Now that gas is below $2.00 a gallon, we decided that it was time once again to go on a road trip. We had been talking all summer about going up to the mountains in autumn and see the mountains as the leaves were beginning to change. Kara took friday off from work so that we could go up and spend a long weekend enjoying the beauty of fall in Virginia.
That was the plan anyway. The weather had other things in mind.
It rained the whole weekend. Not only that, but in the mountains it was raining with thick fog. On the ride up, we decided that maybe we'd skip the scenic drive in the mountains and do something that may be more suitable for the weather. We were going to visit Monticello in Charlottesville, but when we got there, that too was surrounded by fog. We then just headed for downtown Charlottesville to see what there was to see.
We spent most of the evening walking up and down the historic walking street of Charlottesville and dodging in and out of the neat little stores they have. Actually, that's not entirely true. We spent most of the time standing next to an old fashioned merry-go-round watching Kasia spin around and around.
The really cool thing about this merry-go-round is the fact that it was people powered. We had to spin it, but then it means we could also make it go as fast or slow as we wanted. We could make it go for as long as we wanted. Oh, and it was free. I think that it's fair to say that Kasia absolutely loved it and she must have spent the better part of an hour riding around and around on that thing.
After the merry-go-round was closed for the evening, and we saw all there was to see on the street, we decided to head into the mountains and spend the night at Bill's cabin in Wolftown. Where's Wolftown, you ask? Exactly.
The directions we had were the old fashioned kind that mapquest is trying to destroy. "Turn left at the gas station, and then right on the road behind the General Store. You'll see the Chapel, go past that and make a left when you see the old sign..." The names of roads were irrelevant. And as we drove further and further up the mountain, it became apparent that roads were irrelevant as well.
The rain was coming down, the fog was rolling in, and we were creeping along at thirty miles per hour. You couldn't see anything, and the only thought going through my mind was "I hope we don't hit a deer." And wouldn't you know it, as soon as Kara made a comment about hitting a deer, one popped out right in front of us. I slammed the brakes just avoided hitting it. Kasia slept through the whole thing.
We saw five more deer in the next few minutes, and I'm wondering why people spend so much money on clothes for hunting when deer seem to be so easy to find. Eventually we found the cabin, and somehow I was able to get our minivan up to the top of Bill's driveway. The minivan was not designed to tackle mountains, and had there been any ice at all, we would have been screwed.
We spent the evening at Bill's cabin, which is extremely nice. I hear that the area around it beautiful as well, but with all the rain, fog, and dark of night, we really couldn't see much. So we went inside, relaxed, watched some TV, and drank all of Bill's liquor. He did say that we could help ourselves to whatever we wanted.
The next day it was still raining. It was still foggy. And the thought of having to drive down Bill's driveway was making me nervous. Again, the minivan is not designed for mountains, and his driveway is near a straight vertical drop. Fortunately, we were able to get down, and off the mountain... though we did encounter a little difficulty that we thought was going to strand us up there. But we made it down.
It rained all of saturday as well, so we just decided to drive back. We stopped off at the mall at Short Pump, but decided to make it a relatively short day. By the time we got home, we were exhausted and ready for a vacation.
Thankfully, that's what Sunday was for.
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