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Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Today is Hubby’s birthday.

All loaded-up and ready to go.

I wish I could say there’s a fabulous day of riding ahead of us. I mean we ARE in one of the most beautiful parts of West Virginia. And we DID ride in on a fabulous road.

Unfortunately, it’s 48 degrees and cloudy. And there’s a 60% chance of rain.

Considering the fact that we rode about 6 hours in the cold rain yesterday (scattered showers), neither of us are real anxious to mount-up again today.

I’ll write more later. It’s time to go get breakfast!

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The Ride – Day 1

We left the WV place around 9:30 on Sunday. That’s relatively early in the day, so we had high hopes that the temperature, which was hovering around 60, would get warmer and the clouds would go away.

With our leather on, we were warm enough. Unfortunately, though, the clouds did not go away. Instead, they thickened and condensed. The next thing you know, we were stopped beside the road near Thomas, WV (very close to Blackwater Falls State Park) pulling on our rain gear. Truth be told, I was happy to be wearing an extra layer. As it turns out, 60 degrees was to be the warmest temperature we experienced all day.

It didn’t rain continuously, but it did rain a lot. The roads were wet pretty much all day. And that’s a real shame. Because just south of Buckhannon, we got on WV-20, which is one of the best roads we’ve ever ridden. Very little time was spent in an upright position. There was curve after curve after curve as we went up and back down numerous mountains.

It was easy to tell when we neared the top of a mountain. That’s when the fog got REALLY thick. I’m sure we missed some spectacular scenery. What little we could’ve seen was missed because we had to remain 100 percent focused on the road. Riding a motorcycle, which takes a good bit of concentration on a clear day, becomes a bit more challenging in the rain.

Wanna know what it’s like? Picture yourself going about 50 mph in your car during one of those niggling, misty rains. Your windows are down, of course. And you don’t have any windshield wipers. Oh yeah, and we can’t forget the cold.

Except for our hands (neither of us have weatherproof gloves), we were dry. But it was quite chilly. It’s hard to relax and enjoy riding when you’re stiff with cold. But we made the best of it. And we actually lasted five and a half hours before stopping to thaw out.

We were very happy when we did stop. It was nice to get warm and eat.

Shortly after lunch, we rode through a town with a bank that had a digital thermometer built into its sign. I was amazed to see that it read 40 degrees. Yes, 40. No wonder we felt cold!

Lucky for us, the place we’re staying is warm. There’s even a fireplace in the lobby. It was really nice to get here and warm up.

We’re in far southern West Virginia at Pipestem Resort State Park. If you follow that link, you’ll see they have a web cam, which means you’ll be able to see for yourself just how dreary the day looks. As long as it doesn’t rain, we’ll be happy. There’s lots here to see.

Maybe I’ll even have some pics to share with you tomorrow.

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The Furkids

It’s been awhile since I did a post all about the dogs. And since I know some of my readers could care less about photography and other miscellaneous stuff that appears here, I figured it was time. So here goes…

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Morning Stroll

All of the dogs enjoy our morning stroll. Actually, it’s because of the dogs that I do the whole early morning stroll thing. Do I take walks when the dogs aren’t around? Yep! Do I do it at the crack of dawn? Nope!

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Happy to Be Alive

This is not technically a great picture since there’s grass obscuring her face a bit, but I love the expression on Belle’s face here. You can see how happy she is to be running around freely.

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K's Bench

Every single dog that we’ve ever had come live with us either as fosters or full-time family members has had some sort of unique trait. One of K’s is how she likes to sit on stuff. He favorite spot at the MD house is on our back steps watching the birds. She prefer steps, I think, because her legs are so long that sitting in a regular position makes her back very straight. So this is sort of like K’s equivalent to slouching in a chair.

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Basking in the Sun
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K Snoozing

These next three shots require some explanation. First, there’s Meg waiting for us to return.

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Where've You Been?

She often follows her own lead when walking through the woods and sometimes beats me back to the house.

Belle's Crazy Streak

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Belle just found some crack in the woods. But I do know better. This is just one of Belle’s personality traits. Every now and then she likes to run around in a frenzy just for the sheer joy of it. She especially loves running and splashing through shallow streams of water. And tall grass. She also gets a huge kick, apparently, out of doing circles around the other dogs. At full speed. And full speed for Belle is quite fast. (Click on the above image for a larger view and you’ll see her feet are not even touching the ground.) There were clouds of dirt and gravel flying as she barreled around the other two dogs in the driveway. All they could do was watch in confusion.

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What?

