Oct 9-10 - Accomac VA

We left NSB around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, leaving behind a house that looks like we have not moved in yet, a strange looking house indeed without a kitchen. As much as we'd like to be there for the tiling, we won't. Jeff, the tile guy, is supposed to start next week, pulling up the old tile.

Back to our travels -- onward to Accomac. It was an easy drive, albeit long. We were both very tired since neither of us got much sleep the night before. That was due to the huge meal that we had at the local Italian place. In my case I don't think that it was so much the size as the composition. Linguine with an olive oil sauce (sauteed garlic and sun dried tomatoes) ... or maybe it was the crappy cabernet ... anyway, I felt so bloated that I was constantly waking up. Sandy just ate too much, same result. I think that she slept half of the way to Accomac. I'm sure that I did not (good thing !).

We arrived in Accomac just before 7pm. Along the way I caught up with George Cederholm who was in Las Vegas at that point and expects to be back in Phoenix in a couple of days. Later on I called him again with a question -- who sells wine in Virginia anyway ? -- and the answer was grocery stores. There are also ABC stores (and we encountered one when we stopped) that sell liquor but not wine. The reason for the question is that I forgot to bring the wine from NSB and it wouldn't be polite to show up at Bill & Collette's without wine. We stopped at a Food Lion, the largest chain in the area, just short of Accomac and found some red and white in their selection of California wines .... only California wines. I take that back because I now remember that I saw Yellowtail, so they had some Aussie wine too.

Bill & Collette had dinner ready, truly a "winter meal" as Bill called it with baked mashed potatoes, a baked brocolli cassarole and baked pork ribs. The baked dinner made it easy for them to deal with our unpredictable arrival time. It was excellent. The red wine was mediochre; the white wine was excellent, according to Sandy (not the one that she picked up at Food Lion).

Collette has MD and gets around on a scooter. She has a chair lift to take her upstairs to the bedroom and another scooter at the top of the stairs. They have recently renovated the upstairs enlarging the bathroom and making it much more accessible for her. The key elements are the lipless shower and the wall mounted sink -- it's an ultramodern setup and a beautiful job by their contractor. It does not even give an impression of being disabled-friendly since there are no grab-bars etc., rather the design itself accomplishes the needed result.

Normally when visiting I would manage to stay up later -- lively conversation help keep me awake -- but I was so tired that we turned in early. I only woke up once during the night at 12:30 a.m. and then slept until 6:15. Abby was in the room with us so once awake I went downstairs, made coffee and went outside with her. B&C's house is on part of the property owned by his dad -- 600 acres of farmland that is rented out to farmers. They back up to a salt-water inlet that is filled with Canada Geese who live there year-round. Resident Aliens ? -- Green Cards ?? -- no, they must be citizens by now since they do not migrate and were probably born in the U.S.

Abby and I walked around the "yard" that is defiined by tree plantings and bordered by corn stubble at this point since that was this year's crop. In other years we have seen soy beans. The drive north took us up I95 all the way to Virginia and then across 58 to Norfolk and then the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. Across 58 it was mostly farming until we got closer to the ocean, with field after field of cotton, soy and peanuts. The cotton had mostly not been harvested yet and was quite pretty so close to the State Road ... so white. It would look neat from the air, I think, although from the air it might not have been as easy to see the white cotton balls that dominated the view of the plants in profile.

Bill, Collette and Sandy were all up by 8am and we had breakfast and then talked until noon sitting at the kitchen table. We had not realized how the time was flying until Collette said that they had planned to take us to a local restaurant -- The Mallards -- for lunch. We packed our things into the car since we would leave for Philly directly from the restaurant. Excellent food -- fresh-made sandwiches with thick whole-grain bread -- real food, not carbon-copy deli.

We left Accomac around 2pm and headed north. The NAV said that it would take us 3.5 hours but I thought that I would save some time by taking 113 instead of 13, north of Pokomoke. Well, it probably saved us time but we lost it all later. When 13 hit I95 we ground to a halt and got moving again once we hit I495 around Wilmington. We opted to go up I476 / route 1 / 252 / Providence Road / Route 3 / 202 ... I don't think that there was any way to get around the traffic in the area. Planning to arrive at 5:30 was not a great idea. 7:00 was more like it -- it took us 2.5 hours to do the last 1 hour of driving. Are we in Loring yet ????

We arrived at Stef's just as Jeffrey arrived and Aaron arrived a few minutes later. On that basis we were on time. Lasagne, broccolli, fresh bread ... we ate well again.

We have a busy few days ahead. We've arranged to have dinner with Wayne & Doris Guymon on Thursday; dinner with Steve & Pam Raper on Friday and of course the LBBC dinner with Bob & Sarah Lopes, Stacy Rohrbeck & Spouse and Bob's other friends whose names escape me at the moment. Sandy has a couple of appointments -- hair and nails, I think. I'd like to get out on the bike which is more weather dependent. I need many days of long rides, which realisticaly will not occur until we are back in Florida.