Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
I’ve been sticking pretty close to the home front lately.
Well, “close” is a bit of an understatement. I’ve been staying inside. A lot. No special reason other than it being winter and my having some craft projects to complete.
All is well otherwise.
I actually got out and walked the dogs during the day on Sunday. I took my camera along and thought I’d share some of the pics I captured.
That’s all. I hope you enjoyed the virtual visit.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
If you’re curious about the history of that holiday, which has been officially observed since 1894, go to this page (the source of my quote).
Three-day weekends are always nice. Saturday, Hubby and I went for a nice little ride on our bikes (Loving Virginia’s Diversity). On Sunday, I drove my car to Roanoke for a “package” pick-up. By Monday, I was a bit tired. It was hot and humid, too. Hubby was working on a home project, so I decided to take a quick little ride close to home.
The route wasn’t super-exciting, I just wanted y’all to be able to see just how close to home I stayed. So, once you see the pics, you’ll have a better appreciation for my neighborhood.
The previous weekend, when Hubby and I were riding on the Snickersville Turnpike, something had caught my eye. That something was a largish patch of sunflowers. I chose not to stop for two reasons: there were already cars pulled off the road with people gawking and Hubby doesn’t always enjoy my photo stops. But I thought about that dang patch of flowers all week. So that’s where I headed on Monday.
Rather than taking a direct or known route — what fun would THAT be? — I decided to explore VA-629 / Bull Run Mountain Road, a path I’d never traveled and had been curious about. I knew where it went, but had wondered whether or not it was gravel. I figured it was probably gravel, based on what I knew of the area. But, knowing it led from Prince William County (twelfth richest county in the US in terms of median household income) into Loudoun County (the #1 richest county in the US — see stats here), I had hopes that it might be paved.
The road wasn’t paved, but it was reasonably well-maintained.
On one hand, I was surprised at the road surface. One would think a road leading to high-value real estate would be paved for the convenience of the obviously wealthy landowners. (I saw few houses along the road, most of which looked exactly like the bits captured in the two photos shared above, but I saw quite a few ornate, barred entrances.) Then again, a paved road would be more-convenient for outsiders, too, and might attract gawkers. It would certainly mean more traffic. So I bet it will always be a gravel road, which sort of lends to the remote feel of the place, too.
I was sort of amazed just how remote it felt. I could’ve been in a national forest. If you follow this link to the Google map and zoom out a bit, you’ll see just how close VA-629 / Bull Run Mountain Road is to Northern Virginia (NoVA) and DC. You might be amazed, too, especially if you switch to satellite or Earth view.
As interesting as the road was, it was hot. So, curiosity satisfied, when I reached the paved VA-776 / Landmark School Road, I decided to take that route and pick up the pace.
I absolutely love the stone fences that are far more common than you’d expect in this area. A lovely reminder of old times. I’m never sure if they were meant to serve as fences, keeping things in or out, or simply to mark land boundaries. One day I might actually look that up.
I couldn’t remember exactly where I’d seen the flowers, but thought it hadn’t been long after we’d gotten on the turnpike near Aldie.
As it turns out, I was right. I came across the flower patch even sooner than I’d expected. But it was kind of disappointing. There were fewer flowers than I remembered (I’d only glanced at them previously as we’d zipped past) and they were rather wilted.
It was a pretty spot nonetheless.
I know I’ve said this before… I wish we’d moved to Virginia YEARS ago. It’s such a great place for motorcyclists.
This barn is a bit further from town, but not far by any stretch of the imagination.
I passed the yellow barn and had to turn around to go back for a picture. But I got distracted at my chosen turnaround spot.
I didn’t mark the location of that white barn because it’s in Loudoun County, but it’s pretty and deserved to be captured.
Buckland Farm is just inside the Fauquier County boundary on US-29. At the edge of the property, closer to the road, is the Buckland Farm Market.
I’ve shared pics from there before, too. The market sells plants (it’s where I bought my tomato plants), produce, meats, snack items, home decor, baked goods, baking products, etc. It’s a cool place.
They have goats and smalls equine critters, too.
Temps were close to 90 by then, and I was really hot. So I bought some corn-on-the-cob and locally made sausage for dinner. I got a drink, too, and about a half pound of bulk dehydrated, colored marshmallows (like the charms in Lucky Charms cereal). 🙂
That was my day. It wasn’t super-exciting, and I didn’t go far, but it was nice.
I hope you enjoyed traveling along. My interactive Spotwalla route map is here if you’re interested.
Who knew July would be so exciting? I knew about the family visit in advance, but there are two pretty cool things I didn’t know about much ahead of time.
First, my town was in the spotlight on Friday, July 20th. In a big way. The FOX affiliate in Washington is doing a series of “Zip Trips” this summer, featuring locales that are close enough to DC for residents to zip out and back in a day.
