It's really hard to summarize oneself for the general public. I mean, really, what does the public want to know about me? Am I married? Yes. Do I have children. Yes, three, and they're all grown thank God. (By that I mean parenting is HARD. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I'm really glad our offspring have all reached adulthood.) Do I have pets? Yup. Two dogs. Since the kids are all grown, you'll read more about my dogs than my kids. Because that's what happens when you get old like me. I have three grand kids, too, so you'll read about them as well. But the dogs live with me and, when I am desperate for blog topics, they usually help me out.
On Saturday, for most of the day, temps were in the 20s (F), or below. And we got about 10 inches of snow. Around dusk, temps started to climb, and the snow turned to sleet, and then freezing rain. Temperatures continued their upward swing through evening and into the next day.
Sunday was downright warm. Highs topped out in the mid-40s, and there was lots of sun. People were shoveling snow from sidewalks and driveways while wearing t-shirts without jackets.
It was weird, but I’ll take it.
Look at that gorgeous blue sky.
Caboose in Oldtown Manassas
I’d planned to go to Costco in Manassas on Saturday, but canceled due to the snow. I went on Sunday instead.
I don’t really like going to Manassas. It’s essentially the outer ring of Northern Virginia. Crowded, full of traffic, LOTS of people, and did I mention the crowds? But there’s no Costco in Warrenton. No PetsMart, either. And no big beer and wine superstores.
Since I only go to Manassas if I have to, and it wouldn’t make for a very nice motorcycle journey, I decided I should swing by the Manassas LOVEwork on my way to the store today.
LOVEwork in Manassas, Virginia
If you missed my original post about the Virginia LOVEworks, CLICK HERE.
I’m hoping to snag pics of all 40 this year. They won’t all be reached by motorcycle, but that’s okay. I enjoy road trips on four wheels, too.
The Manassas piece is the fourth one I captured. That means I’ve captured 10% of them and it’s only February. Can you tell I’m in business development? 🙂
Manassas LOVEwork
It’s a rather plain piece. But it’s still a big ole hunka LOVE.
I hope y’all enjoy the final week of February. Spring is right around the corner. Yippee!!!
Y’all know I have this sorta crazy — in a good way — moto-blogging friend named Fuzzy, right? Fuzzy’s real name is Rachael. She’s really very sweet, and cute, and charming. And she has a quirky sense of humor that I love.
She had this idea that it would be fun to hear what other moto-bloggers sound like. Since not many of us have actually met in person.
I usually like Fuzzy’s ideas, ’cause we’re kindred spirits in many ways. And this one sounded kind of fun, too. The “kind of” part being me getting to see and hear other moto bloggers.
I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, so I figured I’d do it. Even though I’m extremely uncomfortable in front of a camera lens.
I shot it sort of ad hoc, as I was waiting for some soup to finish cooking last night. I hate the way I look in the video. Truly. I almost decided to ditch it, put on some decent clothes, maybe a bit of makeup, and try to do a better job with my too-long hair.
But then I figured that would be silly. One, because I don’t usually wear make-up. Two, because I always wear comfy clothes, and I like my Alaska sweatshirt. Three, I’m not one to put on airs.
Most important, y’all might not recognize me if I didn’t look like my old self.
So, here it is. No snazzy soundtrack or fancy edits. Except where I had to splice two videos together because I accidentally shut off the camera while filming.
The weather in the eastern half of the US has been a bit nuts this year. Granted, since I live in the Mid-Atlantic region, I don’t have nearly as much to gripe about as you folks in New England. You all have been absolutely hammered by snow.
Here’s it’s only been cold. But it’s been REALLY cold.
Anyhoo… in my last post, I mentioned the moody skies I’d seen on my Saturday drive. I saw some other cool stuff, too, that I thought I’d share here.
Well, I’m a sky watcher. I’m a sky watcher. Watching clouds go by. My, my, my.
Sorry, not sorry for that little earworm. LOL.
Here are some of the interesting sky pics I captured on Saturday.
On US 29, headed southeast towards Charlottesville.
