Got back from a contra dance weekend in Fayetteville WV yesterday afternoon. It was a wonderful 3 days and nights of hot, sweaty dancing with friends from all over the east coast and mid west states. We left last Friday morning and stopped first in Riner to have lunch with a friend of Rima's who is from Russia and is a performer in several symphonies here in the U.S. We had a great meal at the 'Buffalo Store and Cafe' where I had my favorite Buffalo Brisket Quesadilla. Yum!
   It only takes a couple of hours to drive over to Fayetteville so we were checking into our hotel by 4:00 p.m. We settled in and then headed out for some dinner. We ended up in a little Cajun restaurant in downtown Fayetteville and had a really nice dinner there. A real surprise in that we didn't expect it to be as good as it was, but I had a traditional Muffeletta sandwich, while Rima dined on one of their fish specials.
   After dinner we headed out to the county park just outside of town where the dance is held. That night we danced for a bit more than 3 hours to the tunes of the 'Contrarians' with calling by Gaye and Shawn. Lot's of fun dancing and great dance partners. It was a lot of fun to see and dance with friends I haven't seen for some time. Contra dancing is wonderful in that you can meet, and see, friends from all over the place and it's like they live right next door.
   Even with all the dancing we didn't sleep in very late on Saturday. Instead we were up, and after some breakfast, on the road to do some exploring. We were going to go over to Babcock State Park again, the scene of what turned out to be our first date, but first though we took a side trip down to the old railroad town of Thurmond along the New River. Essentially a ghost town these days, but once during the heyday's of steam engines, that town had as many as 80,000 passengers passing through it each day. Now there is just the old station, where you can still catch an Am track train everyday, and a couple old brick buildings. A neat old place to wander around in and feel the ghosts from days past. There will be photo's coming in a day or two.
   Once done there we went on to the State Park where the primary draw is the Grist Mill located there on Stoney Creek. It was a beautiful day for a change, most times I have been there it has been cloudy or rainy and cold. Weather like that does have the good point of keeping most people at home or inside so it is easier to get shots of the old mill without people in orange t-shirts standing around. They had the mill running while we were there, so it was even neater to see all the parts moving and making noise and dust. Again, there will be pictures coming in a day or two including at least one from a new vantage point which I think will be one of the best I've taken.
    From there it was back to town for some lunch because we were both starving. We went back to 'Pies and Pint's', a local pizza hangout, because, again, it was the first place we ever shared a meal together. We shared a wonderful pizza together  and sat and talked for quite some time.
   From lunch we went on out to the dance where Rima spent  a little more than an hour dancing some of the afternoon session while I put the seat back in the truck and took a much needed nap. We ended up back at the Cajun restaurant for dinner on Saturday night, but this time we went with a couple of friends of ours. They all had various entrees that all looked really good while I settled for a Cajun burger that was probably one of the best ones I've ever had. Add in some sweet potato fries and nearly endless glasses of ice tea and it was just a delightful experience.
   The only downside to the whole evening there was that when we came out after dinner someone had knocked off my driver side mirror on the truck. Some of it was found under the truck, but most was still hanging from it's electrical wiring. Enough anyway that I could duct tape the main part of the mirror back on and it looks like it will work for at least a couple of days. Until I can get it replaced anyway.   
   One can't dwell on such things though, so we headed back to the dance for the evening session and had another 3-4 hours of fun dancing to the 'Mean Lids'. Lot's and lot's of fun. We had a full three lines of dancers and it was fun all the way to midnight.
   Another early morning because the last session of dancing was starting at 11:00. We nearly made it there for the first dance, but not quite. We both danced all of the dances in the first hour and a half and then took a short break. By the 2nd session I was starting to slow down a bit and actually sat out a couple of the dances. It was still fun to watch all the other dancers and listen to the music. We did manage to do the last dance of the day and then did the two final waltz's together.  All in all it was a very nice weekend of dancing. As we had already packed up the truck earlier we just took off for home after that.
    A couple of hours of driving brought us back to the house were we promptly both took a nap. Just a short amount of time to take a short walk before dark later on and then took it easy for the rest of the evening.
    It was looking like rain earlier this morning with even some thunder in the distance, so I was holding tight to see how it was going turn out. But now the sun is shining and I am going to head out for Christiansburg to do some grocery shopping and then pick up some framing lumber for the rebuilding of the wood shed. But first there will be lunch with Rima at a new café there that she wants to eat at. So for now... I'm off.


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