Lamole to Lexington

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Monday, June 8
On the road again...and happy birthday, Steve! Tennessee is one long state east to west and I began to wonder if we'd ever get out of it. As we passed exit signs on the freeway to many small cities throughout Tennessee, Steve began to reminisce about his travel in the early 1970's when he worked for Seligman & Latz in New York. His job at S & L was to visit the various beauty salons the company ran in department stores throughout the country and he, being the low man on the totem pole, got some very interesting routes to travel throughout the south - Rome, Georgia where he got to go waterskiing in a bayou with alligators and Ashland, Kentucky and the $7 a night motel room. He dredged up names out of his memory - Yvonne Schuman and Peg Thompson - great woman who ran the salons and who had to ferry this 27 year old wet behind the ears New Yorker around.

We decided to go up to Baltimore through Virginia and it was a gorgeous drive. However, since we hadn't originally planned on taking this route we discovered the joys of technology and travel. Accessing Google Maps on my Blackberry, we easily navigated our route, even making choices about some possible side trips - Monticello, which Steve had never seen, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton - but ended up deciding that there was too much to see and we need to make a return trip. It really is fascinating to see how easy technology makes it to make decisions on the fly - not only could I easily figure out how far it was to anywhere from where we were, I could even get the cost for tickets to Monticello. I do have to admit that I still carry maps - I'm enough of a luddite that I like the crackle of the paper, figuring out how to refold the map, and getting to see the whole path of where we are and where we are going.

This was our longest day on the road - clocking in at 550 miles. We pulled into Lexington, VA around dinner time and headed out for a birthday dinner for Steve, whereby the title of today's blog. Via my trusty Blackberry I had found an Italian restaurant in Lexington and, on arrving at the restaurant, found on the wine list a Chianti from Lamole di Lamole, a small town in Tuscany that we had visited on Steve's 60th birthday trip to Italy - and from which we had gotten several bottles of its wonderful Chianti for Steve's birthday dinner in Italy. And here we were 4 years later celebrating with the same wine - the intersections of our lives are fascinating.

Tuesday, June 9
On the home stretch - a short drive from Lexington to Cockeysville, MD to spend the night with Steve's parents. We got off the beaten track a bit and wandered through the countryside. For those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning, remember one of my first posts with memories of my childhood road trips and the whites only swimming pool in Charles Town WV. Well, guess where we had lunch.... We ended up driving right by Charles Town and I had to take the opportunity to go see 523 S. George St., where Aunt Helen and Uncle Will lived and where we visited each summer. We stopped in the visitors center in town to ask if there was a park nearby to have a picnic lunch and after wending our way through the back streets found the park...and the swimming pool. No more whites only signs...but then again, the skin color of all the swimmers there today hadn't changed from 40 years ago. It was an eerie, uncomfortable feeling...confronting your past and perhaps one you would have preferred not to confront. Complex thoughts and feelings - I was only a kid, I couldn't have done anything about it...but then again, I remember the uncomfortable feelings I had even then.

How nice to get to spend an afternoon and evening with Marj and Lou, Steve's parents, and off to Connecticut to see Lauren and her Steve tomorrow.

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