I got to thinking about a couple of people I haven’t seen in a while, and wouldn’t mind seeing them in the future — those people would be Arthur Black and Colin Ross. Astroboy, Bat-boy, where have you gone?

Well, we’re back from vacation (as of late Saturday night), and all is well! I must give propers where propers are due, so big thanks to Aunt Cindy, Uncle John and Uncle Joe for being great hosts in Roanoke, Chuck and Danielle for putting us up in Baltimore, and Patience for putting us up on extremely short notice in Cape Cod! Also, I can’t recommend the house-sitting services of Hunter enough! Dude mowed our lawn! Awesome.

I’ll be posting our travelogues here soon — so keep an eye out. Sorry we didn’t have a day-by-day travelogue, but the Internet connections were suspect or non-existant in many places, and more often than not, I was really tired!

Finally, I’ve uploaded the remaining 4 or 5 days worth of photos into the Noreastah Gallery. Check ‘em out. If you’d like to jump to a gallery quickly, here are the links:

Friday, September 19th 2003
(Louisville, KY to Roanoke, VA)

Saturday, September 20th 2003
(Roanoke, VA)

Monday, September 22nd 2003
(Baltimore, MD to Cooperstown, NY)

Tuesday, September 23rd 2003 (Cooperstown, NY to Cape Cod, MA)

Wednesday, September 24th (Cape Cod, MA to Burlington, VT, with stops in Plymouth and Boston)

Thursday, September 25th 2003 (Burlington, VT to Utica, NY)

Friday, September 26th 2003 (Utica, NY to Cleveland, OH, with a stop at Niagara Falls)
Saturday, September 27th 2003
(Cleveland, OH to Louisville, KY, with a stop in Dayton)

hey all! just wanted to give you a heads up on where we’ve been for the last couple of days. well, we stayed with patience in cape cod on tuesday, then went to plymouth and then boston, through concord, new hampshire, and then eventually up to burlington vermont on wednesday, then kelly’s car decided it need to have it’s engine checked, so we sat around for about 5 hours in burlington, then went and got some ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s in Stowe, Vermont, and then we headed over the beautiful Vermont mountains and into New York state on Thursday! So, here it is Friday, and we’re headed to Niagara Falls and onto Cleveland! We’ll probably be home late Saturday or early Sunday.

I must give a big shout out to all the folks who put us up on the first legs of our trips — especially Patience, on account of her inviting us on really short notice!

The internet connections ’round these parts haven’t been so great, so you’ll have to wait for more pictures and such… but they have been taken, and full accounts of our travels will be forthcoming.

BTW, i’ve just posted day four’s gallery, which in layman’s terms is monday from roanoke, VA to baltimore, MD. We didn’t take any photos on Sunday. While you’re at it, check out all the Noreastah galleries.

…but you can check out the Noreastah’ Gallery! Currently only Friday and Saturday — more coming. I’d do it now, but I’m currently stealing bandwidth from some unfortunate soul with an open wireless access point. Thanks anonymous rube! Off to Cooperstown this AM! Then up to Patience’s pad in Yarmouth Port, MA. Wooo! All is well.

2003.09.21 – Sunday

At 8:30AM, we got up and out of Botetourt County after a great breakfast with Cindy and John. It was incredibly foggy for the trip through the James Valley, but this eventually subsided. By about 2PM, we had made our way to Glen Burnie, Maryland (southeast of Baltimore, a little). Danielle and Chuck were a bit surprised to hear that we would be arriving this early, so apparently a hurried atte
mpt at cleaning was had in advance of our arrival. Danielle and Chuck greeted us well — Chuck still wearing his pajama pants (“Sunday Best”, methinks).

There new house is cozy, and certainly better off than the photos I had seen shortly after the moved in. Originally, in some rooms, it looked like the 1970s had moved in, got drunk, and threw up on the walls. Odd textured wallpaper, shaggy carpets and strange, strange paint colors. They’ve gone a long way to remove these 70s remnants, but that stuff is tough!

