Western Pennsylvania

Glass art exhibition at Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh

A famous house built over a waterfall (very strict photo policy at this place...)

Ohiopyle State Park

Cucumber Falls at Ohiopyle

Monday, August 10th: Blacksburg, VA to Pittsburgh, PA.

New River Gorge Bridge

New River

Not again...

Visual aid: we were stuck on 79 *just* beyond the fork...

Traffic in front of us.

Traffic behind us.

Clouds, just south of Pittsburgh.

Entering Pittsburgh - finally!

Country roads, take me home...eventually...

The trip from Blacksburg to Pittsburgh (August 10) was supposed to be about 5 hours of relatively easy driving, with plenty of time to stop and look at anything that might be interesting along the way. We got going about 9 am or so and had no problem whatsoever getting out of Blacksburg and into the rolling mountains of West Virginia. Our first stop was Tamarack, which was much more interesting than what I was expecting from the description. It's a large building featuring handmade goods from artists and craftsmen all over West Virgina – candles, jewelry, blankets, pottery, furniture, clothes, and so on. There are artist studios right in the center so you can watch people at work and it's very obvious that the entire project is centered around promoting the artisans instead of simply making a few bucks off of tourists. I nearly bought a few pieces from Linn Pottery but I decided that I could wait on that, given our current storage limitations.

Our next stop was the New River Gorge – we walked down to the lower viewing deck, which was still a long way above the river, and looked at the rapids and the bridge that we had just crossed. When we got back to the car, having just experienced two pleasant and interesting stops, the decision was made to take a short detour west to Gauley Bridge and see if the Gauley River was as interesting as the New River. It was a lovely country road...until we ended up going down a steep incline behind half of a large manufactured house on a flatbed truck that was going about 15 mph and scraping bits of the roof off the house every time it went under a tree. Finally, they turned off onto a different road and we got to Gauley Bridge to find that there wasn't much to look at there except for the waterfall that we didn't see until we were past it and it was too late to stop. Not wanting to get even more tied up with a further detour, we headed back towards the main road hoping to avoid more oversized truckloads. Which we did – but there was road construction along the way and we got to sit for 20 minutes or so waiting for things to clear up. We finally got back to relative civilization, got gas and had some lunch, and headed north to Pittsburgh determined not to stop for anything short of an emergency.

About an hour or so later, we ran into the worst rainstorm I have ever driven in. Everyone slowed down and most people put on their flashing hazard lights, which was the only thing I could see in front of me for several minutes. We crawled up one mountain and down another until the rain lightened up and traffic went back to normal; of course I was pleased that there were no accidents and that everyone seemed to be driving carefully and responsibly. Just as I was congratulating myself on getting through the storm and calculating how long it would take to get to Pittsburgh, we got to the point just south of Morgantown where 79 and 68 split off from each other...and traffic came to a halt. For about two hours total, due to a jacknifed semi ahead of us. The first hour was bad enough, watching all the southbound cars zooming over the overpass in front of us and next to us across the median, but then something else happened behind us (we never did find out what) and traffic backed up in the other direction too. Police cars and ambulances went by, people walked their dogs, and we forlornly wished we'd gotten stuck about 100 yards behind where we were so we could have gotten on 68 and gone east.

Eventually, traffic started moving and it turned out that we were only about ½ mile behind where the truck had stopped. We were supposed to be in Pittsburgh by 7 so we could meet up with William's grandparents who had just flown in after a weeklong cruise, but we knew there was no way we would get there in time (it was about 6:30 pm when we got past the accident) and so we called to tell his parents that we would just go straight to the house. The rest of the trip was moderately uneventful – we were slowed down a bit by yet another storm with dark and ominous clouds but not nearly as much rain as before, and we got to William's family's house about 7:45. We were so relieved that our long day was finally over...we were going to have some dinner and relax...and then William's brother Steve met us outside with the delightful news that the power was out.

The three of us spent most of the evening on the front porch, watching the rain and scowling at the (working) streetlights on the other side of the street, and when the rest of the family got home with the news that the grandparents were fine but their luggage had gotten lost, we decided that we should just give up and go to bed.

After all of that, the remainder of our visit has been marvelous, and I'll get to that in the next post.

Who's afraid of Virginia?

Skyline Drive is the main road through Shenandoah, and it becomes the Blue Ridge Parkway once you get past the park boundaries. The speed limit within the park is 35 mph so getting on the Blue Ridge means you get to go...an entire 10 mph faster. It makes for a pleasant, relaxing drive, as long as the person in front of you isn't going 30 and the person behind you isn't dreaming wistfully of 55. There are numerous overlooks and turnoffs along both roads, and on our way south we stopped on a whim at the James River visitor center. There's not much there but the scenery is lovely (see previous photo post) and we had an enjoyable walk across the bridge and down to the canal. We could have spent the entire day going only a few miles if we had stopped to look at/hike along everything by the side of the road; perhaps this is an idea for a future trip?

