Travels continue, Blacksburg and vacation in Virginia Beach (4/28/2023)

I wonder if some of you have gotten tired of my writings about my “great goodbye tour?” Well, it is almost over. After two days in the Blacksburg area, this week it is a welcome vacation week. So what the heck, I’ll report on Blacksburg and on my vacation. My vacation was spent in a cabin at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. Hopefully this combined post will make it a little more interesting; but don’t hold your breath.

The interesting thing that happened this time was that the vacation started of with a phone call and discussion with the social security office, trying to nail down my payments once I retire by the end of May. I had to interrupt my lunch, sit in the car and be submitted to an interview for close to an hour. Where was I born; when did I get married and where (how do you spell Gouda? Oh that’s just like the cheese, duh); what was the birth date of my wife; her maiden name; why did I not show any income between 1983 and 1989; you get the idea. But all good, I will get Medicare and social security. Rejoice, I can afford to retire!

We canceled one of my two classes in Blacksburg, maybe prematurely, but the boss Kevin, who we often call a nervous Nellie, was afraid that we were not getting enough attendants to make the class pay for itself. Oh well, at least I did get a chance to go there and say goodbye to the Virginia Tech campus, and one of my dearest friends, Chuck. Some of my students were pretty darn close to me as well, we had been going back at least 10 or more years (at the end of the class I actually got a hug from one of them).

I always look forward to having dinner with Chuck on one of the nights I am there and this time was not different. The first evening, dinner at Lefties that lasted two hours. The food was good, beer selection decent (I only had one), but the company and conversation exquisite. After dinner I stopped by Starbucks on the way to the Huckleberry trail where I walked a mile and a half with an Americano in my hand. Just a great evening to start my stay in the area.

The Huckleberry is a rails-to-trails park that used to be only 12 miles long, but has been lengthened over the years. I am not sure how long it currently is, but it is a great trail. I used to bike it when visiting the area; however, I am not able to make sure that I can pack my bikes in the State vehicle that will be assigned to me at each trip. I need to disassemble my bike to fit it in the trunk, and that still does not fit in some of them. However, walking parts of the trail is fun too, especially around nightfall.

The next evening, I walked the trail again, with my coffee. I did that after visiting the “Eastern Divide” brewery. This was my first visit, and the beer was good. They had some decent choices. I did not like the commercial building and, to tell you the truth, the restaurant that was built in with it was so, so. I found the food overpriced and not the best. They kind of have you by the you know what, since it is in a commercial/industrial area and there are no restaurants nearby. I, for one, need some food in my tummy when I drink alcohol.

As promised, a mixed bag today. After returning from this relatively short trip to the hinterlands, we celebrated my wife’s birthday, and took off for a few days in a cabin at First Landing State Park. We had walked the trails in the park some 5 years ago, so we thought we knew what to expect. However, I was still taken aback by the cypress swamps, and in particular by the mature loblolly pines and live oaks. One of the pines was recently cut and I took my time to count the tree rings and I came to at least 80 (probably more) which dated the tree to the time that the park was established (1936). The pines gave me an inspiration for the styling of my loblolly pine bonsai trees, which everyone tells me I am insane of even trying to grow as bonsai. What did we do at the park? We hiked, ate, read (NPR’s This I believe), and rested. On Tuesday I logged more that 20,000 steps on my Fitbit, and boy that steak on the BBQ tasted mighty fine! This is another State Park in the long lit of State Parks that I visited that I would recommend. Actually, there isn’t one that I did not like, but maybe Claytor Lake is the least!

Ok, this became another travelblog, again with little substance, life philosophy or teaching (actually maybe a little teaching in the captions of the last photograph below). I promise that I will get back to that eventually in my blogs. That these blogs will become more edgy. As I mentioned it feels like the closer that I get to retirement, the more nostalgic and inwards I am becoming. But this shall wane! I shall rise from the ashes.

Eastern Divide Brewing Company beer selection.  Good beer, so, so food, a very big place.  I usually do not like establishments with a huge beer selection, because it usually means that they have no specialty and do an average job on all beers.  This was an exception.  Their beers were good.

My IPA with a view.

First Landing State Park.  Just a small live oak among the loblollies.  I just enjoyed this evening walk.  

Bald Cypress knees, also known as pneumatophores.  Pneuma is from the word lungs and the original thought was that this is how these trees were able to transport O2 to their roots.  I have read somewhere that this has been proven to be incorrect.