On US-64, headed west towards Waynesboro, near Afton, Virginia.
See those mountains ahead and to the right? Skyline Drive is up there.
Looking south over Rockfish Valley.
Back in October, I did a post about my visit — on two wheels — to the Bold Rock Cidery, which just happens to be in the Rockfish Valley. If you missed it, check it out. I’ll be re-visiting some of those roads this year FOR SURE.
Alien Spaceship Cloud
I should add that it was pretty gray when I left my house that morning. The further south and west I went, the bluer the skies. But it was still cloudy. And cold.
I tooled around a bit in Staunton (pronounced like STAN-ton) before picking up my transports and heading north to Strasburg. As you can see, the skies got gray again.
Newly decorated water tower along I-81 near Mount Jackson, VA.
When I drove past that spot in January, the tower was being painted.
I HATE I-81. Actually, I hate all two-lane highways.
Being trapped behind these big-ass trucks who pass really, REALLY slowly, and cars with ignoramus drivers who drive along in the left lane really irritate me.
Looking east from the western outskirts of Front Royal, the sky was quite blue.
Since it felt so good to be out of the house for a change, I decided to take a more-scenic route home, so I got on Skyline Drive in Front Royal.
Entering Skyline Drive.
The Drive runs mostly along the ridge of the mountains, so it’s typically at least 10 degrees colder on the Drive than at lower elevations. So I got to see lots of cool ice, too.
Is it just me, or do you see a face, too?
Note the slight hint of glacial blue coloring in that ice?
Pretty View
Ice, ice, baby.
I think temps were in the low 30s (F), but it was windy, so it felt much colder.
The next two pictures are for you folks not from around here who wonder why we don’t ride our bikes more during the winter.
Cold isn’t the only reason. The roads are particularly hazardous this time of year. There’s a wide variety of stuff used to treat roads to prevent icing. Like rock salt, cinders, sand, salt brine, and even mixes of some of the above.
That stuff might make the ice go away, but it doesn’t go away. So we see lots of this…
Cindery, gravely, road surface.
In the next shot, you can see the build-up of the salt/sand mixture on the shoulder and in-between the lanes. It’s often scattered across the lanes in spots, too. Sometimes even in big piles if one of the big trucks has a hiccup while slinging the materials around.
Headed east on US-211 at Thornton Gap.
So even if it warms up, if there’s been recent bouts of freezing temps, one has to be extra careful. That stuff will send you sliding off the blacktop in a heartbeat.
While daydreaming about fun warmer weather excursions recently, I came up with an idea for my own little scavenger hunt.
Who doesn’t LOVE a scavenger hunt? Especially if it means getting out on the motorcycle (or in the car; I’m easy on my “rules”).
The tourism folks in the state of Virginia — our motto being Virginia is for Lovers — are behind a push to have LOVE artworks erected throughout the state. I’d seen a couple already, and LOVE the idea, so I thought it would be fun to try and capture pics of each one this year.
Virginia is a big state — on the map, I’m about 3/4 inch SW of Washington, DC — but I think it’s doable. I’ve actually captured three already.
Click on the map to visit the VA LOVE Web site.
I helped out on a dog transport yesterday. A “transport” is when a rescue needs to get a dog or dogs from point A to point B, usually over a long distance. Along the way, folks volunteer to drive 50- to 100-mile segments. It’s like a big doggie relay.
I was responsible for picking up two dogs in Staunton, VA and taking them to Strasburg, VA. They started off in Ferrum, VA and were headed to Conesus, NY. I believe their previous owner had health issues, which is why they were surrendered.
Anyway… I decided to multi-task on the mini road trip. It was Valentine’s Day, after all, and LOVE was on my mind. Sort of. (We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Only because we both think it’s sorta a contrived holiday, not because there’s any lack of love.)
LOVE in Waynesboro, VA (captured on Valentine’s Day)
I really liked the fishing theme of the Waynesboro piece.
Once I arrived at the site, I got out of the car to snag a few pics. A youngish couple got out of their car and asked me to take a picture of them. Of course, I obliged. They got one of me, too. Then, oddly, said, “Maybe we’ll run into you again.”