It was a huge deal for the town. LOTS of free publicity. The Old Town merchants came out in force, opening their shopping, putting on special displays, doing demonstrations, offering samples, etc.
It was like a mini, impromptu street fair, and it was all accomplished with about a week’s noticed. Residents came out in droves to show their support, too. The Fox5 crew said it was the biggest turnout they’d ever seen for a ZipTrip segment. Yes, Warrenton is just as awesome as I have repeatedly proclaimed it to be.
We looked pretty darn good in the news, if I do say so myself.
Merchants and residents alike did an amazing job supporting the town. And Fox5 did very well to capture it all and show everyone what a fun place this is to live, work, and play.
Here’s a link to the story and videos on the Fox5 web site.
As for the second bit of news…
I am currently unemployed. My previous job had been wearing on me for quite some time. So, while off on my solo adventure back in late-June, with lots of time to think about stuff like job satisfaction, among other things, I decided it was time for a change.
As it happens, a woman I’d met in 2005 had reached out to me back in May about coming to work for her at her current employer. Initially, I said I wasn’t interested. But she was persistent. So, after my return, I started really exploring the opportunity and ultimately decided it would be a better fit for me.
Tuesday, July 21, was my last day at the old firm (Texas company). I would’ve liked to take some time off between postings, especially since my new company has a policy that you can’t take vacation for the first six months, but they need me pretty badly. I start my new job (Maryland company) on Monday, July 27.
I’m trying to cram as much fun in as possible between now and Monday. Which means I’m behind on blog reading, commenting, and writing again. Sorry, y’all. I love you, I really do. And I truly appreciate the fact that you take time to read my posts AND leave comments.
I’ll try to catch up soon. I’ll actually be in Rockville, Maryland most of next week for training, so should have plenty of down time in the evenings. Until then, I’ve got places to go, things to see, etc.
I am very excited about my new work adventure, but have to squeeze some fun in while I can. Keep your eyes on those Instagram pics. If you’re not on Instagram, you can follow at the bottom of my home page, if you’re so inclined.
I never did like the color. The more I looked at it, the more I hated it.
This is not a valuable antique. (My Dad thinks anything old is valuable.)
I probably paid too much for the thing. But that’s okay. I wanted it. It spoke to me. The piece had character. And that’s exactly what sucked me in.
The old, rusty, original, stamped tins. The knot-holes. The wonky doors.
It’s not a very-well-constructed item. In fact, I think either a kid built the thing or some poor pioneer/farmer.
Not only was it clumsily made, upon close inspection I realized it had been built of scrap wood.
It wasn’t exactly square. And the joinery was some of the more amateurish work I’ve seen.
Adding insult to injury, someone removed the original hinges and replaced them with very basic, brass, surface-mounted hinges. If you click on the image and zoom in, you’ll see what I mean about the hinges.
So why did I buy the thing? I knew I’d give it new life one day.
It sat in my dining room for a little more than two years. I wanted to paint it, really. But it’s a big piece — at least five feet tall and about three feet wide — and I knew it would take a decent chunk of time. Large, uninterrupted chunks of time are a rare commodity around here.
Still, I can’t believe I left that thing sitting there looking ugly for so long!
Finally, I decided to get that thing done. With Hubby’s help, of course.
Step one was to empty-out the piece.
Where to put all of the stuff that we’d crammed in there? On the dining room table, of course.
Hubby and I carried the thing to the basement, where he removed and repaired the doors so he could install new, more-appropriate hinges. He actually had to cut a chunk of the old wood away and replace it with new wood to make the hinges work.
I painted the cabinet before he replaced the doors. Remember, I liked the character of the piece. I wasn’t trying to make it look new. Just better. So I covered that minty (or sea-foam green) green paint with a single, not-so-neatly-applied layer of Old Ochre chalk paint. In some places, I used two layers. But not many.
Once the entire piece was covered, I realized it needed something else. Some sort of oomph. Something to make it “pop.”
So I added some color to the interior.
There’s nothing symmetrical about this piece of furniture, so I applied the red (Primer Red) and blue (Napoleonic Blue) in an uneven pattern. I didn’t even use tape, I just eyeballed it. Tape would have made it too straight. Too perfect.
This is not a perfect-type piece.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to use dark wax on the piece, but that stuff really highlights imperfections. And since this pie safe is full of imperfections, I used both clear and dark wax.
I just love the way the dark wax settles into all the nooks and crannies.
Then it was time for Hubby to hang the repaired doors.
Here’s another clear wax-only vs clear and dark wax comparison.
Some of you may hate this rustic look. I like it.
I decided to make the drawer face red.