We got to Peaks of Otter about 3 and got into our room – the carpet had just been shampooed so we were warned, in a wonderful Virginia accent that added two or three extra syllables to everything, that the carpet might be a bit damp. The Lodge is welcoming and somewhat old-fashioned, as evidenced by the slit marked “Razor Blades” in the bathroom wall next to the sink. We settled in with a nice nap and a shower, headed for dinner, and then walked around the small lake listening to tiny frogs leaping into the water whenever we got too close. The evening finished nicely with some cocktails – a rare treat on this trip – and we collapsed.

Wednesday, we got going at a reasonable time and headed for Richmond. We got there about 3 or so and, not wanting to get to our friends' house too early, found a Barnes and Noble where we re-discovered the Internet and reassured ourselves that the world had not ended while we were in the forest. We finally got to John and Mary Lee's house, where we were greeted with enthusiasm by their six(!) cats and fed dinner and beer until I was forced to call it a night although William and John stayed up late talking about guitars. Thursday was my birthday, and I celebrated it in style by spending most of the day reading. The living room looks out onto a small strip of forest that's just thick enough to not be able to make out the other houses beyond it, and it was unbelievably relaxing to look up and see all the various shades of leafy green. We did go out that evening – 2/3rds of John's band was playing at a local bar with 3 other bands and we had a great time even though it was LOUD. Something else we'll have to do more of in the future...find local bands with interesting-sounding names and go listen to them. Contrary to popular belief, we have been known to listen to music that is neither Irish nor classical on occasion!

On Friday, after stopping in Charlottesville for coffee, book browsing, and burritos, we went to Blacksburg, where William used to live about 10 years ago. It's a lovely little town with a nice downtown area that had been completely taken over by the annual 'Steppin' Out' street fair. We got settled into our room at Sheila and Richard's house and decided to walk down to the festival to look around and get some dinner at Gillie's while we were at it. We had a very pleasant evening, and we only got slightly lost on the way back to the house. Saturday morning we went to see a friend of William's who was playing jazz at a local bakery; he asked us if we were playing anywhere and when he found out we didn't have any gigs lined up he went home, made a phone call, and got us set up to play that night at a restaurant about half an hour away. We were, of course, slightly stunned and very pleased by this and we went on with our plans that day in a sort of bemused fog.

After hiking around Pandapas Pond and a couple of the adjoining trails, we went back to the house and cleaned ourselves up for our Virginia debut. We had an absolutely marvelous time: The Palisades is a quirky, quaint place in a former hardware store and it had a relaxed atmosphere, attentive staff, and terrific food. Everyone we met was friendly and appreciative (Virginians again – fantastic people) and we even got dinner and a few dollars in tips. I don't know if anyone reading this will ever find themselves in Giles County, VA, but please check this place out if you do, it's well worth the trip. My only regret is that we didn't bring our portable audio recorder because we really sounded pretty good with the wood floor and high ceilings. Maybe we'll stop by again sometime?

Sunday, we went off on another hike, this time to the Cascades waterfall near Pembroke. The trail was a bit steep although it was nothing like the waterfall trails in Shenandoah. It was a warm day but not too bad under the trees: however, everyone except us had brought their bathing suits and were cooling off in the pool at the base of the waterfall. Again, maybe we'll do that next time. We went out to dinner with Richard and Sheila that night at Zeppoli's and spent some time after that just driving around so William could show me more of the area. Of course it's changed a lot since he lived there but it's still a charming place and I'd be happy to go back there again. There's a lot of music and an obvious sense of community; even William saw a few people he recognized from 10 years ago just while walking around.

We drove to Pittsburgh on Monday (August 10th) . That trip deserves to be in a post all by itself so I think I will leave y'all in suspense...

Oh Shenandoah...

Sunday morning (August 2nd), we got everyone's food, etc. sorted out and packed up the car to leave the Outer Banks. Side note: Sometimes it seems like there's no way everything will fit in the car and sometimes we wonder if we've forgotten something since there's so much space left over. Very strange. Anyway, we headed back out towards the mainland and drove to Shenandoah National Park, about 5-6 hours or so. It wasn't that long of a day, but it really felt like one: we got slightly confused on a scenic back road, the rest area we were counting on was closed, the speed limit changed constantly (and no one else seemed to notice), etc. We did learn that eastern VA is famous for its peanuts (who knew?) and that everyone should visit the Virginia Diner (sadly, we gave it a miss), and that Virginia is, apparently, for lovers. Hmmm.

We got to Shenandoah around 4, were met by the welcoming committee (see the first photo in the last post), and got our tent set up. It had stopped raining just a bit earlier and we actually didn't get rained on at all while we were there, which was fortunate. We went down to the camp store to get provisions and were confronted with the realization that there was essentially nothing there that we could eat – 3 different varieties of pork and beans, however. Virginia doesn't believe in vegetarians. We got a few things and resolved to make the best of it. After all of this, we decided to go for a hike to Dark Hollow Falls - the waterfall that was closest to the camp - but just past the campground, we ran into Mama Bear #2 and 3 cubs. 7 bears in 3 hours...we decided that we really didn't want to go that way after all so we went over to the other side of the campground and stood on the Appalachian Trail for a few minutes. Which wasn't really all that interesting, so after a while we decided to give the first trail another try and this time it was bear-free. We hiked all the way down to the waterfall, narrowly missed being run over by various teenagers, got some pictures (some of which had to be cleverly framed to avoid all the other people taking pictures), and headed back up. Halfway up we saw an owl next to the trail – I got a photo of it just as a family with two little girls came up behind us. The owl flew off but the older girl (8, maybe?) saw where it had landed and STARTED THROWING ROCKS AT IT?!?! Virginia is lovely but at this point I started thinking that I could do without some of the people in it....

