Blogs from Roanoke, Virginia, United States, North America
September 5th 2011
September 2 Travelled to Amish country today via Gettysburg. Very moving experience there. What a total waste of life. Amish people live a very simple life. No modern conveniences at all, but very happy with their lives. We stayed at our worst hotel, a Holiday Inn in York, which had dreadful lighting in the dining area, and where I tripped up a very hard to see small step. Only damage to pride, thankfully. September 3 Drove to Washington and checked into a magnificent hotel, the Omni Shoreham. Bill Clinton had his inauguration ball there, and many famous people have performed there. In the evening we went out to a restaurant in Georgetown, very nice, followed by a night tour of some of the monuments around. We are arranging a bit of a gettogether for a few ... read more
June 22nd 2011
I am sitting here at the airport and waiting to board the plane, so I figured there couldn't be a more perfect opportunity to do my 1st experience blog! This will be my first experience flying a plane, and so far it has been very interesting. Mom and I ate lunch before we got here, and she says she ate too fast because apparently she is feeling sick. While just standing in the line to check-in, she had to run to the bathroom 3 times. Yep, so she was supposed to be there to support me and comfort me, but instead she was sitting on the toilet the whole time! Anyways, I checked-in, and one of my suitcases weighted 45 lbs and the other weighed exactly 49 lbs! YAY! I did it! Haha, its a bit ... read more
Visit with Wayne & Rhonda
Published: September 2nd 2010North America » United States » Virginia » Roanoke
August 26th 2010
Yes everyone we are still alive! We were visiting with Wayne and Rhonda for a few days and we were busy catching up. For those of you who don't know them, Wayne is Necia's brother and they used to live in Lindsay. They moved to Fincastle, VA about 20 years ago and have lived in their current house about a year and a half. We had a very nice visit and I got to meet their youngest son, Zach and his family. He has a lovely wife Hannah and three small children, Kelsey (7), Zeal (4), and Merritt (10 mos.). We had a great time together visiting and getting to know one another. Rhonda unfortunately had to work some while we were so Wayne took Don and I sightseeing one day. We went to the Natural ... read more
June 30th 2010
Nearly forgot this one! When we stopped in Roanoke for a few days, Couch Surfing again (!), we had a great time. Our host, Rob, is a tennis coach for the US Tennis Association but he was a bit tied up with work so we never managed to hit any balls. We did manage to have a barbecue and drink a lot though! Lots of other local CouchSurfers came along which was great. The fireworks were a little underwhelming though. Maybe we expected something like we saw at Disney. Rather than go back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, we decided to do a local walk and found ourselves in Happy Hollow. The trail is only a couple of miles long but it's through thick, bearless woods, and gave us the opportunity to see the second biggest ... read more
May 24th 2010
Sadly we left Eric's place in Arlington and decended southward to the home of the parents of Laura. We had a wonderful past 24 hours starting with our farewell party in DC. We sucessfully were able to finish the Ben and Jerry's Vermonster ice cream sundae. This is 20 scoops of deliciousness! We then went to the Brickskeller, in Dupont, home of more than 3000 beers from all over the world. Thank you to all of our friends who bid us farewell. Our friend Lyssa flew in from Italy to attend our farewell party and to drive the last half of our stuff to our storage unit, aka the basement of Laura's parents home. Today we started the day with a 3 mile run, then a trip to the local vineyards, then to the local county ... read more
Day Two: Roanoke, VA Sweeet!
Published: July 12th 2009North America » United States » Virginia » Roanoke
July 11th 2009
Today, we drove some more! We listened to a lot of music, read, and looked out at the mountains and scenery. While driving in West Virginia, we hit torrential rain. Thank goodness there was a rest stop near by! We sometimes could barely see the road. In West Virginia, there are all of these towns with names that have to do with water. When we got to our hotel, we got to "know" the staff. At dinner we waited an hour for our pizza. There was a problem where they didn't know that we were getting a special pizza so we got a regular-sized pizza. Then, when our special pizza came out of the oven, one of the cooks dropped the pizza so they had to cook another special pizza. Another incident that happened was that ... read more
October 1st 2008
We had several down days at my Roanoke home with my mother - Helen (91), sister Lynn (63) and sister Leslee (almost 50) who drove down from DC on Friday. A mini family reunion with only DiAnne (65) missing. Bets has adopted my family and my mom is “mom” and she loves it. My mother - Helen, who surprises me every time I see with her energy and strength, is still very active being a homemaker for Lynn and herself. One of her favorite pastimes is bargain hunting groceries as Lynn drives from store to store burning $4 gasoline to save pennies. However there is no way to convince Helen she has not saved big $$. We spent Friday and Saturday here in relax mode. Betty tried to catch up on her energy and I tried ... read more
Time to get me some walking done
Published: July 14th 2008North America » United States » Virginia » Roanoke
July 14th 2008
So the plan was to get onto the Appalachian Trail... so i come to Roanoke, the closest town to the trails in these here parts. The reality is its a fair ways outa town and heads right into the middle of the range. On my own that all looks a little daunting, what with tales of homeless crazies living in the woods and lots of bears along that part of the trail. So i decide on walking the blue ridge parkway instead. So go into roanoke get some more food and cereal bars and then see a small container of mace.. so get that too... so am now walking arsenal.... hunting knife, axe and mace... hoo ya give me a gun and i'll be an american at last... Would have pics of roanake but i deleted ... read more
May 15th 2008
Forleden fandt vi en rigtig fancy campngplads lige uden for hovedstaden og med direkte busforbindelse, så vi ikke behøver køre skrumlet ind mellem de mange politifolk, motorcykler og biler. Det er bestemt en fordel, for det er ret krævende at køre kæmpesvinet "ELMO" RV i tæt bytrafik...Den er både høj og lang. Washingtons Metro er desuden noget lettere at gennemskue end NY hvor vi konstant måtte spørge os frem for ikke at ende det helt forkerte sted. I metroen blev vi kontaktet af en venlig dame, Fran, der fulgte os næsten hen til White House, alt imens hun konsant smalltalkede. Vi fandt selv bagsiden af White House, hvor der var et større opbud af politi og naturligvis mange andre turister. Og så var vi der - i Georges B´s baghave - underligt men bestemt interessant. I ... read more
February 25th 2008
Wow, how things change like the wind one minute you sitting around getting ready to go to Hilton Head the next the next thing you know the winds change and your headed strit for the keys. I love my life never knowing from one molment to the next where I'll be. The winds have changed my friend and now so will my path. See you in the keys.... read more