One day, my kids will either be fighting over this piece or happily lugging it to the dump.
Sorry for the grainy pics. I used the phone camera.
I’m not crazy about those too-white knobs, so they’ll be replaced one day.
It’s great to have our dining room back.
Here’s a reminder of what it looked like before.
It’s SOOOO nice to have our dining room back. I am not a neat freak, but all of that clutter made us both feel as if the walls were closing in on us.
Not only does the pie safe look better, it actually matches the table and chairs.
So, do you hate the old, rustic look? If that’s just not your style, I hope you can at least appreciate the new life I have given these old pieces of junk. 🙂
I’ve been busy at work again this week, which doesn’t leave much chance for escape. So today I decided to make the most of my lunch break.
Harris Teeter is 1.6 miles from my house. Point D on the map is roughly where my ride started and ended. Point C is the grocery store.
Roughly forty miles later, I’m back at the office.
Point B is the Northern Fauquier Community Park. It was a good break spot.
We’ve had fabulous weather over the last few days.
A mutual friend, who Hubby and I met during our first motorcycle vacation in Europe, rode from his home in Quebec, Quebec, to the RoadRUNNER Touring Weekend event that’s happening in Snowshoe this weekend. He detoured a little on Wednesday so he could stop for a visit.
It was a lovely visit. Alain is one of those guys we could sit and chat with for hours. He’s just an all-around nice guy who just happens to enjoy motorcycles, takes great pictures, is a very entertaining storyteller, and travels on his bike A LOT.
Here are a few more pics of Alain from our Austria-Germany-Italy-Switzerland tour…
Fuzzy, I thought of you when I saw these pics, which were taken by our tour guide.
Alain is the guy wearing the red coat astride the second bike.
The next pic is actually one of Alain’s own images, as in taken with his camera. But I’m pretty sure I was the photographer doing the clicking.
I really would have loved to have been able to escort him out of town on Thursday morning, but I had to work and deadlines were looming… Dang it. I’ve been kicking myself ever since, which is one of the reasons I was so happy to get out for a bit today, even if it was only for a short trip to the grocery store. LOL.
I did manage to stop at this one spot about 4 miles outside of town to snap some pics.
The barn and the gorgeous house look relatively new. It’s a fabulous spot. I’ll have to pop in for a visit one day to meet the lucky folks who live there. And maybe meet their cows, too.
Here’re a few more pics taken from about a quarter mile from their driveway.
If only all shopping trips were that picturesque, eh?
I hope y’all have a fabulous weekend!
I’ll share the family excitement first. I’ve dubbed the event…
Our eldest kid, Shannon, who lives in San Diego, just bought her first motorcycle. It’s a 2009 Honda Rebel. She passed her motorcycle safety course with flying colors and got her license within the last couple of weeks.
I think a trip to San Diego will be in order soon so we can do a family ride.
The WV Place is under contract. We got the offer exactly two weeks after it hit the market. It was a bit low, so we countered. The contract was accepted two days later. Now we just have to get through the home inspection. We don’t anticipate any major issues, but one never knows…
I bought this piece at auction over a year ago. There was some termite damage to one of the back legs, but I loved the look of the old oak and the large glass front. After getting it home, we realized it stunk. Bad. The old-people-house smell was oozing out of its pores. Is that what “musty” means? It sat in our garage for a while, coated in baking soda. Finally, we took it down to the basement.
That handy Hubby of mine gave it a new back leg. The shelves were particularly stinky and quite banged-up. I covered the whole thing in a couple coats of Zinsser’s Shellac (per my friend Janet’s recommendation), sanded it lightly with very fine steel wool, cleaned it off with mineral spirits, then hit it with some paint. I wanted to preserve the look of the nicely-aged exterior, so I just painted the base of the interior and the shelves, using the Old Ochre color in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.
Now I’m in the process of finishing that ugly seafoam green pie safe…
Hubby has been busy, too. After a long break post-Grandfather Clock, he’s back at doing some more home projects.
He’s been wanting to add a sound barrier between the family room and kitchen since shortly after we moved here. All those folks who just LOVE “open floor plans” must never have experienced trying to watch TV while someone else is doing something, anything, in the kitchen.
The light in our breakfast room is centered on the ceiling, which is just dumb. It should have been centered over the area where the table can sit. The table can’t possibly sit in the middle of the room, or you would be able to get out the back door. Well, you could get out the door, but you’d have to squeeze past the table and chairs.
Later this week, I’ll be heading back to Texas. It’s just another short work trip to Austin. Of course, I’ll try and squeeze in some fun, too. So, if you don’t hear from me for awhile, that’s why.
I can’t wait to re-visit Rudy’s BBQ…
I REALLY wish I could have some of that for breakfast… brisket and eggs. Yum.