First From Virginia

May 20. 2007

We left the little campground in Rutherford County, NC, scene of our car crash (as well as our second failure to get a map done; 120 calls and 3 sales). We be anxious for new roads and a little time off.

Climbing into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, our ears popped for the first time in six months. We climbed to 3,000 feet; prior to the climb it was so exciting to see something on the horizon above the tree line! From a distance the Blue Ridge Mountains look like the Marcola Hills out of Eugene, Oregon. We try not to be smug when it comes to mountains.

Spent the night in Haysville, just past Fancy Gap, in Virginia. The park is an old farm, big and grassy. No map here. Too bad; we would not be interested in even trying this one!

It is heartbreaking to see the dozens of textile mills, huge, long warehouses, all empty now. I had no idea the textile industry has disappeared from America. Just as it moved from the northeast and left thousands without jobs, now it has moved to South America and/or India or wherever, and forever changed countless communities in this southeastern part of the country. Everywhere we go we see evidence of the cheapening of America. We have sacrificed value for price. Pogo was right: We have met the enemy and it is us.

The area we just left has had five mills close; 2,000 jobs were lost in the last two years. This is a relatively small area and no doubt it will recover, just like the timber towns did when the mills closed. I find it much more disturbing, however, because the resource didn’t run out, the mills just chose to move their operations to an area of cheaper operation. How can there still be labor unions anymore? Don’t they understand the part they have played in this outsourcing? When a company has a bigger payroll for employees no longer working, something has to give. Unions have outlived their purpose.

We came out of Rutherford County on State Hwy 74, then went north on Hwy 77. Somewhere in there we had to do a stretch on US 40 and we were dismayed by the condition of such a major road. It’s concrete (bup-bup-bup) and broken concrete, at that.

May 21, 2007

Hwy 81 travels up the long western border of Virginia. It is a major north-south route and the truck traffic is horrendous. Beautiful, rolling green countryside. The trees here are mostly round, nothing spikey. All the way up this 4-lane highway, the grassy divider area has been sporadically planted with red poppies, yellow daylillies or blue bachelor buttons. A surprising burst of beauty that delights us.

Traveling up the Shenendoah Valley we agree that it is beautiful but looks very much like the Willamette Valley. Lots of farming, hay fields, purple and while phlox edging roadways and fields, oak groves and cedar windbreaks.

May 25, 2007

We are settled into the Greenville Farm Family Campground in Haymarket, VA, about 35 miles west of Washington. There are not a lot of RV parks in the Washington, DC area and most of them are campgrounds, rather than large RV parks. What that means is, the RV spaces are few, less than 30, while there may be 100 tent sites in a heavily wooded area. Greenville is typical, I think, a working farm of over 200 acres, with 43 acres (the back 40) set up for RVers and campers. There are only 20 spaces with full hookups (water, elec, sewer) and about 80 more rustic spaces with water and electric, and many tent sites with picnic tables in the woods. There is a pool here and a laundry and four ponds stocked for fishing. Yesterday they baled hay right in front of our rig! It’s working very well for us. When I first stepped out of the bus, the lady next door said, “The famous G Street Fabric store is right down the road in Centerville.” Well, it seemed like that’s how it happened; that’s mostly what I remember of the conversation. Made me feel like I was in the right place.

We hooked up with our old, good friends, Dan and Carol Perry as soon as we got here. They so graciously had us come in to the city for dinner and stay the night so we didn’t have to try and find our way home in the dark. The Perrys are old friends because they go back to the days when Dave worked at The Bulletin. In age, they are younger than we are, very active and up-beat and living the perfect urban life, which is six to eight minutes from work here, and a house in Round Pond, Maine to escape the summer heat. We have watched their kids grow up and have kids through Christmas letters and very occasional visits and this get together was much anticipated.

And it was better than we could have imagined. Drinks and stories on the deck of their unusual, multi-level home above the creek, one of the best meals we have ever had at a friendly Chinese place downtown, more catching up, and a good night’s sleep in a four-poster. Breakfast of bagels and fresh strawberries, we were all off our separate ways. We’re hoping to get together again before we head to Jason’s.

Carol is the 5th grade teacher we all wish our kids had. She teaches in Arlington and still loves her job, although she is beginning to feel a few pangs of excitement at the thought of retirement. Dan founded the Alliance for Aging Research some 20 years ago and as he says, “expects to keep peddling life everlasting until he drops in his traces like an old dray horse.” I guess if you are running your own company devoted to improving the quality of life after 80 you can do that! They live in McLean, VA, just literally minutes from downtown Washington. Daughter Colleen is nearby with hubby and two little boys; son Matthew is in San Francisco with wife and daughter, so the Perrys know our pain about having a kid on each coast.

Dan and Carol took us on a night-time tour of the monuments. We got out and walked around the Iwo Jima Memorial, which was so much bigger than we had imagined. It is beautiful at night, very moving. Around the base of the statue is a running list of all the military conflicts the USA has been involved in. The base is huge; the list has gone to the second line. There’s still a lot more room.

When we left the city, we took the Washington Parkway (a long strip of National Park) to the end, which is Mt. Vernon. We walked all around the grounds, marvelling at the fact that George Washington’s homestead is still owned by the Mt. Vernon Ladies’ Assn, the same group who raised money and saved the place in the mid 1800s. There seemed to be at least 10,000 school kids there, but they were well mannered (and they actually moved through very quickly, but plugged up the gift shop); the line to go through the mansion, however, was about an hour long, so we passed on it.

Traffic here is unreal. There are just simply more people and cars than there is road space.

We have good maps, and plan to see a couple of sections of the Smithsonian, plus take the motor tour – I forget what it’s called, but someone else drives. We’re only about 11 miles from the Manassas Battlegrounds and others are not far away. We’ve both done so much Civil War reading, we want to see the battlefields. Davey has gone by himself today to see an air museum at The Washington Dulles Airport down the road; it’s part of The Smithsonian. Because of that it has some of the more important planes in aviation, like the Enola Gay.

I’m starting to hook Katie’s rug and staying cool. The temperature is about 84 degrees and the humidity is up there with it. Not that we’re complaining! Ron Hoyt sent pictures of a bike group doing the annual McKenzie Pass spring ride in the snow . . . . . Brrrrrr!!

Love to you all. Thanks again for everyone’s words of support, post-crash. We’re both fine and the “new” car is running fine.

Ever Sam