Whoa What a Weekend

I returned from the National Education Computing Conference in DC on Wednesday. Traffic was pretty heavy on 95, but the big boat of a county car that I was driving made it just fine. Apparently I told Mom that I would be back on Thursday. So then we had to wonder, when were the couchsurfers were coming? Which date had I told them?

They showed up later in the afternoon. ‘They’ are Guenter and Frauke from Germany on a 30-day road trip around the US. They used to live in Charleston, SC, and have traveled the US pretty well, but were back for more. Their english is excellent, though they had some trouble thinking of exact words they needed. Guenter had heard about Couchsurfing on a radio program (probably like NPR) and looked it up to see what it was about. He was hooked, and I was their first Couchsurfing spot.

They were interested in doing things that locals do that may not be in the travel books, and I think I was able to give that to them. They had only been at the house in Cuckoo for about 45 minutes when it was already time to leave. Our first non-tourist destination was church dinner at Bethany Christian Church, only held on the first Wednesday night of the month. Mom had taken Michelle last month, and Michelle reminded Mom the day before that it was happening soon. The thing about church dinner is that if you are new, or with someone new, then you get to eat first. So Michelle and Mom got to eat first last month and then again this month. Guenter joked that they were rent-a-guests brought solely for being able to eat first. I am not sure what Guenter and Frauke thought about the church bit, but they did enjoy the food.

The next day after a leisurely morning drinking coffee on the back porch and a filling breakfast at Joe’s, we headed to Richmond. We walked around Belle Isle, Brown’s Island, and the Canal Walk. I was looking for something specific I had seen when doing that Stride Through Time and it was a lot farther away than I thought. I was looking for the markers along the levees that indicate the water level during historic floods and storms. We did find them eventually.

By that time we were hot and could use a break… and we were at 17th street (we were parked near 2nd), so we walked up a few more blocks to Café Gutenberg to sit and chill. Then we went to the Farmer’s market and then into the train station. They were very impressed with the train station and could see why Karrie wants to get married there. Then it was a loooong hot walk back to the car.

I had asked Guenter earlier if they liked ice cream when I was brainstorming things tourists might not do, and he gave me an emphatic “Yes!” So our next non-tourist stop was Ukrops for bananas and then Brusters for half-priced-bring-your-own-banana-banana-splits. Yum. We stopped by Dad’s for internet and then headed home.

Non-tourist stop number three was a real winner. We grabbed some lawn chairs and headed into the town of Louisa for the 4th of July Fireman’s parade and some good people watching. The parade was good for Louisa, but it was so weird because none of the many ambulances and fire trucks had their sirens going and only like three people were throwing candy. I commented probably five times how weird I thought it was that it was so quiet because of the lack of sirens. I later found out from Lloyd Hicks that there was a big sign at the beginning of the parade saying ‘No Sirens / No Throwing Candy.” I don’t know who mandated these two rules, but there weren’t at all the makeup of my parade nostalgia!

We did have a good time. Its not every day that you can go to a parade that has lawnmowers, tractors, ambulances, firetrucks, tow trucks, random cars that serve no purpose other than coolness, a dozen beauty queens of various ages and crowned in many different pageants, horse riders, clowns in mini cars, people on mini-motorcycles, girl scouts, boy scouts, chubby baton twirlers, and more. After the parade we went to Obrigado’s for cool drinks and a light dinner.

The next morning (Friday), Guenter and Frauke hit the road for Charleston, and I headed for Charlottesville to meet Chrissy and Ryan. Too my surprise, Ellen and Keegan were there too, a welcome addition. After lunch at Chipotle (because Ryan and Chrissy get their fill every time in C-ville bc there are none in A-Ville), we went to Polyface Farms owned by Joel Salatin, most well known for his cameo in Omnivore’s Dilemma by Micheal Pollan, though he does write plenty of his own books. Polyface Farms is pretty far off the main road, but in a beautiful hilly part of the Shenandoah Valley. Its surprising how many farms we passed along the way that follow conventional farming practice – and by conventional I mean as prescribed by the USDA.

When we arrived, Joel was in the little office and spent more than twenty minutes talking with us (a free $5000 speaking engagement says Keegan). Joel was ranting and raving less than when I saw him last (which was at a public speaking engagement) and was happy to have us at his farm. He described a circuitous route for us to take to see the farm and sent us on our way. Later we realized that one of the five of us should have paid better attention to those directions.