This shot was taken just after one of their wrestling matches. They were taking a breather…

I’ll close with this image of Meg and K “helping” Hubby fix dinner.

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Apprentice Chefs?

For the record… Meg cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted alone with food on a grill. Belle is perfectly content to sit next to the grill as stuff cooks. I don’t think she’d steal anything, but one never knows. K might take food if the mood strikes her. But I still trust her more than Meg. Because Meg is sneaky. She knows how to time her misdeeds when Hubby and I are not watching.

Can you trust your dogs to be left alone with a grill full of food?

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Explanation and Change

A while back when I changed the name of my blog from Web Abode to Interstitial Space, I probably meant to explain what the name means. I’m sure I meant to. The problem is that sometimes my memory really sucks. So I forgot. And all this time, folks have been wondering what the title means. Or, if not wondering, at least reading the title and not really caring what it means.

It does have a meaning. But the word “interstitial” caught my fancy first. Hubby and I were watching a show on television about extreme building engineering, or how stuff is made or something like that when I heard the term used. Hubby, being a plumbing engineer by trade (architects design buildings and plumbing engineers design the plumbing systems to make the buildings functional), was more than familiar with the term. He could even use it in a sentence.

Not a sentence like this: “My wife wastes her time on writes a blog called ToadMama’s Interstitial Space.”

A sentence like this: “Tell Bob to find the interstitial space above the number 12 operating suite to see if the installers remembered to connect the oxygen piping.”

Interstitial, like many words in the English language, has more than one meaning. So does interstitial space. BUT, if we’re talking about interstitial space as it relates to architecture, which is where I got the term, there’s a sort of easy to understand literal explanation with illustrations on Wikipedia – interstitial space (architecture). I’m using the term more loosely than literally. To me it’s just sort of an out-of-the-way place where all sorts of different stuff can appear. Or where a wide variety of topics can be discussed, various photographs shared, stories told, etc.

Does that make sense? I hope so, because this explanation is already WAY longer than I intended for it to be. Now for some fun stuff. Maybe “interesting” is a better term here.

Sign of the Times

STOP… if you like looking at pictures, do yourself a favor and click on each shot so you get to see the full view. The images look so much nicer when they fill the screen.

The leaves have begun changing colors already.  I’m not about to give you all of the scientific reasons behind why, when and how the leaves do this every year. I will tell you, however, that we’re a couple weeks ahead of schedule. I’ll also say that many trees and even a bunch of grasses are going right from green to brown. So if you do see any vibrant colors this Fall, it’ll be short-lived. Depending on where you are, of course.

Just in case, get out there and enjoy it while you can.

The Grass Ain't Getting Greener

If you can’t get out there, just come here every few days to look at my pictures. I LOVE watching the colors change.

Riotous Color

Even though Fall is my favorite time of year, I’m actually sort of sad to see it come so early. Because that means it’ll be short and not nearly as pretty as it has been in recent years.

Quiet in the Forest

You can’t tell in the picture, but that “quiet” log was pretty big. I’d guess it to be about nine feet long and two feet across. It was a stretch for me to get over it and I have pretty long legs.

Attention!

I love meandering in the woods near dawn and dusk when the sun is cutting through the trees at an angle, which results in the selective lighting effect that I just love. Where some things are still in shadow while others get the sun’s full attention as it bursts through the trees.

My Favorite Tree Image of the Day

The next shot is the one I like best. The fallen maple leaf was stuck at the very end of a pine bough, waving gently in the breeze.

Yellow

Lighting is important. And it isn’t always easy to get it right. Heck, it’s hardly ever EASY to get the light right. That’s where Photoshop and other image editing programs come in handy. Some shots need just a little bit of tweaking to really make things pop.

Cool Bug

Last but not least, I finally got a shot of this cool bug. I have no idea what it is. It sort of reminds me of a stink bug on steroids. I think it’s pretty neat looking. I’ve seen it, or other bugs like it, many times over the past couple of weeks, I just haven’t been able to get in a good position to catch a shot of it. The funny thing is, I’d never seen it from the top. So I had no idea it had such interesting color patterns around its rear end. I just liked how it looked quietly menacing as it sat nibbling away amongst multitudes of fornicating soldier beetles.

How many signs of Fall have you seen in your neck of the woods?

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You Capture – Signs

One of the cool things about participating in Beth’s You Capture meme is seeing how differently everyone interprets the week’s assignment.

I mean, people DO think differently you know. (Trust me. I am married to an engineer.)

The assignment for this week was SIGNS.

