June 2006: VA and WVA

26 June 2006: I rented a car and went to MD over the weekend to visit with some Gal-Pals in Howard County and my niece Melanie. It was all good until my return drive to VA. Drought is over! Rains have come too fast and furious with much thunder and lightening. Roads are flooded, streams are overflowing, and rivers are rushing.

19 June 2006: Medical appointments will consume most of my time this week. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to photograph some of the late spring wildflowers before they die of thirst!

18 June 2006: Arrived safely back in hot, dry Covington, VA where the drought continues ...

16 June 2006: Yesterday, Tom got the new computer working at his brother's house and I did 8 loads of laundry! Today, we took a drive to Oakland, MD and around Deep Creek Lake. That area is growing, growing, growing! I spotted some goatsbeard or false goatsbeard and blue chickory wildflowers along one of the country roads. I have never seen goatsbeard live before, only pictures. Alas, there were no places to pullover for photo-ops. Tomorrow, we get the RV and Ruby ready to roll back to VA on Sunday.

14 June 2006: WHOA! Reign-in the horses and back up the train. We have pulled the plug on making the offer to buy the property. Too many small problems were snowballing into big problems. I never wanted to live in a double-wide in WV anyway. We won't be ready to look again until next summer. So, we're back to being full-time image nomads, for now ...

13 June 2006: We worked on making an offer on the property! The buying process is a bit more complicated here in WV. Seems to be more work on the buyer's part than any place else where we have bought/sold property. So, the process begins ... After the offer is officially signed and presented then accepted and the contract goes through, we'll close in mid-July, but not move into the double-wide trailer. We'll visit this property, but not do much to it until next summer. We'll put in an RV-pad in the fall, plant some trees and bushes and water plants in the pond. Then, we'll head to FL for the winter months as previously planned. Next summer, we plan to sell the double-wide trailer and buy a log home kit to be built farther away from the road and closer to the pond. That's the plan of the hour! Warmer temperatures returned today so it felt more like summer here. Sadie and Harry are becoming quite comfortable here and go out to explore every time the door opens. We've been leaving them alone for most of the day during this trip, so they escape whenever they can. We had to capture them tonight after dark which is a challenge in the woods!

12 June 2006: Still too cold for June and still no rain over the mountains in the Shenandoah Valley or southwest VA! Tom and I have talked ourselves in and out ouf buying the 12-acre parcel of land more than a few times today. We'll see what we think in the morning ...

11 June 2006: Ouch! Our muscles ache. Tom had severe muscle cramps in his thighs last night and I had cramping in my shoulders. We did not eat well yesterday, did not drink enough water, and did not stay warm enough. It's June and temperatures are in the 40's at night and only in the low 60's during the day, too cool for this time of year here in WV. We have made an appointment to meet the owner and excavator for the 12-acre parcel of land tomorrow morning. It has many possibilities for us. We had to do some laundry this morning, then we'll head to the river to visit with Julie & Mickey. Haven't seen the hummer again, but I did put out the feeder for the hummingbirds. It may be just too cold for them here and they have gone in search of warmer weather.

10 June 2006: Busy day! We had some family time at Tom's brother's house where Bob and Michelle had a birthday party for Hunter, their 6-year-old grandson. Lots of goodies to eat! Then, we trampled through the woods looking at a 12-acre parcel of land. We'll sleep on the possibilities ...

09 June 2006: Barf-alarm! Harry Cat woke us up in the wee hours of the morn' trying to throw-up on his pillow on our bed! Fortunately, we woke-up just enough to push him off of the bed before the real incident happened. Poor kitty. He had to take a sick day. We went looking at parcels of land north of Morgantown in Preston County; found two parcels of interest at affordable prices. We'll gather more details on Monday. Saturday we will go to a birthday party for one of Tom's great-nephews who will be 6-years-old. Sunday we will visit Julie and Mickey on the "Redneck Riviera," on their riverfront property just outside of Morgantown. So much socializing is tiring! Never did get to wash the dirty laundry today, maybe in the morning ... We had a few showers between sunny skies today. Sure wish some of those raindrops would go southeast to my Dad's garden, my Mom's flowers, and my sister's trees!

08 June 2006: Harry Cat just brought me a freshly killed chipmunk for breakfast. Yummy! Tom said he saw a pileated woodpecker here in the woods. I have been hearing a busy woodpecker in the early morn'. Guess I'll try to find it before we leave. A male hummingbird scout came to the RV window today! I'll hang out a hummingbird feeder tomorrow. Using our reference books, Tom's Mom Sally and I tried to identify some of the wildflowers in the photos this afternoon. We're still stumped on a few of them. Then we all went to Ruby Tuesday's for a great hamburger. I think that this is going to be our regular place for a good burger for awhile. Tomorrow is definitely laundry day; need clean socks! Then Tom and I will venture out to look at a few parcels of land for sale at reasonable prices in Preston County just north of here just before reaching the MD state line.

07 June 2006: New galleries have been uploaded from the Blue Moose Internet Cafe at WVU in Morgantown, WV. Please visit the McHighland Fest gallery and the Wildflowers in WV gallery.

06 June 2006: At a lower elevation today, I saw a few blue chickory wildflowers along the highway. Must be warmer down there! In fact, it was 80 degrees there while it's 73 degrees here at a higher elevation. We had no luck finding a McIntosh/Apple computer to replace the one that Tom gave to his brother Bob almost two years ago. That one seems to be dieing after having a heat stroke in Idaho. So, tomorrow we will head to an Internet cafe to research and order a replacement. We'll try to stay here until it arrives so that Tom can set it up. While there, I'll upload some new photos.

05 June 2006: On Friday, June 2, we drove to Morgantown WV where it has rained every day since we got here, but my folks have not received a drop of rain in Covington VA. That area is 8 inches short of its annual rainfall and the gardens, forests, and streams are dry.

We are visiting with Tom's parents, Tom the Elder and Sally, and his brother Bob and his wife Michelle. We also hope to visit with Tom's graduate school pal Julie and her husband Mickey. We are camped again in Sand Springs Campground in the woods of WVU Forest without TV or Internet. Our cats love this wilderness camping, but we miss our connections to the rest of the world. Harry even brought us a chipmunk for lunch today!

On Saturday, we traveled to Deep Creek Lake in Western MD to the McHenry Highland Fest. The working Border Collies were my favorite part of this annual event. Tom ate a goat sandwich with barbecue sauce. I took a few snapshots while there. I have also been finding a few interesting flowers. I was lucky to find a pink lady slipper plant here in the campground. These photos will be uploaded when we drop by the Internet cafe in Morgantown later this week.