It was interesting seeing his grass-farming methods at work. We saw chicks in moveable sledges as well as chickens in the Eggmobile. I guess I thought the Eggmobile was an actual vehicle, but maybe I didn’t read the description accurately when I read Omnivore’s Dilemma a year ago. After visiting these chickens we realized that we didn’t know where we were supposed to go next, so we randomly traipsed through fields. I noticed and pointed out how few weeds were in the fields.

We eventually found the young turkeys that ALL flocked towards Keegan and then the rest of us as we circled their enclosure. We set off the find the cows and were successful at finding Polyface cows and the neighbors cows.

The real trick was finding the pigs. Ken and Barbie (as Keegan nicknamed a couple that was returning from a farm walk when we were arriving (and yes they were blond and in a convertible)) didn’t have any luck finding pigs and even Joel says he sometimes has troubles; this only made Keegan more determined. Keegan traipsed all over the woods and found only one, but he found one! So we did feel a little victorious.

We found the rabbits and the chickens that feed underneath them and then other rabbits in little portable cages so they can nibble fresh greens. Apparently Polyface has quite the market for rabbits for upscale restaurants in the area. We returned to the shop to make some purchases and shoot the breeze with some of the other farmers that worked at Polyface. We asked all the questions we could think of that we thought of while we were walking.

After Polyface, Ellen and Keegan went home, and Chrissy, Ryan, and I went to the BookFair. I purchased a few new books (to add to the giant stack) and so did Chrissy. I like to think that we saved some money because we bought a few books to share and some of the books Chrissy wanted to buy, I already had. After all of this excitement I went home and should have gone to bed, but instead I watched a movie and then went to bed.

The next day I met Chrissy and Ryan again in Charlottesville. Our stops for this day was Star Hill Brewery and then Sue and Steve’s in Crozet. Both Ryan and I like their beer and wanted to go see what the brewery had to offer. Chrissy doesn’t like beer, but she likes to learn new things and she and Ryan are a package, so she came too. : )

We arrived, though we were not certain that we were in the right place. We stepped up to the bar and Ryan and I got to taste all of Star Hill’s brews. I like tasting beers because some of them I might not normally like, but sometimes I do. Ryan and I even tricked Chrissy into trying the IPA… haha. And she drank it even though Ryan and I both mentioned how bitter it was. Her face was priceless.

After tasting the brews, we took the tour. Star Hill only does tours on Saturday when their machinery is not running. Our first stop was the freezer to pick up our twelve packs. This is not normally included on the tour, but we wanted beer to take to the party and wanted it to be cold, plus we were the only ones on the tour. We learned all about the brewing process and how their equipment worked. We also learned about their plans for expansion from five states to the east coast and how they were planning to do it. Chrissy also questioned them on their eco-business practices.

After the tour, we picked up our cold Star Hill mixed twelve packs and headed right down the road to Sue and Steve’s home for their Fourth of July party. Sue and Steve are Keegan’s parents and what I remember about them is that they are very personable and very social. Of course I have only met them at social events and parties, so that would make sense. I had told Ellen and Keegan the day before that I was going to ask Steve to try and find me some dates and they were nice enough to mention it to him so he was prepped and ready when I brought it up. And he is totally for it. So that’s exciting and should lead to some interesting dates. Steve also thinks I should live in their cottage, which could be very cool.

Chrissy doesn’t actually know how to get to Sue and Steve’s house because she always parks at Ellen and Keegan’s cottage and walks up the back, so that’s what we did. Steve welcomed us to the party, got our beer into a cooler and iced, showed us around, and introduced us to the house rules for Bocce and Ladder Golf (known as rope-a-dope here in the sticks). I say that he introduced us to the house rules because I know how to play the games, but Chrissy and Ryan didn’t know how to play. Steve and I schooled them at Ladder Golf, but Ryan beat me at Bocce according to the house rules.

Here is a photo of me double fisting Star Hill brew and mold grape (moscato) wine. It was a very relaxed party of sitting back and enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather while talking with folks. Dinner was potluck which meant there were lots of interesting dishes to try. There weren’t any fireworks there, but we could see bit and pieces of Charlottesville, Nelson County, and Wintergreen’s firework shows. After a very late evening, I finally returned home.