I wonder how many folks will go with the literal interpretation?

Stopping is not an option.

Imagine the town council discussions around this one. I mean, when does STOP not mean one has to stop. Is that clarification really necessary? And why not use “YOU” on the sign instead of “U”? (This is an actual sign at an intersection in Romney, West Virginia.)

Would anyone really consider crossing this "bridge" during a flood?

I like the odd road signs approach, but I like my “signs that Fall is coming” take on it, too. Better, actually. Because that’s one thing I like to do each year, watch as the trees slowly start to turn.

Signs of Fall
Signs of Fall
Signs of Fall (look closely to see the very early signs here)
Signs of Fall
Signs of Fall

What about the other signs in nature? You know, signs that there are critters afoot?

Snakeskin = sign that a large snake is living in our woodpile.
Poop on stump = sign that a fox is living in or very close to our yard.

That scat (aka animal crap) is not an isolated incident. Foxes leave droppings to mark their territory. This particular fox (maybe there are more than one?) has left lots of this kind of sign on and around our property.

And we can’t forget signs from a higher power. They come in many forms. The sign I am referring to occurred on Tuesday night. The very first night in my new office (more on the office thing later).

Tree frog on the window of my new office.

This room used to be Hubby’s office. All the years Hubby was using this room (since 1998), I never saw one of these. Like three seconds after I noticed the little guy, who was only an inch long if that, I saw him eat a bug. How cool is that?

When your name is ToadMama, it’s very cool.

A sign that this office move was a good one? Perhaps. I guess time will tell on that one.

To find out how other people interpreted the You Capture SIGNS assignment, head over to Beth’s blog and follow some of the links.

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It’s Only Natural

One cool thing about this time of year is that there are butterflies everywhere.

Caterpillars, too. We can’t forget that four-inch-long green guy that is still, six days later, happily munching away in our Charlie Brown pine tree.

Shades of brown.
Much happier-looking colors.
This one is only about 1 1/2 inches long. Look hard to see which end is the front.
Spread 'em!
Still munching, six days after re-homing.

Now it’s time to plan another motorcycle ride. We have to get some miles in since the season is winding down.

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Why We Are Here

Inevitably when we tell people we built a house in West Virginia, they ask, “Why?”

Our response? Because West Virginia has a LOT of great motorcycle roads.

We usually leave it at that because, unless we’re talking to motorcyclists, folks just don’t get it. Most people think a road is a road. They understand how we might like to get away from traffic and congestion, but they don’t really appreciate the difference between a road through the suburbs and country roads. Mountainous country roads at that.

I’ve shared some pictures here and there, but today I decided to do something different. I’m going to share a bunch of pictures, many of which I took with my little point and shoot camera while we were riding.

First, a map of the route.

The route was something like 190 miles.

Hubby planned this ride. He and I take turns. We both try not to do too many repeat roads. It’s amazing how, after FIVE years here we are still discovering new roads.

Remember, to get a larger view, click on any of the images on the page.

Hubby gassing up the bikes at the 7-Eleven in Romney.
This was the first really clear day we've had in a long time. And temps were in the low 70s.
Intersection in Petersburg, West Virginia.
Pendleton County Courthouse in Franklin, WV.
Hubby found us a nice little picnic table on the courthouse lawn for our snack break.
Since I was busy documenting the trip, he got our snack set up.
Gas station in Franklin, WV that advertised 52-inch pizzas.
Heading back north (roughly) toward Romney.
The road alternates between running alongside pastures and through woods.
It also alternates between straight and curvy.
Sometimes the roads are flat, but more often they are quite hilly.
I like the colors in this image. We were probably traveling at least 45 mph when this was taken.
The views are almost always pretty.
When the roads are hilly AND curvy is when they're the most fun.
Dodging vultures.

If you click on the image above, you’ll see that Hubby has veered into the wrong lane to avoid a flock of vultures that was busily munching on a deer carcass. Even though he was in the opposite lane, he still spooked them. Vultures are big and slow. I think about three took off as he approached. Had he not ducked AND veered slightly more to the left, his head would’ve hit one. There was one left on the shoulder of the road as I passed. Wouldn’t you know the stupid thing would take off right as I passed and almost hit me in the side of the head!

Not only are the roads amazing, there was hardly any traffic.
Notice the rocks looming above the road?
Skirting around a rock outcropping.

So now when Hubby and/or I start droning on about how fabulous the motorcycle roads are here in West Virginia, you’ll have a better idea as to what exactly we mean.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual journey.