Anywho, we shortly thereafter headed to Arundel Mills (whom some of you may remember as Kelly’s “Mecca” from our February 2001 trip to Baltimore), and Kelly and Danielle cut Chuck and I loose to “shop”. This involved trips to most of the video game stores (and a “Wizards of the Coast” shop). We also played some air-hockey at Jillians, and I kicked a little ass on the Sega Airliner Simulator. My landings were a little rough, but hey, no one died!

We ate a nice little joint called “Fuzio’s” in the mall there, and the food was tasty and prompt, despite the lack of calamari (“on account of the hurricane”). Hurricane damage in Baltimore and the surrounding areas was quite minimal, but according to Danielle and Chuck, it was no worse than a “Kentucky Thunderstorm”, which caused Marylanders to run about like scared chickens, or to make things relative to home — like when we have a snowstorm in Louisville.

We returned home, but Kelly and Danielle wanted to go to Target. Chuck and I hung back, where he tried out the new Tron 2.0 game. It was pretty nice looking, and the light cycle portion of the game was nicely done (but, it’s still just light cycles. which are very fun, but these kids these days need giant guns to have fun). I read through a book they had there called “Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands – A Guide to Doing Business in [Many] Countries”. Now I know that you should never give a white flower with a kimino wrapped around it right over left to a Japanese recipient. Also, the Russians bottle vodka with the intent that when it is open, its entire contents should be drank then and there.

I should note that I called Patience in Cape Cod, and everything is set up for us to stay with her on the Lower Cape (Yarmouth Port, to be exact). What an awesome turn of events! I hear-tell that Cape Cod is quite beautiful, and this time of year it is nice and calm.

2003.09.20 – eagle rock, virginia (Saturday)

Woke up this morning to a house deserted, so so far we hadn’t actually *seen* my relatives who live in this house. Around 9 am, we awake to find a note from my Aunt Cindy (written in crazy calligraphy) saying that we should call up my great-Uncle Joe (brother of my grandfather), as he’d like to take us out to breakfast. A quick call to Joe, who was ready to go, and he came “up the hill” to get us. Joe took us into Clifton Forge — a town with a paper mill that wafts over the entire James River valley, making it smell like… well, it really has to be experienced. A funk. “Sulphur mixed with cooking pork” says Kelly. I think that’s just about right. Anyway, we ate at a little joint called the “Bullpen”.

Aptly named as back in it’s heyday, much like Clifton Forge itself, it used to service all the railroad crews that made frequent stops in this town. There was once a large railyard here, complete with an old-timey (by our standards) railway platform, but that has all gone by the wayside. Clifton Forge still retains a bit of its pride, though, as evidenced by it’s newly installed brick-like cross
walks (“not real brick,” Joe informs us). The food at the Bullpen was served by a “woman and a half” as I like to refer to her, and it was certainly home-cooked. Kelly didn’t want any meat on her “Bullpen Special”, and Jodene (named for the sake of this two-sentence anecdote) inquired “Why not? It /comes/ with your breakfast!”. Damned hippies. Well, the food was unspectacular, but it was certainly filling and the coffee was hot (and tasty).

After Clifton Forge, we headed back towards Cindy’s (Clifton Forge is north of Eagle Rock), and Joe wanted to take us by Bethel Cemetary, a cemetary which houses the Buhrman family plot, and which Joe has spent a good deal of money and time
upkeeping. After “minding the goose” that had been recently killed on the road in front of the cemetary, we pulled in and did a once-over. Joe detailed all o
f the work he’d had done (a good deal of which he did with his own late-70s hands). It was nice to see that this little rural plot was being cared for. I don’t know what will happen to it after Joe is gone.

We then headed further south, taking a short detour around the “Gala Loop” — which at one time surrounded the small town of Gala. After taking in another cemetary that Joe keeps up (the Galatia Presbyterian Church cemetery), we headed through a gate, into a field (with cow) that eventually connected to the rear of Joe’s property. Oh, by the way, we were in a Cadillac. Not a Cadillac truck, a “Cadillac car”. Joe takes that thing everywhere, and I must say, it performed beautifully.After winding our way down from the field where, many years ago, my brother and I had shot cow-flops with rifles, we arrived at Joe’s farmhouse. Joe detailed a list of things that he’d been busy doing this year to his property an d surrounding area — and let me tell you, I only hope to be half as active as he is at his age. He’s talking about moving entire sheds, attaching pulleys to trees to lift water tanks, dredging ditches and fixing roofs. Crazy. Joe showed us his antique restored tractors — large John Deere vehicles from the 40s and
50s, well kept and almost brand-new looking. He also had a set of three small John Deere lawn tractors. I guess that’s for the John Deere collector without enough space! He also had three Lincoln Continentals. I tell you — if he loves
something, he’ll have it in threes. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have time to stop in this museum of Buhrmanology that is Joe’s house as he was headed to Richmond that afternoon, so we chatted a bit, and he then took us down to Iron Gate, another small town in Virginia.

