west virginia place – Page 2

May 4, 2014

An Impromptu Fuzzy Road Trip

Every now and then opportunities come along that you just can’t pass up.

I’ve been friends with Rachael (aka Fuzzy) for quite a few years. We met through her blog, Fuzzygalore.com – A Girlie Motorcycle Blog, and have been following each other ever since.

We have a lot in common. First and foremost, we’re girls who love to ride motorcycles. We’re also Moms, wives, photographers, fans of roadside oddities, etc. Getting to know Rachael on-line over the years, I always felt like we were kindred spirits.

Saying she’s famous would probably embarrass Rachel, so I’ll just call her well-known throughout the moto-blogging community. She’s got quite a following. So I was always afraid she’d think I was some weirdo Internet follower/stalker. LOL.

We’d tried meeting in person several times over the years, but for various reasons those plans had been thwarted. So, when I got an e-mail from Rachael saying her and her husband, Kenny, who I also felt like I sort of “knew” through her blog, were going to be in Romney, the town near our WV Place, I knew I had to jump at the chance.

I didn’t want to jump too quickly, though. Dare I hope that it would really happen? I had an unpredictable work project that could have made it difficult. And the weather this past week was horrendous, what with the monsoon rains we experienced. So I tried not to get too excited. I figured if I made definite plans, Fate may intervene. It always seems like the more I look forward to something, the better the chance that it won’t come to pass. Know what I mean?

That’s why few folks aside from Rachel, Kenny, Mike, and me knew of my plans.

As luck would have it, Fate was on our side this time. My work project was completed as scheduled, which meant I was able to take Friday afternoon off and head out to West Virginia. I was REALLY looking forward to it.

Friday was a fabulous day for a ride. The ideal scenario was for me to get to WV in time for dinner with Rachael and her crew. Then ride with them on Saturday.

Here are some sights from my Friday ride.

2_sights — Colorful restaurant in Linden, VA – The Apple House

The Apple House, in nearby Linden, Virginia, is supposed to have good food — especially doughnuts. I stopped there to grab lunch, and dessert, but it was pretty busy and I didn’t feel like waiting. I’ll get back there one day. If for no other reason than to buy one of their t-shirts.

Since I had some spare time, I decided I should stop at Dinosaur Land, a nearby-ish roadside attraction I’d never seen. In fact, I hadn’t even KNOWN about the place before one of Rachael’s road trips through the area.

6_sights — Way-cool Entrance to Dinosaur Land

There are various ways to get to the WV Place from our home in Virginia. But I was hoping that the Redbuds were still in bloom along US-50, west of Capon Bridge. I wasn’t disappointed.

I made it to the WV Place pretty much without incident. And I was happy to see the WV Place still standing. The inside is still a mess, but there’s no sign of mold anywhere — yay!!! — there’s still a decent amount of propane in the tanks, and there was some hard apple cider in the fridge.

I putzed around there a bit, then headed into town after connecting with Rachael.

9_sights — View toward Romney from just inside our community.

I was so happy to finally meet Rachel and Kenny, that I didn’t think to take pictures. Can you believe it!?! The three of us did have dinner together. And we made plans to meet up the next morning. I was anxious to get back to the WV Place before dark. Two miles of gravel road, lined by cliffs in some spots, through woods heavily populated with deer, is not a place I want to be after dark with no streetlights and weak motorcycle headlights.

Rachel and Kenny trusted me enough to lead them on a ride. How about that? The challenge was to plan a route with good roads and some fun/quirky stuff I knew Rachael HAD to see. It took some thinking, but I think I came up with a pretty good ride.

We planned to meet at the entrance to my community. When they arrived, I was tickled to see they’d brought a friend along. Mark, from Boston. I never got his last name. Sorry, Mark!

Our first stop was the Oldtown Low Water Bridge, one of the few remaining privately owned toll bridges in the country. It’s such an odd, quirky little bridge, I knew they’d love it.

Oldtown is actually in Maryland. I forgot to mention that to my riding buddies yesterday.

From there, we doubled back about 15 miles so we could hit one of Mike’s favorite roads, CR-3, also known as Springfield Pike, Slanesville Pike, AND Springfield-Millesons Mill Road. Route finding in West Virginia is a challenge. We did a quick detour on WV-29 so Rachael could capture a shot of this Mail Pouch barn to add to her collection. I’d forgotten to tell her it was coming up, so she was tickled.