I must have given them an odd look, because the guy quickly explained that they were spending their weekend visiting LOVE spots throughout Virginia. That made my heart happy. What a great way to spend Valentine’s weekend, eh?
LOVE in Culpeper, VA
Culpeper is about a 30-minute drive SW of Warrenton (my hometown). Hubby and I went there for lunch a couple of weeks ago.
LOVE in Luray, VA
I captured the Luray LOVE sign back in January, while en route to another Staunton-to-Strasburg transport. I’ve only seen three LOVE pieces so far, but the Luray sign is my least favorite. It doesn’t exactly stand out.
I’m actually excited about seeing more, especially since there are some located near family members I don’t often get to see. And there are others in places I wouldn’t normally visit.
There are a couple more LOVE pieces I could have captured yesterday, but they’re along an awesome motorcycle road, so I decided to save them for later. Maybe Hubby can share that LOVE with me. LOL.
Speaking of awesome motorcycle roads, it was sort of torturous to be in the middle of prime motorcycle riding country AND seeing the mountains. I was excited to be out and about, though.
Did you know that Waynesboro is near where Skyline Drive ends and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins? And Strasburg is actually near Front Royal, which is where Skyline Drive begins. I had to go through Front Royal to get home, anyway, so I decided to drive the northern segment of the drive, from Front Royal to US-211 at Thornton Gap.
It was cold, but quite interesting. We had an arctic cold front push through yesterday afternoon, so the skies for most of the day were quite moody, to say the least.
I’ll save the other pics I captured yesterday for my next post.
Not only did Hubby and I get out of the house yesterday, we got to ride our motorcycles.
These boots were made for riding.
Imagine a big smile on my face, ‘kay?
The weather has been rather crappy round here. Lots of cold, but little snow.
I know you folks in the Northeast have probably about had it with snow, but we haven’t seen much here.
It could be my fault. I finally decided to buy snow boots for my dogs. And weather-proof coats. So, now that they’re fully equipped, we won’t get snow.
That’s just how my luck works.
Anyway… temps actually got into the 70s (F) yesterday. Can you believe that? So, even though poor Hubby now has the cold I’ve had for a couple of weeks, and he’s hacking and coughing like crazy, we decided to go for a ride.
On a day like this…
Yesterday afternoon, after the ride.
We would have been crazy NOT to go.
But we didn’t go far. We rode for about 30 minutes to this taqueria I’d sampled before, but Hubby hadn’t tried.
Tacos! Clockwise from top, Cecina, Carnitas, and Barbacoa de Cabra.
It was delicious. We’ll be going back to the Taqueria Jasmine in Bealeton again for sure.
It’s gotten cold again. And rainy. I’m still hoping we get some snow soon. You know, so the girls get to use their spiffy new boots outdoors some more.
Here’s a shot of the girls in their new hi-vis, weather-resistant coats.
They’re not crazy about getting wet. And I’m not crazy about drying them off.
As for the boots… some folks think they’re silly. My girls don’t mind being bootless in the snow on grass, but when we’re walking on the sidewalks and streets around town, they get snowballs stuck between their toes. And then they limp, refusing to let the impacted foot touch the ground until I stop and clear the snow from their toes.
With eight feet, that gets old pretty fast. When Meg was still with us, I had twelve paws to deal with. She would’ve NEVER worn boots, though. Heck, I could never have gotten them onto her. She hated having her feet touched.
Wanna see the first tryout?
They actually got used to the boots pretty quickly. They love their nightly walks, so I knew they’d never refuse to go. And they didn’t. But they definitely need more practice.
As I mentioned in my last post related to the Europe trip, our final stop was the city of Trier. Hubby had first heard of the city when he was stationed at Spangdahlem in 1975-1976 during his stint in the Army.
He was just a young pup then. And he hadn’t yet gotten the travel bug. So he spent all of his spare time on base, not taking advantage of the many tours/daytrips he would really have enjoyed.
Yes, he is still kicking himself for that.
