Where in the World?

Which of these four things do you think Hubby and I did yesterday?

a) Visit Paris
b) See the War Correspondents’ Arch
c) Walk the Appalachian Trail
d) Ride an automobile ferry
e) all of the above

Come on, give it some thought. We couldn’t go to WV because Hubby flew off to Chi-town this morning for a work thing.

Give up? You’ll never guess.

We did all of the above!

Our trip to Paris, Virginia was brief. So brief, in fact, that I didn’t take any pictures. But here’s a good one that someone else shot.

We were exploring Northern Virginia, between Leesburg and Winchester, for a possible relocation destination. Any move would be quite a ways down the road.

Since we love back roads, and I love cool, quirky stuff, Hubby plotted a route that took us across the Potomac River at White’s Ferry.

This is near Poolesville, Maryland, at mile 35.5 along the C&O Canal. There used to be around 100 ferries facilitating river crossings on the Potomac, but this is the last.

It is used by a variety of vehicles. We’ve been across it before, twice I think, on our motorcycles.

We passed a gazillion bicyclists yesterday (not one was chubby!). That’s our green car in the foreground. Hubby is behind the wheel, but you can’t see him because of the glare.

I think the ferry can hold about 21 cars.

It is actually quite efficient. I had just enough time to hit the potty and snap some quick pics before we boarded.

Notice the horse trailer? I told you it carries a variety of stuff.

Here come some bikers. It was a gorgeous, summer day. Too bad my bike is at the WV place.

This is the Virginia side of the river. It’s just outside of Leesburg.

This is a view of the river, from the ferry, looking northwest.

The area around Paris was gorgeous. East of there, towards Leesburg, is horse country. Lots of very large horse farms. West of there is the Shenandoah River. It’s sort of mountainous there, too.

On the way home, after crossing back over the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry (no longer a ferry), I saw a sign for Gathland State Park. It’s a Maryland state park I have never seen, and have always wanted to, so I said to Hubby, “Turn there!”

Of course he listened. He’s pretty good about humoring me.

This is the War Correspondents’ Arch. This is why there’s a Gathland State Park. If you really want to know more, follow the link. I don’t feel like recounting the history here.

I was sort of excited to see that the Appalachian Trail goes right through the park.

Since I’m sort of fascinated by the trail and anxious to hike on it (not the entire 2,000+ mile length!), I just had to walk on the trail.

We didn’t go far. It was sort of hot and VERY gnatty (as in bugs). But I did get Hubby to agree to return later in the year for a 12-mile hike! (Remember what I said about him humoring me.)

The arch is sort of cool, I guess. Again, one of those odd, quirky things. I suppose if we were Civil War buffs, which we aren’t, it would’ve been more interesting.

There were some picturesque buildings there (the remains of the summer home of the guy that built the arch). I like stone buildings.

Since I didn’t get to take any pictures in Paris, at least there was something interesting to capture images of to share with my blog audience.

Rain Running

I did actually do the run thing yesterday. Despite the rain.

For the record, it was not my intention to run in the rain. But when I checked the radar, this is what I got.

See the straight, green line? There’s obviously an error. Radar readings and/or clouds are never that straight. But what’s really weird is that the line is across the exact middle of my run route.

When I left my house, it was not raining. Once I hit the green area, about 90 seconds into my run, it was raining. The radar is never that exact. Today, it was.

Here’s a lovely picture for you. You can’t really tell by looking at this shot, but I was soaked.

Between the sweat and the rain, there wasn’t a dry bit of skin anywhere on my body. The rain actually felt kind of good.

That big bottle you see in my hand holds some of the water I need to drink every day. It’s only 50 ounces, though. I have to drink 14 more ounces on top of that. It’s a lot of water, but it helps.

Thank goodness the bathroom is 10 steps from my desk.

On another note… I calculated my pace today after the run. I forget how much ground I covered and in what amount of time, but it worked out to 12:18 per mile.

Now, if I can keep that up for 10 miles, I won’t be one of the humiliated folks who get kicked off the ATM course for being too slow.

Today’s Grossbit

Wanna know what’s worse than a cat yakking up something on the floor of your office?

Fending off two dogs tripping over each other in the mad scramble to get to the stuff and eat it.

On a positive note… I rarely have to clean cat puke off of my floor.

It was raining this morning when I woke. At first, I thought, “Yay, I don’t have to run.” Moments later, that thought became, “Crap. There are only 58 days left ’til the Army Ten Miler and I still can’t run a solid 30 minutes.”

When I signed up for the race, in my overly optimistic delirium, I remember one of the questions being something to the effect of how long I thought it would take me to run ten miles. Having no idea, I said three hours. That wasn’t the right answer. Apparently, two and a half hours is the max. If you don’t maintain a 15-minute-mile pace for the first five miles, you get re-routed at the five-mile mark.

Now that would be embarrassing.

So I need to go run in the rain. Or shortly after the rain. It’s time to get really serious here. Wish me luck!

WAIT… one more thing about cat yak. We’ve always referred to cat puke, whether it was a hairball or just stuff, as “yak” in my family. Back when Eric was a wee lad, I remember a conversation we had about violins. He wanted to know what the strings were made of.

“Yak hair, I think,” was my reply.

“Ew!!!” he moaned, all loud and disgusted. It took me a second to realize he thought I meant they use cat yak to make the strings.

“No, the animal,” I had to explain. “You know, a yak.”

Having this picture then would have made things much easier to explain.

Why, Oh Why?

So, for whatever reason, the song that is stuck in my head today is Blondie’s Rapture. (Link provided in case you can’t see the video I attempted to embed below.)

On to other “news”…

I am up to running 20+ minutes. I haven’t hit 25 minutes running yet. But I will this week.

Speaking of 25, know what significance that number has? I have now reached the -25 mark. That means, since early May, I have shed 25 pounds. Cool, eh?

What Are Words For…

…when no one listens anymore? When no one listens, what are words for?

Can you name that song from the 80s? I think it was early-80s. That’s one of the ones that pops into my head frequently for some reason. I have so many brain cells wasted on song lyrics…

Can’t think of it? To learn the answer, watch this really cheesy video. Sorry it couldn’t be embedded.

Speaking of WORDS, I haven’t done a Wordle lately. Notice that “Paw” is the biggest? That means it was the word most frequently used on the blog page I used to build the Wordle. In this case, it has nothing to do with dogs. It is referencing the town of Paw Paw, West Virginia and the nearby Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O Canal.

Speaking of words… here are two words for my Dad: HAPPY BIRTHDAY. He turned 71 today.

This image is from his birthday weekend in 2007. He was only 69 then. He and my Mom were getting ready to board my brother’s boat.

And, um, speaking of words again, I need to wrap up this post and get to work. I have lots of words to create today.

So, TTFN! (ta-ta-for-now!)