Blog

The journey finally ends.  After waking early, closing the suitcase for the last time on this trip, packing up the laptop, rolling the sleeping pad as I sleep on the floor in daughter in law’s studio when babysitting in NoVa, I fixed breakfast for grandson, took son to campus and headed for home.  Son had told me that I would head northwest from his campus and not have to backtrack to I-66.  This seemed like a good idea, giving me less time on the interstate.  However, the Gods were against me making it home in a timely manner.  As I pulled up the ramp onto the interstate, traffic was dead stopped as far as I could see to the west so I went right back down the off ramp and took off in a westerly direction on an unknown rural road.  About 30 minutes later, I rejoined the interstate, clear of the accident or traffic blockage and traveled smoothly along for the next couple of hours.

As I approached the midway point of the trip, two interstates intersect and as I approached this area, an electronic warning board announced that I-81 S that I was on was totally blocked a few miles ahead.  I rounded a curve, fortunately at an off ramp and sure enough, nothing but stopped traffic as far as I could see.  Off again on a rural road looking for an alternate route home.  Somehow, though no one seemed to be following me, a 20 minute jaunt through a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley, I spotted State Rd. 11, an alternate north/south route.  Knowing this route would get me past what turned out to be a tractor trailer accident, I finally made my way the rest of the way home, about an hour and a half later than I expected.

During the 21 days gone, autumn, which was not very pretty this year left.  The trees are barren, the garden gone, but the garlic did arrive and one last day will be spent getting it in the ground and mulched for next year’s crop.

The morning dawned gray and quite chilly.  Son was sluggish, but with a day of teaching to do, he mounted his bike to ride either to the campus or to the Metro station to catch the University Shuttle over to campus.  Daughter in law has hours to put in on a piece of art due for a class tomorrow, but was slow moving to get to her campus.  Grandson, who had the day off from school was up at the crack of dawn and stayed in the shower so long that I finally poked my head in the bathroom and asked him to turn off the water, so that the rest of us would have some hot water, then he snuggled under a towel on the floor of his bedroom until his Dad got up and asked him to please dress.  The apartment is cool.  They, like us, keep the thermostat low to keep their hard earned dollars out of the hands of the local power company and sweaters indoors are in order when the temperatures outdoors are low.

Once they left for their respective campus, grandson completed his homework with my supervision and practiced his guitar in preparation for his lesson later this week.  We discussed how we wanted to spend this gloomy day, not just sitting inside.  We agreed that a metro trip into the district was in order with the American History Museum the goal.  First we needed to go mail a package to his cousins then decided to try to park at the Metro station instead of making the mile plus walk over to it.  The garage lot indicated it was not full, but once in, it costs you a daily rate of $4.75 to get out.  We took our chance and after driving every aisle on every deck twice, passing the same half dozen other cars looking for spots, decided that the garage was indeed full in spite of the sign and paid the fee to leave.  The only other parking near the Metro station was a quarter for 15 minutes up to the limit of the meter, but the meter did not tell you what that limit was and I was unwilling to start feeding it quarters only to find out that the limit would be insufficient for us to make the round trip and see anything once we got there.

The other possible outing was to drive to Great Falls National Park, about 20-30 minutes away and check out the Potomac River gorge there, tour the visitor center and walk one of the paths through the woods along the side of the river.  Three years ago, hubby and I both got Lifetime Passes to any National Park, available to seniors for a nominal fee.  Prior to our cruise, we each emptied our wallets of all “extra” cards, to avoid their loss while on the trip.  This card, sitting in my drawer at home, would have saved us the entry fee into the park, but the fee was a small price to pay for an outing with the eldest grandson.  He is 8, an age of motion, fearlessness, and a desire to climb.  It was fun watching him climb around on the rocks safely within the barrier walls, reminding him off and on to read the signage that implored him to not climb the railings or walk on the remnants of the C & O canal walls.   Though we didn’t stay but about 90 minutes, he did expend some energy and I got some photos of the gorge and the grand enjoying the visit.

Entering the overlook that gives the best view of the falls, which we were told drop about 80 feet was this sign.

This sign was about 10 feet tall. Each number represents the year and the height of flood waters, that would put the water above the banks of the gorge with a total depth of 90 to 100 feet.  The immensity of the volume and power of the water in those floods stages must be staggering.  Oddly, the visitor center is within a flood stage depth that has occurred within the past 20 years.

Tomorrow, my 21 days away from home finally comes to an end.  I will leave Northern Virginia when they all leave for school around 8 a.m. and will drive to our home, my own bed and the comfort of our own home.  I have enjoyed the past 21 days, but I am looking forward to that.

I realized after two weeks of suitcase living, first on shipboard, then in son’s home that I am definitely a homebody.  Not pathologically so, not to the extent of not wanting to leave the house, but certainly becoming more uncomfortable about the absence from home each day.

Retirement is quiet, the daily routines have become so ingrained that each passing day away has increased the stress on my system.

It was fun going on a cruise with son and his family and being there for Halloween and our grandson’s birthday. This is the first birthday since our son adopted his stepson.

This morning, hubby left to return to our home, to pick up our pups from the doggie camp where they have been for two weeks, to take over my chicken care for a few days. I left for Northern Virginia to help out with childcare as the eldest grandson is off of school for the next two days while his parents are not. On Wednesday morning, I too will get return to our quiet life for a while. While gone, there have been two nights of temperatures in the 20’s, so whatever was left in the garden is now gone. The garlic that was to be planted before the trip did not come prior to our leaving, hopefully it will have come while we were gone and there will be one last garden day to put it in the beds for the winter with a heavy mulch of straw to bed it down.

A couple of weeks ago, hubby took a motorcycle safety and driver test class while I went to play in two friends yarn shops and to take in the scenery along the Blue Ridge Parkway. He passed and really wanted his first bike to be a Harley. Wiser, more experienced rider friends urged him to get a lesser bike until he felt very comfortable on a bike and tonight he purchased his new toy, a 2005 Honda Rebel with low mileage. He is as happy as a kid in a candy store.

Eldest son and our eldest grandson, his 8 year old arrived today for the long weekend. He came to slaughter the 15 stinking meat chickens that I have been raising for the past 9 weeks.
We all took a pleasant walk on our neighbor’s much larger farmland, through the woods and across his cattle pastures with a stop to chat with him, watching one of his cows who appeared maybe to be in labor, then home for a Mexican fiesta, a favorite of hubby and son.
I had been frustrated, not able to print a pdf knitting pattern that I had purchased online and his computer ability corrected that problem, finally made my printer wireless for both of our laptops and found and downloaded the driver for the laser printer, so that is also an option for my use on my Windows 8 laptop.
While he was being our computer technical guru, I wound a skein of yarn designated for a baby sweater, only to have it kink up and then sat and hand wound the same skein, unkinking all of the knots. Now I’m set to start knitting again and can print wirelessly from my recliner.