up on everything while ignoring the beautiful day that is going on outside. On the good side it meant being able to actually sit and listen to a 'Prairie Home Companion' and 'Car Talk' all the way through. But now I think it is time to give this up for a time and get up and go do something fun. Will try to get a few pictures posted at some time, but not sure when that will be.