6/4/2009 PWFP Travel Trailer Village. VA Cloudy, mist, a little rain. Cool (60's).
Here we go again - totally cloudy and cool with misty junk.
Up & out of Killens Pond State Park and westward through Denton MD (county seat where we got our marriage license), the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and the "spaghetti bowl" where I-95, I-495, & I-395 join. Through that mess (actually much improved since we lived here) and south on I-95 (not improved at all) to VA-234, Prince William Forest Park and its Travel Trailer Village. We lived in Prince William county for 26 years after Navy retirement.
The Travel Trailer Village (TTV hereafter) is a nice facility. We have a full hookup site (no cable in the the park, but DC channels come in well) & the Wifi is great. We're catching up on e-mails and so forth.
I went out briefly for some food items (and wine). It only took a few minutes and 1,000 yards, so I can't talk about the traffic differences yet.
Son Bill called in mid-afternoon to say he's here in Virginia, on his way to UVA for "Reunions" night tonight. Seems he found some points he could apply to the flight, Lana thought she'd do just fine without him for the weekend, and he can crash with his former house-mate John. That will perk up the weekend, since we'll see him at the wedding and reception at least.
The evening news sounds just like it did five years ago when we lived here. Same old announcers, too. Watched Channel 9 news tonight, maybe Channel 7 for the late news. Flood watch in effect for the area per the weather-weasel, rain all day tomorrow with cool, Saturday should be nice in the low 80's. After that, it gets hot.
So we're all set up in a familiar place and enjoying it....
6/5/2009 PWFP Travel Trailer Village. VA Rain. 50's. Yuk.
Continuous cold hard rain. We stayed in the trailer and took it easy.
Later, we took a ride to view our old environment of five years ago. We looked at our neighborhood (Sudley) and the town of Manassas, and the area in between. We toured the Manassas campus of NVCC where mom worked and taught. We visited McKay's used book store (another old favorite) and bought more reading material.
Then we went out to Gainesville and beyond to the Blue Ridge Seafood Restaurant. This old shack it now surrounded by new buildings and is hard to find. They still serve great food, though, and we enjoyed it as we did.
Then we came back to the trailer by way of the Battlefield Park and settled in.
Our take is that we moved at the right time. Traffic is horrific & there seems to be a stop light at every corner. The place has a big-city attitude unlike that of the little village we moved to in 1978.
So we'll do our stuff here and move on...
6/6/2009 PWFP Travel Trailer Village. VA Rain ending, clearing, 60's to low 80's, sunny in the afternoon.
The rain ended in the night. We loafed, then showered and dressed for the wedding this afternoon of Wilson Cochran & Laura Doud.
Wilson's older brother Tripp ran with our son Bill as teenagers. HIs parents, Frank & Fay, were fellow members of the Ben Lomond Swim Team for years as the kids swam in the summer season. Then they became life guards and spent many of their hours at the pool. They got into the usual amount of kid foolishness during the years.
We fought our way up I-95 and I-395 to Glebe Road, north through Ballston to St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Arlington.
It was a very nice ceremony, straight out of the Book of Common Prayer, with the crowd of 150 or so split between members of St. Peter's and members of the Cochran's church in Manassas, with a few others thrown in.
The reception took place in the garden of the church, both on a terrace and under a tent. The ground was soggy from all their past rain, so many just hung out on the terrace. The nibblies were very nice and there was a selection of beer & wine to quench the thirsts.
The terrace was the location for the informal ceremonies, including cutting the cake, champagne toast, speeches, a song by Frank Cochran (who is an accomplished guitarist and good singer) and a little wedding party dancing.
It was a great event and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We took a bunch of pictures and will have to send back a CD of them to certain folks.
We left as others started to leave, took our hour to get back to Montclair, and stopped for a light dinner at a neighborhood place. Then back into the little house in the trailer park to rest.
6/7/09 PrWm Forest Park Travel Trailer Village, VA Nice, warm.
We took it easy until time for church - went to D's old church (All Saints in Manassas). Afterward, we went to the home of Pat & Val, our old friends here.
With them, we then did the following....
Chatted for a while.
Out for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Manassas.