13_ride_day — Rachael taking a picture of the barn. The very vocal cows were a bonus for me.

From there we headed back to what looks on the map like a continuation of the road we’d been on, but is actually a different road with multiple names, of course, depending on what map you use and/or where you enter the road. It’s know as Cold Stream Road, CR- 45/20, Springfield Grade Road, AND CR-15. Really.

After stopping for gas, we continued southward on CR-14/Cacapon River Road (also Capon River Road) toward Wardensville. We stopped for lunch at the Star Mercantile (see my previous post if you want to read more about the restaurant).

After lunch, I took them on Old US-55, not an easy road to follows as it wends its way around New 55, which is a great motorcycle road, even if there are almost always bits of gravel to dodge. Oddly, New 55 is now 48/55, but all of the signs pointing to the highway say “to 55”, which is what makes the old road so hard to follow.

Once we reached the end, we turned around and jumped onto New 55 so we could stop at a scenic overlook.

Then we headed to North River Road to visit my favorite herd of Oreo cows.

16_ride_day — Oreo Cows of North River Road

The locals sure got a chuckle out of seeing four motorcycles parked along this country road while four riders look at this herd of cows. They had to be thinking, “What? You’ve never seen cows before?” They probably just take their Oreo cows for granted.

17_ride_day — Kenny and Rachel, communing with the cows.

Then it was off to Grassy Lick Road. I’d told Rachel about that road repeatedly. Of course, I’ve mentioned it in my blog before, too. She’d tried, unsuccessfully, to find it on Friday.

So, when we finally did get to the south end of the road, there was a guy in a pick-up in front of us toting his large pig in a trailer. What an odd sight.

I’m sure my followers were wondering why, shortly after the pig guy turned off, I led them off of Grassy Lick Road. Until Rachel saw this little barn, which I’d also forgot to mention we’d be stopping to see.

20_ride_day — My BMW F650GS, Rachel and Kenny’s Triumph Tiger 1050s, and Mark’s Yamaha Super Tenere.

FINALLY, it was the time to run Grassy Lick. It’s smooth, fast, full of alternating twisties, and a couple of nice sweepers.

They loved it, just as much as we do. Which is good, considering all of my hype. LOL.

My favorite pic from the day was captured by Kenny (I think). Or Mark. Unbeknownst to me, he’d captured me following Rachel across my favorite bridge. How cool is that? Thanks to whoever shot this one. 🙂

bridge crossing — Rachel and me crossing my favorite bridge.

Rachel and Kenny are just as awesome in person as I thought they’d be. Mark was a great riding companion, too.

Hopefully, we’ll get to ride together again one day. Maybe next time, we’ll be able to plan far enough ahead so Mike can join us.

He did get to meet them briefly, but that’s another story…

Thanks again, Fuzzmops, for the excellent riding day.

January 21, 2014

Do Damp Linens Get Stinky That Fast?

Eric and Kelsey came down for a visit on Sunday and stayed through Monday.

Their visit had NOTHING to do with the stinky linens, by the way. I just wanted to share these pics, too. To remind y’all that I do have a human family, too.

It was a nice visit. They were kind enough to bring my favorite pear cider. Sunday night, we went to El Toro Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Afterward, while Hubby was watching football, the kids and I even got to play a fun word game.

Eric & Kelsey — Kelsey and Eric at The Bridge.

On Monday, I joined the kids for a delicious lunch at The Bridge.

Then we went home. Which is when I encountered that odd stench I mentioned.

Here’s When Things Got Stinky

Saturday, while at the WV Place, I pulled the linens out of that coat closet with the walls that need to be replaced. They weren’t wet-wet. They were barely damp. But I figured I’d bring them home for laundering just to be safe.

I tossed all of the linens into one of those heavy contractor bags. Just before we left, I grabbed our boots and shoes, which Hubby had put outside last weekend, and tossed them in the bag, too.

If I remember correctly, Hubby twisted the bag closed, compressed it, then crammed it into the trunk, which is below the bed of his truck. When we got home, I carried the bag upstairs and plopped it in our laundry room, open.

Today, after lunch, I decided to wash the towels. As I leaned over and started pulling stuff out of the bag, I was assaulted by an awful smell. Awful and strong.

