Many Stops Along the Way

My last walk in North Hatley for awhile was on Tuesday morning and the clouds were sitting down on the lake like marshmallow fluff.  The beginning of the week saw clear, cool and crisp air coming into North Hatley.  It made for energized walks, quick steps and a lift in spirits.   Miss Q and I enjoyed a brisk walk around the golf course before we packed up the car and started our 10 day trip to the south.  Our first stop was in West Hartford, CT where we met up with good friends and enjoyed a wonderful dinner out at a restaurant that we had not tried before.  My favorite dining out meal is Mussels, Caesar salad and a glass of Malbec and that is exactly what I had for dinner.  I was delighted and the mussels were delicious.  It is hard to come up with a good meal that I truly enjoy that doesn’t leave me feeling that I have overeaten or am stuffed.  The only thing I have to watch is the anchovies, even though they are supposed to be really good for you, because I don’t like anchovies but luckily John does.  The best part of the evening was catching up with friends we had not seen in many months.  So nice to take time to visit and share each others news.

Miss Q and Portia are staying in North Hatley until mid-October so they didn’t come with us this trip.

Virginia is for Lovers

Wednesday was our longest day of travel.  It was a ten hour day and we drove from Connecticut to Steeles Tavern, Virginia where we stayed at a delightful, relaxing inn called funnily enough Steeles Tavern Manor and Hideaway Alpine Cabins.  Not sure about the Alpine Cabin bit, there are three cabins but we didn’t see them.  However, the Manor House itself was just lovely.  It is run by two very capable innkeepers, Ray and Melisssa, and they have created a most welcoming place to stay.  It is right off 81 in Virginia and I mean right off.  We almost missed it.  They served wine and cheese at 5:30pm and it was all Virginia wine from Rockbridge Vineyards.  The wine is delicious.  We stopped there on our way out and bought two bottles to take as a gift to our next stop and I am glad we did.  The merlot is especially good.

My family will get a kick out of this photograph.  The Montebello we know is nowhere near Virginia but I had to take the picture.  We were stopped at a railroad crossing while a 1000 car train (I am being facetious but it was a long train) slowly, ever so slowly, moved along the tracks.  It appeared to wait for us to get to the crossing before it started to move.  I really wish I had counted the number of cars but suffice it to say we were there for about 15 minutes.

Puppies and more Puppies

As part of our quest to decide whether we will get a puppy, we had contacted a breeder who is just outside of Charlotte NC, inside the South Carolina border but barely.  Her beautiful girl, Frankie, had 10 puppies on the 29th of August and three of them are male.  We made an appointment to meet them on our way to Asheville.  Frankie is a very calm mum and apparently a very good one according to the breeder.  With 10 puppies she has to manage making sure everyone gets fed and taken care of.  She was curious about John holding one of her pups but not nervous.  She seemed to trust him not to do anything to make the pup unhappy.  We met the father, Soren, who is magnificent.  He is from Sweden and he is also extremely calm and gently but he is HUGE!  I think the little fellow that John is holding, known as Mr. Black for the black dot put on his backside by the breeder to tell the pups apart, is going to be the size of his father.  He has a beautiful large head and was the first one born and was also the biggest and he still is.  Oh my!

Pisgah Monster Cross Challenge

The purpose for our early trip to the south was to be part of the crew to support Margot and Hadley and their coach plus two friends as they competed in a crazy 70 mile bike race on the Blue Ride Parkway and around.  We weren’t sure how we were going to do this but our great friends Sue and Fish had things under control.  Sue had her big yellow legal pad filled with notes regarding what we needed to get in the way of food to give them energy along the route.  This consisted of orange slices (this was a nod to me and my healthy snack requirement), Almond Joy chocolate bars, Little Debbie cakes, pretzels and gallons of water, ice, and Gatorade.  We found ourselves not only replenishing their needs but many of the other riders as well.  The most fun was cheering everyone on and getting a few high fives for just being there.  What amazed me was the big smiles they had at each and every rest stop.  What an accomplishment.  They even met their goal to finish under six hours.  We couldn’t be prouder of them all and are so honored to have been their crew and to be able to be there to support them.  We, the crew, were surprised how tired we were at the end of the day!!! Don’t you just love the orange t-shirts?  Team colors baby, team colors and also Princeton.  As both John and Fish went to Princeton they were happy to don the t-shirts.

South Carolina and our Dataw Home

We are back here for only a week for doctors appointments and to get our house ready for when we return in October for most of the fall and the winter.  It is hot here but beautiful.  The damage from the hurricane was minimal on the island.  There are still some branches down and some cleanup to be done but our house is fine and the trees and gardens look good.  We stopped in at the pub to get some lunch before embarking on the unpacking and settling in.  It was good to be back and to be welcomed by the great staff at the club.

Unrenting our house is almost as much work as getting it ready to rent.  However, that is why we are here on our own and with no other plans except to get things ready for our longer stay.  We put a lot of stuff away when we packed up last December and trying to remember where everything is happens to be a real challenge.  That’s nine months ago.  People make babies in that amount of time!!! How am I supposed to remember where everything is.  Oh well, I will find what I need when I need it.

My mother calls it the swamp so I will use that in my wish for you for the week.  Hope you have a wonderful week.