Home again

I'm back from my stealth trip to Virginia.  As usual, it was beautiful.  I don't know what it is about this state that calls me.  Or why I feel so at home the minute I hit the state line.  It isn't really all of Virginia though, to be fair, I haven't been to all of Virginia.  Yet.  I love the mountainous regions and the coastal areas of this state the most.  My paternal grandmother was from Pedlar Mills, Virginia, in the Shenandoah valley.  Perhaps what I feel when I'm here is a genetic recognition of home.  

My grandmother met my immigrant grandfather, who was a very ethnic looking Arab, in a boarding house in Richmond where she worked.  I can't help but think that in some way, this was very scandalous behavior for the times.  I'll never really know though as that history is gone from us.  She married him and moved north.  I wish they'd stayed.

As usual, it rained.  For once, I'd like a three day stretch there with no precipitation.  This photo was of a storm that blew over the mountains in an instant.  One moment, it was overcast and misty looking over the mountains, the next it looked like this on the road to my sister and brother in law's house.  We pulled over so my sister could take this picture.  Even the storms are pretty and so very impressive when the lightning starts.

My sister Mareseatoats and her husband of 25 years at their surprise party.  Both are geologists who live in other parts of the world but call Virginia home.

This is the stealth blanket finally finished and delivered.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it at the delivery point.  Perhaps Mares will send me one.  It is so soft and if I weren't so project fatigued, I'd knit one for me.  The trim yarn is a camel silk blend to represent the last few years spent in the Middle East.

Although I love going to Virginia, I'm getting tired of the drive, especially when I go solo.  I've done it four times in the past year now and I don't think I'll do again for quite awhile.  Those turnpikes in Pennsylvania and Ohio are almost unbearable.  To go other routes takes forever, so I don't go those ways.  There aren't any efficient ways to get there as the crow flies, the damned lakes and mountains are in the way.  I think the entire state of Ohio, at least along the turnpike has just fertilized the land with manure. The entire route was aromatic and not in a good way.  Not that Detroit smells any better, but at least it's good old fashioned pollution and not cow dung that I smell.

I'm road weary and have to catch up on all the Tour de France news.  I love DVR.  Tomorrow, I'd like to discuss my inability to pack light.