No mass shooting in Fredericksburg (4/17/2023)

“No mass shooting today!” Those were the first words I dared to say to my wife when I called her this past Tuesday night from my hotel room in Fredericksburg. We just had another one the day before, now in Louisville. I had driven to Fredericksburg the day before, and that Monday evening I eventually had to turn the TV off. I had enough of it! It was so depressing; I did not even go out for dinner. I bought a tray of cheeses, nuts, and cranberries to snack on, a kombucha, and a four pack of beer (oatmeal raisin cookies porter) at Wegmans. So, when I got to my room at around 5:30, I had the kombucha and by 7 pm I had my cheese tray and a beer. Life was too depressing to go out and somehow enjoy myself in a restaurant.

I had set out with grand ideas of where I was going for dinner, but good plans are there to be squashed by a nut with an assault rifle and I just did not feel like celebrating my last visit to that town. Instead, I wrote the draft for the report on my Wytheville visit.

I actually enjoyed the cheese. It somewhat reminded me of my hitchhiking days though the northwestern part of France. I did that the year I decided to drop out of high school and somehow snuck into college. Crazy to think about it. This high school dropout somehow weaseled his way into college and eventually ended up earning a Ph.D. But I still think fondly about my trip to Dieppe, France, and the surrounding countryside. Yup, the long-term memory is the last thing to go, or so they say!

Back to Fredericksburg. I had two classes there with only 15 people in each. It is nice to be able to go more one-on-one. Moreover, I am finding that I have been going more off on tangents, embellishments lately. Oh, I am not lying at all, but I like to tell stories and maybe reminiscing is a better word. I have become more nostalgic these past weeks. It makes me wonder, is it old age, or is it my way of saying goodbye? Oh my, that is what I have been doing in this goodbye series as well, haven’t I? My blog posts have mellowed.

To continue, the next days, breakfast was at Panera’s and at the hotel (Hilton), and lunch was at a Taste on Spice (Indian) and again at Panera’s. The hotel breakfast is way too expensive for what you get, and I will not do it again. For the rest no complaint.

The one dinner I had was at a local brewery (6 Bears and a Goat) and it was not bad. Service was terribly slow. When I visit a place, I prefer a table or a booth instead of eating at the bar. I had to wait 15 minutes to get service, then another 15 to 20 minutes to get two samplers and another 10 to get my beer. However, then I ordered food, and it was there in 5 minutes. No time to finally enjoy my beer, or multiple. I decided to order dessert (ice cream); that took another 25 minutes, which got me worried it had melted under the heating lamp in the kitchen. However, I could at least have a coffee stout as a second beer for dessert. The menu told me it came in 5 and 12 once servings, but they waitress told me that the menu was wrong and forced me to order a 12 once stout. Considering the wait time for the ice cream, this was not a bad idea. Suffice it to say, while I usually tip 20 to 22%, this time I tipped only 18%. While the beer and food were decent, the service was off, the place was probably way understaffed.

As I mentioned above, the classes I teach are becoming different. Folks wish me happy retirement. Some applaud, I get handshakes, and even hugs. Folks tell me that they are going to miss me, that I am the best teacher they ever had. I take it all in stride, with a grain of salt. It is all very nice to hear; but soon I’ll be forgotten. However, I will not forget my time with this program, my teaching and hopefully some of the good I have been doing for the environment.

I have been fascinated by Walmart parking lots lately.  Now I own a camper and we plan to go across the country once we retire, stopping over in a Walmart parking lot is an option.  Even here in this somewhat upscale shopping area it seems that Walmart allows people to camp out.  This is great since there are nice restaurants nearby, the Panera, Starbucks, and restrooms for early mornings.

And the travel goes on, Wytheville (4/14/2023)

Things are increasingly winding down. They are going so fast, that the post for my last trip was written while watching television and drinking either coffee in my motel room or a beer at a brewery in Wytheville. I guess the final touches to this post will come in a brewery at my next stop, Fredericksburg. I am really starting to wonder why I did this to myself; I knew I was retiring, and I should have kept it easy the last year.

Oh well, I wanted to go out with a big bang. But man, retirement is going to feel good and deserved. Less than two months to go.

It is all bitter sweet, Wytheville, the town of last week’s visit, didn’t feel like usual. It felt like I had already distanced myself from the town I actually like a lot. I tried to visit some of the old haunts for that pop-psychology word “closure.” However, it just seemed that the restaurant choice for the first night did not seem as good as I remembered.

