Survivor Charlottesville

I begin my story of our summer vacation with my encounter with the TSA.

I have my injectable experimental meds in a bag and when I approached the conveyor belt, I announced out loud I have injectable medications. My voice seemed louder than it should be, but no one was listening except perhaps the hundred or so people in line.

I said again to TSA women, I have injectable meds.

I was waved through and then the TSA guy said I didn't declare my injectable meds.

He said now he has to search my whole bag. Of course our plane was sitting idling and he is swabbing my purse and a woman had to frisk me.

So began my real life story. I suppose next time I will whip out my shots and declare even louder to the whole line of people. But as you will read below, we did not let this spoil our great week in Virginia, US. Hope you enjoy it.

Some stories start with the ending and thereby hints at the lesson learned.

Our story starts with a cabbie asking innocently at the end of our week in Charlottesville, "So did you have a nice relaxing week at a bed and breakfast?"

I began to laugh at 4:40 in the morning. We were 10 minutes late and our faithful driver waited for us.

Well it's a long story I said.

And that is the truth.

We began at my brother and his wife's home which is a country retreat. Comfortable, relaxing and full of good food, conversation and a tour of rural Nelson county.

Here is the rooster and one chicken. We had delicious fresh eggs, and meals of salmon, cheeses and other delights.

We enjoyed dogs, a cat, a horse and the gardens, views and comfort.

Monday came soon and we drove to our next stop, Survivor style.

Having been pampered for 2 days, we departed the bed and breakfast like home for the Agro tourism vacation where anything was possible and we faced the reality of life down on the farm.

J and M greeted us and we were happy to see them. They were preoccupied however with the need to worm the sheep herd. Farm life waits for no man and we plunged into our first adventure. I drew up doses estimating weights and felt I was back in my ICU days.

Fred tackled sheep and demonstrated his skill with sheep whispering.

J and M got dirty too. We go to eat lunch when done and thus began our agro week.

We picked from the garden greens, beans, broccoli and much more.

We had berries and cherries.

Mid week we went to Mad Maggie Cottage in Highland County. What a special retreat
where we lazed a bit and ate fresh Allegheny mountain trout and portabellas stuffed with spinach, et cetera!

Of course, the rainbow was a welcome sight and a view we shall not soon forget.

We spent 2 days at the cottage

then we wound our way back over the 3 mountains

to the sheep farm.

More challenges faced us as we fought to maintain a meat free diet

enjoyed by our friends. I bought a pound of sliced turkey for lunches.

Once when Maggie and I went to the store to buy bleach for the power washer, I spied an elderly petite man buying a 12 pack of soda and a very large 2 inch thick juicy steak. He almost had company!~

The cottage has satellite radio now.

We struggled to aim this little antennae towards the sky and the cabin went from perfect quiet to plugged in. Part of me wanted to go back to no news, no noise, just the sounds of birds chirping, the wind and the conversation of friends over a good meal.

The challenges were each rewarded by a good meal and porch sitting or a nap.

The last morning we were at the farm we had bought Jimmy Dean sausage/egg biscuits to heat up. Our reward to ourselves.

We busied around packing our bags up and loading the car.

Now there are times when being married to an electrician has its percs.

This was one of them.

The microwave circuit breaker tripped.

Our anticipated meat sandwiches sat frozen in the microwave.

Our final challenge.

Fred managed to find the breaker and we got our hot meat sandwiches.

They tasted better than anything I could remember.

Our reward for our week of challenges and memories.

The cabbie summed it up for us while we sipped crappy coffee from the Sheetz store,

"Sometimes you have to go without to really appreciate what you have."

I wondered if he was doing a Ricardo Montalbaum impersonation.

De plane, De plane...

As we left our Fantasy Island Agro tourist farm vacation, we smiled and started planning when we would return. Then we looked for the advil.

And took a long nap.