No way linens would get THAT stinky, that fast. Or was it the shoes? I figured it had to be the shoes.

After removing all of the shoes and linens, I started sniffing the towels and sheets. None of them stunk.

Then I looked at the shoes.

UGH.

There was a dead mouse hanging halfway out one of Hubby’s shoes.

Good thing I’m not the squeamish type. Poor mouse. Based on where the shoes were sitting — close to one of the girls’ favorite hunting spots — I’m guessing they chased him/her into one of the shoes. It probably hid from me and then became trapped in the bag.

Of course, I had to take it down to the basement to show Hubby. Seconds later, K and Belle came flying into the workshop, noses in the air, looking for their mouse! LOL!

I was nice enough to let them both see the deceased before giving Mr. or Mrs. Mouse an abrupt burial at sea.

Let the Laughter Begin

Monday night, after the kids left, I went out to see a movie (August: Osage County) and have dinner with friends.

Kelly Ann captured this shot at dinner. L-R are Kelly Ann, Donna, Janet, Dottie, and me. The movie was awesome. Dinner was good. But the best part? We laughed. A lot. This is a fun group of ladies. 🙂

And that was my Monday.

Today should be sort of eventful. We’re supposed to get a good bit of snow. It JUST started, so I am anxious to see how much we end up with. The more, the better, if you ask me.

January 20, 2014

And the Repairs Begin

In a recent post, I told you we had some pipes freeze and break at the WV Place. This past Saturday, Hubby (Mike) and I went to the WV Place to better assess the damage he discovered last weekend. Oh, and get some subcontractor bids.

Those of you new to this blog, or have only gotten to know me recently, may not know that Hubby and I built the WV Place ourselves. From scratch. Mostly during weekends over the course of four years (2005 to 2009). We did hire folks to do major stuff like clearing, grading, installing the septic system, and finishing the concrete slab, but we did most of the work. With some help from friends and family along the way. It’s all documented here.

We’re no strangers to construction-type stuff. But we’ve had our fill. That’s why seeing the damage was disheartening, but not completely overwhelming. And Hubby had a really, REALLY cool tool to make the labor easier. Stay tuned…

The drive up on Saturday was actually pretty…

…but also a bit slick.

I’m a sucker for wintry skies.

The ride was uneventful. We arrived safely, unloaded all of our stuff, and started work.

Step one, for me, was taking pictures to share with you. There are a lot of them. It felt like old times when, during the construction process, I pretty much documented the whole adventure.

Here’s what the place looked like when we arrived.

Some of the sheetrock was already down. What you see missing in these first pics is what fell during the leak and the couple danglers Hubby removed during his previous visit.

Plastic vapor barrier bulging under wet cellulose insulation.

If there were still a bed in the room and I was laying on Mike’s side, that would be my view.

I can't believe this guy was still on the wall. — I can’t believe this guy was still on the wall.

Our first objective was to find the location of the actual leak(s).

The entire bedroom ceiling had to come down.

The really messy part is coming soon... — The really messy part is coming soon…

Removing the saturated sheetrock wasn’t very hard. And only a little messy. Cutting the plastic to release the insulation was the REAL mess. It’s blown-in cellulose, which is essentially pulverized newspaper. Messy, but non-toxic. And very dusty.

That’s what it looked like coming down.

11_WV_Cleanup — After the first small cut.

Messy, messy, messy. But we were prepared…

That’s me. I am known as The Unskilled Laborer.

Hubby does the hard work, I do the simple stuff. Which usually means clean-up, acting as go-fer, providing moral support, fetching stuff, etc. All very important, of course, just not real glamorous.

While we were working, the girls were having their fun outside. Meg went and got her friend, Buddy. We hadn’t seen him in a long time and were all happy he came by to visit.

K found a treasure, too, which I promptly took away from her.

Treasures like that are usually very stinky (this one was quite frozen), so I hate putting them in the trash. So I usually just hang them out of the girls’ reach.

This picture had been on the bedroom windowsill.

We knew about where the leak(s) was/were. It’s pretty clear when seeing the paint on that wall. Sure enough, the break (only one!!!) was right above the closet. Which would explain the ruined closet doors.

