Home Bodies For A While

Leaving Virginia 

7:48

I am back in the saddle, to use a cliche, sitting in my living room, waiting for the lake to appear slowly through the darkness, reminding of the old days, when we would watch a black and white photo appear in a dark room.  It's 7:30 and I have been up for an hour, listening to Morning Joe, some NPR when I can't take it any more.  We received a dusting of snow last night, it's 25º, and the lake is still frozen enough for a few fishing guys to trudge out on it.  When we arrived home yesterday, the lake looked like an ice rink but this morning, it's white, covered with snow but ruffled in the middle.

Beginning Of Our Drive

Our drive yesterday was so easy, I could have put the car on automatic pilot.  We know the route so well, having made it two or three times a year for the past six years, make the same stops,  and no matter what we do, how many stops, it always takes seven hours.  We were surprised but welcomed lots of blue skies and sun on our drive through Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania but when we entered Chautauqua County, the sky clouded over and we even had a whisper of snow.  We stopped at Gio's Barbecue, about five hours from Virginia, so I could have a pulled pork sandwich and coleslaw for lunch. And we stopped at the  grocery store in Sugar Grove, just on the NY/PA border, for a gallon of Pot Of Gold whole milk, bacon, and breakfast sausage.  And Evie had to have a pot belly of chocolate milk.

Blue Skies Of Pennsylvania

We were home at 2:50, to a gray, wintry looking Woodlawn, roads cleared but a dirty white on its edges.  Our parking space and stoop were both icy, so I better get out the Ice Melt.  We carefully unloaded the car and were unpacked, with everything put away by 3:30, record time for us but we also did not pack much for our five day trip.  We both took showers and felt surprisingly good after our long drive.  We decided to enjoy the dusk, so we got out some appetizers, wine, and Evie warmed up the endaname, and we settled on our couches for a good hour.  It felt like we had never been away. And we were shocked to see a couple of blue fishing huts on the lake, and a couple of guys walking out on the ice around dusk, to check out the thickness of the ice.

Fishing Huts Off Of Long Point

Dinner was easy because we had frozen half of a meatloaf before we left last week, so Evie just warmed it up and we had a tasty dinner.  We watched an old CBS Sunday Morning, as there is not much on TV and most of our series ended last week like Divorce and The Affair.  We went to bed early for us, at 10:00 and both of us had a good night.  Yippee.