Recharging

I had the enormous blessing of ten days off from the Navy that I was able to spend with my dear friend Julie in West Virginia.

Friday, the 29th, I didn't leave until 8:30pm, after the dinner with my division in Virginia Beach. Only got as far as Richmond, but it was good I wanted to stop there... a severe thunderstorm came through and sent lots of bolts flying around, as well as a hurricane-force wind... right went I checked into one of the last rooms at a Best Value Inn across from the airport.

Saturday morning, I got a late start from sleeping in and having a good breakfast at the local restaurant nearby. Figured out on Google where a nearby Richmond battlefield was and round-aboutly got there. I stopped practically dead in my tracks before I got there though... there was a little visitor center on the left and a bunch of reenactors on the right. A sub-group of the Virginia National Guard were directing traffic, and I soon found out from the Park Service that this was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Glendale (part of the Seven Days Battle of 1862). June 30, 2012... and I stumbled right on top of it.

Looked in the museum, which had a great map with lights indicating where the soldiers and battles were. Across the street a unit of Union soldiers held a marching and firing demonstration... and an artillery unit fired a cannon. I got to chat with the artillery men off to the side, tried on one of their wool coats to experience 104 degrees in the sun. Gosh! And when they found out I was military, they invited me to join their group, which meets every month in Petersburg... and helps out with the Monitor/Merrimack anniversary every year in Hampton Roads. :) After this, I went a little north to see Cold Harbor. You could say I had a good time.

Nearly to West Virginia now... about 6pm, I noticed a brown information sign saying "Montecello, Next Exit". Figured they'd be closed, but I tried it out anyway and found to my delight that they stayed open till 7, had one more tour I could just get on, and was free for Active Duty! Wow! It was fabulous to see Jefferson's home. Lots of neat original and reproduction works... loved the wall calender, the bed between the rooms and the working automatic double doors. And what a lovely, green, peaceful place! Saw the tomb on the way down the mountain.

Arrived in West Virginia in the aftermath of the severe storm I had been watching ahead of me for several hours. There was no gas available, I was running out, there were trees and wires down, and to top it all, there was a huge power outage and it was getting foggy. Needless to say, it took me a long time to find Julie's Island. (She teaches at a Baptist School which puts her up on their little summer-camp island in the middle of a river. There's a suspension foot-bridge over to it, and lots of times she sees deer running around. She owns a black lab named Galaxy, and three cats.) So it was a little hot the first couple nights. The power didn't come on until the evening of the fourth.

Sunday, the first day we spent a lot of time at friends of hers house (John and Kris) Found gas at Kroger nearby, ate sandwiches, and entertained ourselves in the evening by singing hymns together... so much fun! I took a good long nap that afternoon, so I was finally catching up! Next day, the 2nd, we went back to her place and went inter-tubing down her river and walked back upstream. I found a clam the size of my outstretched hand... and a weird-looking larvae of a dobsonfly that freaked me out as I picked up rocks. Later on visited Jimmy and Betty (other friends from church) in order to go hiking in the woods behind their place.

July 3rd we watched The Artist in the library and then went to downtown Charleston to watch The Amazing Spiderman. But we were confused about the start time, and ended up seeing the wrong showing, missing the first hour of it. We saw all we really needed to for the story, but it sure felt odd, only at an hour and twenty minutes! On the way back to the house, I thought, gee, why don't we keep driving! So we kept going on 79 north and cut across most of West Virginia, stopping in Clarksburg after some of the most beautiful freeway I've ever seen. We got gas and had some Starbucks Coffee. Yep, we drove 240 miles round-trip for drinks! LOL! When we got close to home, Julie found out from friends that the 4th of July celebration was actually that night! Kept going back to Charleston, and made our way to the riverfront for the West Virginia Symphony and a great display of fireworks.

On our nation's 236th birthday, we went downtown again in the morning, to get some things for the dog at the feed store, and then watch another movie to pass the time... People Like Us won out. Got home in the afternoon, and discovered that the electricity had just been turned back on! POWER!!! We rested in a nice, cool house for the rest of the evening.

On Thursday, the 5th, we went back to Jimmy's house in order to ride horses with him all morning! I had a white Arabian mix named "Doc" with an English saddle, Julie had a paint named "King" with a Western, and Jimmy rode a bay. He has nine in all! They were all very easy to ride, and even though Julie was not very accustomed to horses, we did a lot of trotting, and even some cantering. The trails were great... lots of ups and downs and beautiful woods. It was so fun! Hosed them off back in the stable, wiped the water off with a blade, and with rags. Gosh, they got hot! And then, just as we left, a thunderstorm rolled in and we escaped getting poured on... by the skin of our teeth! Drove over to Walmart on the other side of town in order to pick up food for dinner. The storm had subsided and disappeared along with a stop-sign near Julie's house by the time we returned. Watched Sleepless in Seattle and had a great spaghetti dinner.

Movies, movies, movies at home! On Friday, we relaxed. Little sore from the horseback ride... so after a hot breakfast at home again, we watched The Perfect Man (Hilary Duff, believe it or not), Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and then later on with a friend who came over because she had no power, The Prince & Me, and The Nanny Diaries.

Saturday morning Julie and I took off for a mini road trip south on 77. The New River Gorge Bridge, built in 1977, is the world's largest, single-span, steel bridge, and the second highest in the US, at 876 feet. After looking at the bridge, we drove the one-way highway down the switchbacks to the river, crossed on a lower bridge, then went swimming in our clothes because it looked so nice and it was so warm. We took the long route coming back, and stopped for dinner at La Carreta (authentic Mexican in Charleston).

That night, we played a bunch of rounds of the Origins game with Julie's two friends who were staying over because of the weather. I didn't think I'd do very well, especially after the first couple hands. The point of the game is to guess the correct origin of a word or phrase while coming up with a bogus one yourself to hoodwink the other players. If you're the person reading all the options, you get points if no one guesses the right one. Later on, however, I scored the maximum 5 points in one hand on the word "hogwash", and ended up winning overall, beating Julie by one point. :)

It was very sad to leave her the next morning, but I waited until after young adult Sunday School at the church. She walked me out to my car and hugged me goodbye. What a miracle trip! It was so very nice!

In Lexington, Virginia, on the way home, I stopped by the VMI campus and saw the George C. Marshall museum for a few hours! Even though it is small, it's very interactive, and tells full story... WWII Army Chief of Staff, Red Cross president, Secretary of Defense, Recovery Plan for Europe, Nobel Peace Prize. And they had a used book sale too... I bought "I Saw Paris Fall" from 1940. Didn't get to the VMI museum in time, but I was able to see Stonewall Jackson's home and cemetery. Lee is buried at the Washington and Lee University there as well, but that and many other things were closed for the day.

But now, back to the Navy, to Duty, and to Norfolk.
Jw