Anyway… I told myself I wasn’t going to post too many pictures, but narrowing them down was hard. Besides, I think the new layout that I chose will load so much faster that it won’t matter.
Since we left Sinsheim later than usual, we didn’t reach Trier until after dark on Monday. Much to our dismay, Tuesday started off rather dreary.
Mike admiring die Römerbrücke (the Roman Bridge).
Trier was founded around 16 B.C. The stone pilings of the Roman Bridge date from A.D. 144-152, which makes it the oldest bridge in Germany. The pilings are deeply embedded in the bedrock underneath the river gravel. The arches and roadway are only from the 18th century. Thankfully, on March 2, 1945, General Patton’s tanks captured the bridge so quickly on March 2, 1945 that it wasn’t blown up.
Our charming hotel sat on the western bank of the Mosel River, which meant we were able to leave our car at the hotel car park and walk into the heart of the old city.
Mid-bridge Photo Op
It was a chilly, but relatively short walk. We got to enjoy quite a bit of interesting architecture during our stroll.
Perhaps a remnant of the old city wall?
Annelies, with her trusty guidebook, led us first to the Imperial Baths.
Annelies approaching the Imperial Baths.
Construction on the Imperial Baths started around the year 300. The structure was never completed.
More Amazing Brick Work
Much to my delight, we found big foot near the baths.
Big Foot Sighting
Trier has a number of UNESCO world heritage sites. The Porta Nigra (Black Gate) was the thing we most wanted to see. But there we encountered lots of other cool sites as we made our way toward the gate.
Electoral Palace
That’s the gilded facade of the Electoral Palace, one of the “newer” sites, only dating back to the mid-1700s.
Konstantin-Basilika
We did not go into the Basilika, Constantine’s throne room. I think it may have been closed. It is the largest surviving single-room structure from Roman times. The guys are dwarfed in that image.
Entryway on The Church of Our Lady
The Church of Our Lady, the oldest Gothic church in Germany, was built in the 13th century.
As you can probably guess, we found the inside of the building amazing.
Stained Glass
Enormous inner hall.
One of many captivating details.
More cool details.
The sun through the stained glass made for some interesting light.
My favorite light capture.
More detail.
We probably roamed around that church for a good hour. Annelies and I captured quite a few pics between the two of us. Okay, a ton of pics. But the place was fabulous.
Amazingly enough, our next stop, mere feet away, made the church seem dull by comparison.
Trier Cathedral (Dom St. Peter), a UNESCO world heritage site, is the oldest church in Germany. It has served as a place of worship for 1,700 years.
Trier Cathedral
If you’ve been following my trip posts, you’re probably tired of me talking about brick. But really, how cool is that?
Brick!
Pics taken at opposite ends to try and give you an idea of the place’s immense size.
Coolest Ceiling EVER
A closer look at that ceiling.
Hubby was impressed with, or perhaps stunned by, the intricately inlaid wood walls.
Wood inlay.
Wood inlay.
That was a lot of wood.
The ceiling was stunning. The wood was amazing. But this sculpture — I have NO idea what it’s called — took my breath away.
Gates of Hell?
End of the World?
It was haunting, really. And amazing.
More chilling sculpture.
Look at all the different stone.
Sorry, but I’m sorta at a loss for the words to describe it all.
We were in that building for a LONG time, too. But we still had more to see, so off we went to the Porta Nigra.
One of the city’s gates, built between 186 and 200 A.D.
That’s old.
We gawked for a bit, and then started making our way back to the hotel.
Pedestrian area near the Porta Nigra.
I just love the pedestrian areas in European cities and towns.
We finally stopped for a bite to eat on our way back to the car.
And drinks. We HAD to have drinks to toast our adventures.
Our final lunch together.
Cosmos for Annelies and me, and beer for the guys.
Looking north from the Roman Bridge.
Trier was definitely memorable. We saw so much amazing stuff during our brief trip, which seems much longer that it actually was. We were only actually in Europe for a full 12 days. We sure packed a lot in, didn’t we?
If you’d like to see all of the pictures Annelies and I captured in Trier, visit my Trier FLICKR album.