The Log Cabin was busy for a Monday evening; however, the meal I got was tasteless and the salad seemed to have been thrown together with little attention. I had a south of the border pork roast which tasted anything but south of the border, it had raw onions in it, which were distracting. For vegetable I ordered a stuffed squash, which turned out to be a limp half zucchini with some stuff in it. The only redeeming part were the French fries. But the desert and coffee were good.

Lunch on both days were at my favorite Chinese restaurant (Peking), day one was great, but my second day meal choice was somewhat disappointing. I usually switch between the Chinese restaurant and the Mexican place down the street. However, that place was closed, shut down forever. On further investigation it seems that one of the owners had died and that was it!

The beer at my favorite brewery (Seven Sisters) was still great, but the place was still empty, and the food truck would not be open both days I was there. So, off to the pizza joint (Moon Dog Brick Oven) the first day. That place is always good, no complaint there. My friends at the place I teach had told me about another Mexican restaurant in town which according to them was great, so I tried it the second evening. It is located in the Walmart shopping center and I wanted to look there anyway to see if folks were camping out in the parking lot with their campers. We have bought a small camper and are wondering if that would be an option for us, free camping at Walmart. Well, the restaurant (El Patio) was mediocre in my eyes. Oh well.

So, all together, maybe a bittersweet visit, maybe a good way to close out my 14 years of visiting Wytheville. Somewhat of a letdown. Not at all like my visit to Fairfax. But then maybe it’s good to be done with this part of my life very soon.  The best thing came at the end, on the way back I had a nice walk on the New River Trail.  I even found a good rock that I might be able to use for a root over rock planting for my bonsais.  

Seven Sisters Brewery.  Quiet at usual when I go there, but I had a chance to finidh my Fairfax blog while sipping some tasty brews, and then walking down the street for a nice pizza.

The Wallmart parking lot had a few campers already there.  I was scouting it out to see if it may work for us during our travels.

Just a picture on the New River Trail.  I love the shape of this tree.  Who knows?  A future bonsai design?

The redbuds were in full bloom on the New River Trail.  

Goodbye Fairfax (4/4/2023)

In one of my latest Facebook posts I quote the famous Anthony Bourdain:

"Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride."

When he traveled, Bourdain had an entourage, camera men/women, a producer, sound and light engineers, makeup folks, etc. I travel alone. He was lonely. Now I am not depressed like him, not contemplating suicide, or anything like it. But yes, I am writing this in my motel room, again, from a different town, on my goodbye tour. I’ll write about that town (Wytheville) later in a next post. This post is meant to be about my visit to Fairfax and Falls Church two weeks ago.

But back to Bourdain for a paragraph. In Fairfax I was able to get together with an old friend at a local brewery and then have dinner at a local Thai restaurant (Sisters Thai) on the first day. On the second day I went to a local Whiskey tasting room/restaurant (MacMillan Whisky Room) and although I love my whiskeys and bourbons, I decided to have a Manhattan (or three) and a potpie. I closed that evening off with a coffee and gelato at a place next door (Dolcezza). I was a happy camper, both evenings.

The Thai restaurant, whiskey bar and the gelato place were all establishments I had never been before, so in a sense they qualify to what Bourdain was talking about. Meeting my friend as well, and then what happened at the whiskey bar. Let’s go into the details.

I was sitting at the bar, and the folks I sat next to soon moved away. A lady sat next to me with a book. I estimate she was in her early 50s and before I knew it, we had a fun discussion going on. We were talking about hiking, marathons (which she runs), social issues, whiskey, our backgrounds, our respective parents, and so forth. Just an enjoyable time. She ended up being a kindergarten teacher and when her husband travels, she tries different restaurants in the area. She had never been there. After an hour or so a guy sat next to us who tried to dominate the conversation talking about the book he wrote.

Eventually it was time to leave, and on our way out of the door, we both were going opposite ways, she told me: “Funny, I had fun talking to you, and to think I am an introvert, which is why I brought the book. So, I could hide in it, and I did not read a word.” If you are a regular reader of my blog, you should know, I call myself an introvert as well. We had a chuckle when I told her that as we split our ways and I went for my gelato and back to my hotel room; a very Bourdain experience.

My friend David and I grabbing a brew at the Cabous prior to going to dinner at the Thai Sisters in Fairfax.  We have been good friends for the past 15 or so years.