Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
If all is well, and it is sunny, we’ll be riding our motorcycles today. Tomorrow, too. I’ll be back to civilaztion and blog posting on Tuesday.
For Hubby and I, the plan was to hang out at the WV Place and really enjoy the four-day weekend (I had off of work on Friday, too). It is Saturday, or later, as you read this. Assuming this post-scheduling thing really does work.
As I type this (planning ahead so none of my readers go through ToadMama withdrawal), it is Thursday.
As of right now, the weather isn’t looking so good.
In fact, as you can see from the handy-dandy image I provided on the left, only two of the four days are supposed to be sunny. Motorcycle riding is no fun in the ran. It is downright dangerous.
Although the chances of precipitation do decrease from 50% on Friday to 10% on Sunday.
Maybe we’ll get lucky.
I sure hope so because, remember, we have no Internet. No TV signal either (we have a small TV set we use to watch DVD movies).
We do both love to read and there are plenty of books, but even that gets old. Guess I’d better take some movies along. And my camera. The laptop should come along, too. And more books in case I read the 50 that are already at the cabin.
I hope your weekend is going well!
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Hubby and I stayed home in MD this weekend. With the long Labor Day weekend looming, we figured we’d just hang out in MD for a change. We actually had a nice day yesterday (Saturday). It was sort of like life before WV. |
Neither of us had anything pressing that had to be done. Although I was determined to finish piecing the quilt I have been working on for what seems like forever. More on that later.
Oddly, as I was busy sewing away, it occurred to me out of the blue that we should visit Second Chance. It’s an architectural salvage company in downtown Baltimore That rescues “the wood, metal, marble, plaster, stone and other architectural elements that make [a] building special” which gives those “pieces new lives, in new homes, in new ways, with new uses.”
Second Chance has a dual purpose. They work with low-income residents of Baltimore, training them in a wide variety of skill sets, ranging from carpentry to craftsmanship, with the goal of creating skilled workers who can make a living wage with benefits for themselves and their families. These people “become self-supporting members of the community with new skill sets. At Second Chance, we believe that second chances are not just for buildings, they are for people, too.”
I’ve purchased a few things there for the WV place: kitchen cabinets, the kitchen table top, and a coffee table/end table for the living room. Yesterday we got two very cool cabinets, which are perfect for the WV garage, and two little cabinets to serve as nightstands in the guest room.
Afterward, we went to the nearby Cross Street Market hoping to find something for lunch. Neither of us could decide on what we wanted to eat. So we took the long way home, through the Inner Harbor, which was crawling with Yankees fans. We were heading into Fells Point, trying to decide what/where to eat, when Mike said, “Hey, I wonder if Lenny’s is open.”
Lenny’s is a big deli on the corner of Lombard and Center streets, just east of the Inner Harbor, at the end of a block that was once known as corned-beef row. It is not a fancy place. It has yet to be discovered by the tourists, but the locals and business people love the place.
When I still worked downtown, we’d go there for lunch periodically. Mike always got a reuben (corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing grilled on rye bread). I’ve always had a sensitive digestive system and would never dream of eating such a thing in the middle of a work day. Yesterday, knowing we’d be heading home afterward, I decided to have one, too. It was delightful.
This morning, wondering what we missed in WV yesterday, I visited the Hampshire Review Web site. I was amazed to see that the Hampshire Review has a Web Cam. Not only that, they have a You Tube page, too!
There’s a video introducing you to the 2008/09 HHS Trojans (high school sports teams). Another video features Alverde Kelly, a county resident who turned 100 recently. There’s an even an older one, titled Local Pigs Go to State Fair.
Gripping stuff.
Hey, guess what? I finally figured out how to schedule posts. That way, I can write stuff like this in advance (it is Thursday evening as I am typing this) and have it post when I am not able to. Like, when I know we’ll be off in West Virginia.
Actually, I figured it out a week ago.
Still, Amy, if you are reading this, YES, you figured it out first!
Hopefully, when we get home, I’ll have all kinds of fun pictures to share. At least maybe I’ll have a few.
We just had one of the best weekends I can remember. We finally got to use the WV place strictly for FUN. That’s right, FUN. No work. Just relaxing, riding our motorcycles, and hanging out with our close friends Kathy and Barry Spice. They came to visit for the weekend with their dog, Max, who is not pictured here. (There’s lots of pictures from the weekend on my Web site.)
We did a short ride on Friday, stopping in Capon Bridge (about 30 minutes east of Romney) at a yummy little Mexican place called El Puente for dinner. The food is awesome. I am so sad we didn’t start going there years ago!
Saturday was our big day. We did a 200-plus-mile loop over about 8 hours through some gorgeous countryside on curvy mountain roads. Motorcycle riding doesn’t get much better.
Then Barry grilled us a dinner of steak, potatoes and broccoli and plied us with beverages (lemonade mixed with blueberry vodka…YUM).
After dinner we just spent time chatting and relaxing after our glorious day.
They left early on Sunday; Kathy had things to do. So Mike and I did a short 100-mile ride, stopping at El Puente in Capon Bridge, again, for lunch. (I told you the food was good!)
It is a good thing we’re pretty much finished working up here. This motorcycle riding can be quite addictive. As can just sitting around relaxing, hanging out with friends, exploring the town (I have been meaning to do this for years), etc.
By the way, if you didn’t click on my “exploring the town” link above, which leads to my Picasa page and features lots of pictures of Romney, you should CLICK HERE NOW. Assuming, of course, you actually want to see pictures of Romney.
It isn’t just me that would rather be anywhere but here. Really.
I’ve often told people that Meg pouts when we are at our Maryland house. They usually say something like “Oh yeah?” and/or a slight nod that says, “Yeah, whatever. A dog that pouts.”
So I decided to take some pictures. Now I have proof. The following pictures were shot over the course of a few days.
Does that look like a pout to you?
How about this one?
I guess she doesn’t look TOO pathetic here.
She looks pretty sad in this one.
This one, too.
Now, she looks REALLY sad here.
But things are looking up. That’s because I just told her we’d be going to “the WV” soon.
Once she gets to our humble little cabin in the woods, she’s a happy girl once again.
You can see she’s smiling here.
This is Meg, totally in her element.
You be the judge. She went from this…
…to this.
So, would you agree that my dog pouts? Or am I just guilty of hopeful pet-owner personification?