During Hubby’s previous visit, he noted that every hard surface in the place was covered with lots of condensation. We were quite relieved to find that it had all dried out. We thought for sure we’d be drying everything off before we could do anything else. There was still a lot of humidity in the air, just no surface wetness to mop up.

The leak was in the hot water line, which explained the condensation. You know how steamy the bathroom gets after a long, hot shower, right? Imagine an hours-long shower…

Hubby had a stroke of pure genius when he decided to take our electric leaf vac along. Sucking that stuff up into a bag was SOOOO much easier than having to use a shovel.

See that hole in the foam stuff (extruded foam rafter vent)? That’s from where the very hot water was shooting upward (about two feet/two-thirds of a meter) and hitting the roof.

Now here’s where the really cool tool comes into play. Replacing broken sections of copper piping is never easy. Soldering is typically required. And if not done EXACTLY right, the joints will leak. Hubby is pretty good at soldering, but says it’s a huge PIA. I have never actually done any soldering of pipes, but I have witnessed a lot. (Remember, we plumbed the entire house.)

Why is it such a pain? Used pipes still hold water, which makes soldering much more difficult. It’s harder to work overhead. The temperature in that space was about 20 degrees F (roughly -7 C). Four separate solders would have been needed. It’s dangerous to use a propane torch around insulation. Etc., etc.

After removing the damaged section of pipe, which was right above the closet, Hubby had to install new pipe.

Are you ready to see the cool tool Hubby borrowed?

Enter the Ridgid Pro Press, a fast, reliable way to join copper piping. This is not something your average home-owner would buy, since it costs about $1,600. You may be able to rent one, but Hubby was able to borrow this one from his employer.

Using special fittings…

…each join literally takes five seconds.

The Patch — The Ready-to-Be-Installed Patch

Easy-peasy. Really. It made the job so much more bearable.

Once it was in, the scary part was turning the water back on. We were both ecstatic to find NO MORE LEAKS. Woo hoo!

After the leak was isolated and repaired, we could get back to ripping out the damaged sheetrock.

This coat closet, which open in the hallway, backs to the bedroom wall and closet. It needs to be replaced. Hubby barely leaned on the closet wall from inside the bedroom, causing this hole, which really weirded the younguns out.

Those pipes lead into the kitchen. Some of the water followed those pipes, which is what damaged the kitchen ceiling. But damage is mostly isolated to the area below those pipes as the overflow drained out through the rangehood.

One of the reasons we had to remove so much sheetrock and insulation is so stuff can dry out. It can’t be replaced until the wood has dried. Another big reason was so we could reinstall some vapor barrier to seal the house off from the attic.

The plastic was necessary to prevent the heat from escaping into the attic. Once it was in place, the house warmed-up considerably.

There’s some of the construction debris. The contractor will remove that along with whatever trash they have to take.

These pics were taken during my morning walk with the girls.

The girls were thrilled to go on our regular morning stroll.

We also had to get the place ready for the repair crew, which just meant moving and covering stuff. Lots of drywall dust to come…

See that pile of insulation? Over time, it’ll be dispersed by the wind.

I asked Belle, nicely, to sit by the pile to give y’all a sense of scale. Apparently, she misinterpreted my request to mean…

…which made for a very dusty dog.

Sigh.

It actually brushed off pretty easily.

We left the dehumidifier running. It’s draining into a big trash can. We are both curious to see how much water it pulls out of the air.

And that was our WV adventure for the weekend. Poor Hubby was pooped.

If you’re interested in that Pro Press tool, I found a YouTube video showing it in action.

So, whattya think? How amazing is that Hubby? Pretty handy, that’s for sure. 🙂

January 12, 2014

An Oogy Mess

Remember how I told you a chicken (to be smoked) averted a much bigger disaster at our Virginia house the other day?

Well, we could’ve used another divine intervention with regard to our WV home. Where we had more pipes freeze.

Ugh.

The pipes were in the ceiling. Right above our bedroom.

Mike went out there today to get the dehumidifier, which we were going to use to dry out the carpet here at home.

This is what he found…

These are all phone images, so they’re no great. But they’re good enough that you can see the MESS.

Back Hallway (saturated rugs and standing water)

Master Bedroom (so much for that “happy” cloud ceiling)

Master Bedroom (note the warped ceiling fan)

The bed is completely saturated.