We had a splendid chorus of owls directly over our tent that night: I slept through it but William heard them and managed to record some of it. Owls notwithstanding, we got up on Monday ready for another day of exploring. We went over to the Visitor's Center where they had a fascinating display on the history of the park, including lots of information on the Civilian Conservation Corps. We had some ideas about going out to one of the picnic areas for lunch and playing a few tunes while there but the large clouds of gnats hovering around made William reconsider the thought of playing the flute outdoors, as that sort of thing tends to make breathing difficult. In the afternoon we hiked to Lewis Falls – it was a fairly difficult hike since the trail is steep and rocky, but we did enjoy it and the falls were worth seeing. Part of the way back was on the Appalachian Trail and so now we can say that we've hiked it! Yeah...not really.

That evening after dinner we reconsidered the idea of playing tunes since the bugs had mostly disappeared and so we sat at our campsite for about an hour and a half and played through everything we could think of. And...remember when I was complaining a few paragraphs ago about the people in Virginia? We had all sorts of people stop by and compliment us on our playing and they were nice and thoughtful and appreciative and it was just fabulous. When we camped outside Yosemite (was that only 2 months ago??) we played a bit and no one even acknowledged our existence, so we were really touched that so many of our fellow campers took the time to talk to us.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at Big Meadows Lodge – I seem to have re-discovered grits, after refusing to eat them for years – and headed south to Peaks of Otter Lodge. More on that later...

Virginia

Two cubs and their mom were next to the road just as we entered Shenandoah National Park. SO CUTE.

Part of the Appalachian Trail.

Dark Hollow Falls

The view from Skyline Drive.

Lewis Falls

James River

Sunset at Peaks of Otter Lodge, near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Cascades, near Pembroke.

Outer Banks Lighthouses

Currituck

Bodie Island

Hatteras

Ocracoke

We needed a vacation to recover from our vacation

I've never been to the Outer Banks before; in fact, before I met William, I'm pretty sure I'd never even heard of the place. After a week of crazily wandering all over New England and points south, I was happy to contemplate a week at the beach, but I was also fairly certain that I'd be bored in a day or so. WRONG. We had a splendid, wonderful, fabulous time, starting from the margaritas on Sunday night all the way through sunset the next Saturday.

Why Outer Banks? William's family owns a time-share condo there, they've had it for over 30 years and they go at least once and sometimes twice a year. It was great to see them again and VERY nice to have some other people around to talk to. The condo is right in the middle of a large complex of buildings: there are two swimming pools and hot tubs, walkways to the beach, and a clubhouse with organized activities (and wireless Internet, of course). We spent a good bit of time at the beach but it was ridiculously hot in the middle of the day so we usually went in the late afternoon. The water was relatively shallow and not too cold at the beginning of the week – it did get colder later on, though. The rest of the time we read, cooked, and sat. We sat on the balcony facing the ocean, we sat in the air conditioned living room, we sat on the deck and watched the kids in the swimming pool. We went to some of the bookstores and one of the coffee shops, and we bothered the manager of the wine and beer store until he ordered some Red Sky At Night for us. Not a strenuous week at all.

Finally, on Friday and Saturday, we ventured out so I could see more of the area. We went north on Friday, to Duck and Corolla, and walked around the wetlands preserve and the little restored village near the Currituck Lighthouse. On Saturday we headed south: all the way down Hatteras (with a stop for muffins) to the ferry that goes over to Ocracoke Island. We saw some of the wild ponies and the lighthouse, and looked at a few of the shops in the town of Ocracoke. It was wonderful to be in a place with not too many people and no 'chain' stores or restaurants; everything there is locally owned and even at the height of the summer you can still get around easily. Nearly everyone we met was friendly and welcoming and no one was in a particular hurry to get anywhere. We're going to try to go back in the off season sometime: I can't imagine what that's like.

So, that was the vacation from our vacation. The next stop is Virginia...

Outer Banks

The view from our balcony.

Sunset at Jockey's Ridge.

Sunrise.

On the ferry to Ocracoke Island, heading into rain.

Wild ponies on Ocracoke.

Ocracoke ferry.

Sunset.

New Jersey and Philadelphia

Sunset on the NJ side of the Delaware River

Old City, Philadelphia.

Guards, Room 205, Philadelphia Art Museum

Downtown

Tango night in Rittenhouse Square

Post-tango cooldown

In the lobby of the Comcast Center

July 12 - August 7

Montreal, QC to East Durham, NY to Newton, MA to Queens/NYC, NY to Mattapoisett, MA to Brattleboro, VT to CInnaminson, NJ to Kill Devil Hills, NC to Ocracoke Island (and back), to Big Meadows, VA to Peaks of Otter to Richmond, to Blacksburg, VA!