I guess it's been three days already since I last wrote, maybe even closer to four, but I have indeed been busy what with driving across nearly 4 states and battling bad weather and all. But it has all been worth it and today was a marvelously beautiful day here in the mountains of Virginia. Bright blue sky, lot's of sunshine, and a temperature, while not quite up to Florida standards but warm enough to be out and about. But first let me catch up on what has been going on these past few days.

    Started out at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning, a time, which in my mind, should be banned from use unless you are going fishing, hunting or on a canoe trip. But awake I was, and I soon had my shower and a bite to eat all taken care of. I had packed most everything in the trailer away the night before so it was less than an hour to finish up dumping the tanks, stowing the rest of the gear away and hooking up the trailer to the truck. The trip over to the storage yard took less than 5 minutes and was only about 200 yards away. No problem getting Esmerelda unhooked and set up in her new home. Got the batteries disconnected and the propane turned off at the tanks. Then it was just a matter of closing and locking the doors and getting out on the highway. I think it was actually 7:55 when I pulled out of Otter Springs campground.

    Emma took me on a round about way heading north and east from where I was. Finally hit the interstate and headed east towards Jacksonville. Beautiful sunny and warm all the way out of Florida and through most of Georgia. By 9:00 it was warm enough to actually be using the air conditioner in the truck to keep from sweating. I knew it wouldn't last, and around 11:00, a little after an early lunch, I crossed the weather front line and the sky clouded up and the temperature dropped into the low 60's.

   Pushing on I finally hit rain just south of Charlotte, NC. Of course by this time it was dark and near rush hour and pouring down at times. It took a little while to work my way through all of the traffic and out the north side. It was then only 40-60 miles (?) further on to the border with Virginia.

   By the time I got to the intersection of I-77 and Hwy 221, the turn off for Floyd, it was nearly 7:00 and my stomach was rumbling. Talking to Rima, she volunteered to meet me at a local restaurant in Floyd that we both knew, Micky G's, around 7:30 or so. I actually made it in less time than that, and finally had a chance to sit down and relax and have some much needed food. Wonderful to see Rima again of course, so we had a ton of things to talk about while eating some great Italian food. Just to show how Contra Dancing can have you meeting hundreds, if not thousands, of new friends, a couple I new from Florida walked into the restaurant while we were eating. Rima had known they were moving up to Floyd, but I'm not sure if I knew that bit of information, or if I did, I didn't remember it. But it was nice to see these folks again and spend a few moments talking to them.

    Very cold that night, but the moon was shining when we got back to her place, so it was really nice out. Also nice that the furnace was on and working and that some of the wood I helped cut up a month or two ago was helping to supply some of the heat. I'll tell you though, I was plenty tired after 11 1/2 hours of driving so I was soon tucked into bed, and most likely, snoring away.

    Tuesday was cold!!!! Lot's of hot tea in the morning while watching rain, and a little bit of snow, come down. By noon however the sun was out and the day was looking much better. Still extremely cold, but doable as long as you had a good coat or spent your time outside, inside a truck or car. That is exactly what Rima and I decided to do. She and I took off for Abingdon, a town no one has ever heard of, to pick up a new used car that she had gotten from one of her kids. Of course, since we were going that way any way, we stopped for lunch in the town of Riner and each had a buffalo brisket quesadilla. Man are those things good.

    Nearly two hours over to Abingdon and the temperature seemed to drop the further we drove west. Arrived there, it was actually Lebanon, but no one knows where that is either, and packed up some things her kids had left her along with the car. Of course when it came to actually start back the car wouldn't start having sat for several weeks out in the cold. We did manage to get it jumped however, and after stopping for gas, we were back on the road headed for home. No problems getting back even though it was dark way to early.

    Yesterday was clear and sunny, and need I say it, really, really cold. I spent the morning doing my usual morning routine of email, fb, comics and crossword. Also put together, and cooked up, a big pot of my chicken tangine, a kind of chicken soup, but with a Mediterranean twist to it. It finally warmed up enough in the afternoon that I could get outside and wander around a little bit. It's really beautiful here even without any leaves on the trees. A little muddy out there from the rain and snow that fell, but otherwise very nice. Wandered down the hill to where the spring for the house starts up. Really pretty down in that little drainage vee. Found all kinds of neat trees down in there including dozens of what they call black locust. These trees are every ones nightmare as far as something you do not want to run into by accident. I'm pretty sure that you could be really seriously injured, or even killed, by the thorns these things have. The one good thing about them I hear is that fence posts made out of these things are about as resistant to rot as pressure treated posts. At some point I'll end up down there trimming them all up so they aren't quite as lethal, and then prune them up with the idea of havesting them for fence posts at some point.

   Wandered the rest of the lower and upper pastures checking out trees that need to come down and used as firewood, as well as fence lines that need to be fixed. But it was soon getting dark out and, lucky for me, it was time to head into town and meet up with Rima. She was meeting up with some friends of hers that were putting on a pot luck style soup dinner, and then doing a brief church service/choir performance at a local church. Had a couple bowls of terrific soup along with homemade corn bread, and then took in the service and listened to the singing. Really nice to meet some of the local people and share a meal with them. Seemed like it was what this holiday season is really all about.

     Another cold morning today. I did my usual and then took off for town just before noon. Rima was going to be busy all day and late into the evening, so I thought it would be nice to meet up with her for some lunch at least. We went to Natasha's where I had her version of a hamburger. No one could ever mistake this for a regular burger.... it's just so darn good. Add some home made potato salad and some ice tea and you have nearly a perfect meal.

   Came back to the house afterwards, and even though the temperature was barely above freezing it was so bright and sunny outside that I just had to spend some time there. Went and grabbed an extra coat as well as hat and gloves, and then came out to do some mowing that didn't get done last time I was here. Had a hard time getting the riding mower started because of the cold, but finally got it to go when I jumped it with the truck. Rode all afternoon and managed to get the whole upper pasture cut and cleaned up. There are still areas along the fence lines that have to be cleaned up yet, but that is going to take a chainsaw and machete for a lot of it. The best part is that I finished up just as the sun was going down and headed back to the barn to put the mower away. Didn't quite get that far as the mower died about a 100 yards away from home and nothing I could do would start it back up. Time to check it out when there is more light out there. A little more warmth wouldn't be bad either.

    Just hanging out this evening trying to stay warm. Going to go read my book some and maybe work on some photo's. I hope that the weather will continue to stay clear at least, though it would be nice if the temperature would go back up to the average. But if not, I am sure there will plenty of things for me to do.