Saturated hall rug and standing water in rear bedroom. (The bedroom on the left is the only room that appears unaffected.)

Because the humidity level in the house is now so high, water is condensing on pretty much everything.

It could’ve been worse, I know. It’s night our primary residence. There’s no serious structural damage. We have insurance. Etc.

It’s just a messy headache we really didnt’t want or need. Getting work done out there is a logistical nightmare, and neither of us have the desire to play day-laborer again.

Ugh.

October 2, 2013

Something Different

In case y’all are getting bored with vacation posts, I decided to switch things up a bit. Plus, we’re having server issues and I can’t get to my images at the moment. But my IT guy is working on it.

We went to the WV Place this past weekend for a change.

Hubby and I hadn’t been there together since January. My last visit was in March and his was in June. Talk about neglecting the place…

It was awesome. The dogs had a blast. We had lots of chores and cleaning up to do, but it was still good to be back. Especially since the leaves are starting to change.

Oh, how I’ve missed my country yard…

Of course, I captured a bunch of images to share, too. Enjoy!

2_WV_End_Sept — Dirty and Overgrown Exterior

3_WV_End_Sept — Water Treatment System Woes

8_WV_End_Sept — My Favorite K Capture of the Weekend

26_WV_End_Sept — Classic Hunting Capture

Vacation re-cap to be continued soon. I hope…

April 3, 2013

A Last Time, Captured

I did something special the weekend before last. The first full weekend of this crazy 2013 Spring. My son, Eric, and I went skiing.

Yep, skiing. In Maryland.

I actually started this post last Thursday. Almost a week ago. I didn’t finish it before heading north to Dad’s on Friday. He doesn’t have internet access. He, my brother, and I spent the weekend going through and weeding out his worldly possessions in preparation for his impending move. That’s a story for another post. While there, I caught a humdinger of a cold that had me on my back for a couple of days. Today, finally, I feel like I can function. Still sick, but WAY better. So life goes on.

Now, back to the last time referred to in the title…

My baby boy, Eric, is getting married on April 20.

He’s marrying Kelsey, his middle-school sweetheart. They may have “gone out” off and on a bit in high school, but his high school years were rough times for all of us. He prevailed, got his life back on track, and they re-connected a few years back. They rest, as they say, is history.

In 17 days, he’ll be a married man. We couldn’t be happier for them both. They make a really cute couple.

When Eric was younger, he and I would often do trips together. Usually to visit my brother in Chesapeake, Virginia. But we also did camping trips and other stuff, too, like ski vacations.

So I decided, since he’s going to be married soon, we should have a final Mom and son trip while he was still single.

I was having a heck of a time deciding where we should go. Since Winter has dragged on for so long, I thought maybe we could squeeze a ski trip in.

Eric captured the windmill pics while I drove. It was a gorgeous day.

This has been a crazy weather year, but it worked out well for us.

Who would ever have thought we’d be skiing in Maryland in Spring?

As you’ll see in these pics, we had the place practically to ourselves.

Hamming it up for me. I trained him well…

The place was deserted, but almost all of the trails were open and the snow was in great shape.

Some folks asked me to take their picture. So I asked them to take our picture, too. A great shot, right? Except my pockets were crammed full of stuff and I look about 30 pounds heavier on the top than I actually am!

It was a great day. He’s a good boy.

🙂

After we’d exhausted ourselves on the slopes, we headed to the WV Place to spend the evening. Sunday, we were thinking about heading down to Green Bank, West Virginia to see the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. But the weather dudes were predicting snow for the next day. Lots of snow. While the roads around Green Bank are a motorcycle Mecca, they’re no place for an almost-new car when the roads are sleet- and snow-covered.

So we took our time on Sunday morning. I drove home via the scenic route, through Bean Settlement so I could show Eric my favorite Oreo cows.

We continued east on WV-55 through Wardensville and found the cutest little old timey mercantile/cafe. More material for yet another blog post.

It was a perfect Mom and son bonding weekend. I do love my boy-turned-man.

Where HAVE the years gone? Sigh…

Yes, we’re looking forward to gaining a daughter-in-law. She’s very sweet. She’s got a lovely family. Those two are made for each other, that’s for sure. More on them later. I promise.

Now, since I am actually feeling human again, I need to get to work!