Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 8

Our farewell was said to the Sleep Inn at 9:06 AM. No tears were shed. It’s cold outside and very overcast. Winter garb still being worn. Cory even put on his warm winter jacket. He hates to give in. He hung our new pumpkin head decoration in the window of our car......just for the pleasure of passerby’s. Booooooooooo. We sailed along on Rt.81 at a nice clip. Not too fast and not too slow. We sang a couple traveling songs with Lulu belting out ??Take Me Home Country Roads??with the thoughts of West Virginia looming up ahead. Whoa....not so fast, girlie. Slow her up, Bucky! We have encountered a major delay in our travels because of a terrible MVA with a fatality. Sad. We actually had to come to a standstill on the highway. We just ... read more

Caught the 8:18 a.m. train, got seats, and settled in for a nice ride with lots of stops--Ashland, Fredericksburg, Quantico, Alexandria, DC Union Station, then I lost track, on to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York, Penn Station, the last stop (so we couldn't miss it). Got a taxi to the hotel, seeing Rockefeller Plaza, Madison Avenue, etc., on the way--gawking like any other tourist. Checked in, wandered around a few blocks (more gawking), and Mike got his corner stand hot dog.and we looked at the beautiful building on Lexington Ave (pics); the first floor now has dozens of local eateries; Mike could spend a week there! Had our group meeting to introduce everyone, chatted, reviewed the itinerary, and had a great dinner at Dos Caminos, a couple blocks away. Wonderful food served family style so ... read more

Our daughter has had a yearning for years to visit Ireland. She has had a picture from Ireland, huge poster a Christmas present from her brother, hanging in her living room for years, got it when she was in high school. So when she announced that she and Kris were saving to go, we were excited for her. After graduation from her tough MBA program this spring, the trip would be the perfect reward. Then she asked if we would come and house sit (in our old house, still not sold, and now being rented to the kids.) Of course we said Yes. Oh, and take care of the 70 lb chocolate lab, Sophie. And the two outside cats. So we knew the priorities--animals then house. We contacted our camping friends Dave and Bonnie Lodge and ... read more

Today we had a surprise day off as the Richmond Affordable Housing affiliate build day fell through, which was a nice surprise and a much needed day off! I didn’t set an alarm and awake a few minutes after 9am because I heard friends shuffling around to head to breakfast. Our hosts cooked up a wonderful spread—pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, OJ, & coffee! Beth attempted to make a breakfast burrito full of all the things and it was quite the site to see her try to master that! Raffi was also up to the challenge of eating the biggest pancake, which was bigger than his head! Silly friends ? Desperately wanting to catch up on the blog and hang, we were all slow moving as many people also had journal entries and Safety Nav reports they ... read more

Lawrenceville, VA This morning I woke up at 4am and in case you’re wondering, no 4 hours of sleep is not enough. Especially when you have an 87 mile day ahead of you. But this is why I’m here & I’m happy for this to be my “job” day in and day out. Plus—I get to ride my bike everyday! So I got ready, was first to bring my bag outside so I offered to help NJ hitch the trailer (but bc she’s a boss lady she was good) so I headed inside to get started on cooler crew. We divided everything up again so we would have designated food for lunch and separate food to head straight to the host. It was then time for breakfast (no coffee ???) and we all sat in a ... read more