Off to Pearmund Winery off US-29 west of Gainesville for wine tasting and purchase. We bought six bottles and they bought six, so we got a nice discount. It's a nice place with 15 different Chardonnay grapes to blend together to form their Chardonnay.
Then we went off across country (gettting confused only once) to The Winery at LaGrange, east of Broad Run off VA-55. Their tasting room is in a beautiful brick house started in 1790. As we entered, a small lady swooped up and grabbed both Dolores & Val in a huge hug - I had no idea what was happening until I recognized Sharon. The three of them worked together part-time about 1984 (25 years ago - wow) and we'd been close all the time we lived here. Sharon was nearly in tears, she was so happy to see her old friends.
Sharon's husband John has accepted a three to five year assignment in Germany and she's about to leave to join him, so meeting her here was a fantastic opportunity. She was with another couple; they went to the terrace to sip wine while we bought our and then joined them. We bought six more bottles, so did Pat & Val. We put them into the car and then drank Sangria on the terrace with them. We had a fine time catching up and understanding their plans.
Then we roared off to Wegman's, a new market and type of market just west of Gainesville. Fantastic place - more of a destination than a shop. I can't really describe it but to say the selections and service are both excellent. We bought stuff we never intended to get, but it was there so we bought some to try.
Then back to the house for more chat and steaks with potatoes and tomato/mozzarella salad. Great.
Finally, it got past 10:00 pm and since they're still operating on Alaska Standard Time (they returned from a cruise yesterday), we departed so we could all rest. We'll see them again tomorrow for a bit.
Back then to the little house....
6/8/09 PrWm Forest Park Travel Trailer Village, VA
What a day!!
We went to Val & Pat's for breakfast (very good eggs, bacon, bagles, and things with excellent coffee) and wound up talking and showing each other pictures on Macbooks and talking about trips and discussing kids and so forth until they finally had to leave to go to Maggie and Brian's house for a Jack's gymnastics demonstration.
We all hugged and vowed we'd get back together as soon as possible. Wonderful visit.
Then we wandered back to the campground via the store for lettuce, and settled in for a bit. I realized I'd forgotten to get bottled water, and went back to get that. Then I got email from Val that we'd forgotten something there, and they'd left it in the front door inside the screen door.
A 5th wheel trailer & truck came in about this time and parked two spaces up from us. He (and she) resembled people we'd met before.
We met Bob and Judy in 2001 at St Ignace, MI while they were touring in the motorhome they owned then. It had an Oregon plate, so we inquired whether they knew people there that we knew. We talked and liked them a lot. It turned out that Bob had family history in Manassas, VA, where we lived then, and relatives still living there. So we, of course, invited them to call us whenever they could visit the area. They showed up in Manassas a year or two later, and we transported them around the county renewing their memories of what's where. We had a great time with them. He's a civil war history person, so we had some things to talk about. Then we went west in 2003 and met them in Delta, Colorado. We stayed there two or three days and they showed us around the area, especially up onto Grand Mesa. We moved away from Manassas in 2004. In 2005, we went west again and met them in Bend, Oregon, while we were visiting my cousin's husband there.
The people two spaces up didn't like the site and moved their rig around to our left and started to set up. I walked that way, found the truck had an Oregon front plate, and it hit me. I walked toward the guy and said, "You look just like Bob (x)." He looked up and said, "You look just like Owen (x)." We walked to each other and shook hands. He took me to the door of their rig and told Judy there was a salesman to see her - she came to the door and gasped, then yelled "Hi". I led them back to our trailer and Dolores gasped and ran out to hug them.
It actually IS them.... Bob & Judy!! the biggest coincidence I can imagine.... how could this happen? Incredible.
They'd come up from NC today to spend a few days here to see the elderly aunt and the cousin. Then they're going on to Maine and around back to Colorado and Arizona when it cools there.
I ran off to get the forgotten item and returned. We chatted like mad, then we merged assets and began making a combined dinner to eat outside at the picnic table between our rigs. Judy cooked the fish, D did the potatoes and her fish, Judy did salad & I set the table. We drank a little wine and ate our fishes, potatoes, salad and bread. Then we talked until darkness came, and talked some more until the bugs started buzzing around us. We did see a few fireflies coming out to do their dance.
It was an outstanding day - seeing old friends of two different communities.
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