Refection

I am sitting here in my hotel room with the television on for company reflecting on the last five days. I enjoyed the trip over and stopped on the way to take detours off the interstate to drive leisurely through two small town, Lexington and Charlottesville, VA.

I spent Monday night in Beckley, WV at the exit 44 & 45. TAMARACK. A state sponsored art and craft facility for the WV artist sits between the two exits. It was very nice to look through the windows into 5 different studio's, one of which belonged to a fiber artist who wasn't in her studio at the time I was there. Her studio was far too neat for my taste.

I stopped to take some shots of the Shenandoah Valley, NOT from the highest overlook point but from a lower view. It is all I can do to drive past the lookout and not look out over the cliff and feel my body tingle, it's the same feeling I get standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I had a death grip on the steering wheel as I drove past. Going as fast as I dared with a death grip on the wheel just in case the jeep of it's own volition decided to steer to the edge and plunge over the side. As I am typing this I know how ridiculous that sounds, but tell it to my insides. I can't, not convincingly.

I have traveled I-64 on many occasions and I didn't need my mapquest directions until I was nearing Richmond. It was then I discovered that I had not put them in the car. So I had to call my son Myke in RI so he could FIND ME. By that I mean, he had to go to mapquest and follow the route I taken until he could tell me were I was at that point in order to tell me where I had to go from there. Thank goodness he knows how to take info from the internet and send it to my cell phone in a text message that I was able to read, thus he directed me to my destination. I got there 10:00 pm with only TWO U-turns and ONE over shot exit.

I wish some one had told me I had to transverse a long expanse of water via a tunnel with a bridge on each end, and a second tunnel to get from Newport News to past Virginia Beach I would have taken a nerve pill. I don't do bridges well, tunnels, piece of cake. I am getting better with bridges I have too, there is not way to leave the State of Kentucky without crossing a bridge to the north ,west or east.

I relaxed on Wednesday morning waking late. Ordered a light room service breakfast. After getting dressed I drove through the historical district. Then parked the jeep and took a stroll along the Elizabeth River. I took some snaps of a large ship being pushed out to sea by tug boats and the top of an old light house.