Iron Gate, so named not so much for a real Iron Gate, but for it’s large iron-ore smelting furnaces built into the hillsides. You can stop off on the side of the road to check out tall, tall furnaces, if you’d like. We didn’t. Iron Gate is one of those towns where if you blink, you’ll probably miss it. I wouldn’t say it’s thriving by any means, but it’s getting along just fine, nestled into th
is little canyon.

The real pride and joy of Joe’s area is Eagle Rock. It’s no Clifton Forge, mind you, but it certainly has it’s own charm. Eagle Rock is located in Botetourt County — so named for “Lord Botetourt”, apparently a very well-to-do man in the 1700s. So well-to-do that Botetourt County originally enveloped most of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. Now, it’s much smaller. Joe showed us around all four blocks of Eagle Rock, and pointed out the house where he bought one of his prized Lincolns. Joe used to be the caretaker for the Boutetourt County Museum, which I believe was in either Eagle Rock or Clifton Forge (can’t remember), and he also is a member of the Eagle Rock gardening club, as well as being a trustee for those couple of cemeteries. Its safe to say this place has a special piece of his heart.

I should mention what beautiful country this is. Large, rolling mountains frame either side of most roads here, and in some cases, large rainbows of rock strata come jutting out of the sides of these mountains. Eagle Rock is so named for one of thsese large outcroppings, and it keeps watch over the town from the west. The James River winds its way through these valleys, every once in a while flooding and returning tons of silt to the many farm fields that follow its banks.

After Eagle Rock, Joe returned us back to Buhrman Road, and Mount Buhrman, where upon John and Cindy’s house sits. Joe had been a most gracious and entertaining tour guide (to me, anyway. and by all accounts Kelly was even entertained), an
d we said adieu for now.

A note about towns:

There are, in my estimation, one half-billion small, fading towns in Virginia — and they all had their own churches and mills and what-nots. It’s odd to me to see a part of the country where now less people live than they did before. That in itself is an oddity. The grass grows high, and the roads wash away, and here is Joe trying to hold it all together.

We headed back to the mount, and then disembarked for the Roanoke market. The Roanoke Market is a fiercly local farmers market — fresh produce, flowers, wines
, cheese, arts, crafts, etc. There is but one “chain” restaurant there, and from what I understand, it was vehemently opposed. It’s a cool, but ultimately small area of town. We stopped and shopped in a couple of places, but in an hour we were done. I stopped into the Roanoke Weenie Stand for a quick hot dog (if you go to the Roanoke Market, you have to get a hot dog from Johnny Liakos. he’s been slingin’ dogs for 40 years. the hot dogs aren’t really anything terribly special, but they are good…) I didn’t get a chance to stop into the Texas Tavern this trip to Roanoke, sadly. After the breakfast we had at the Bullpen, and then the hot dog I had at the weenie stand, I was in danger of “being a pig” (to quote Kelly). We drove past and gave our respects.

There is a big star on a mountain in Roanoke. It’s called the Mill Mountain Star. It’s something like 50 feet tall, and lights up at night. We decided to fumble our way around to get up there, and in doing so, we found ourselves on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a nicely maintained scenic parkway that runs along the southern outskirts of Roanoke city proper (on the ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, no less). There were a couple of nice scenic loops, one of which goes up to the top of Roanoke Mountain. On one side of the mountain, you can see the city, and on the other, it looks like the sort of Germany/Austria that you’d see in “The Sound Of Music”. Little tiny houses with little tiny cows in a nicely rolling valley. We never did find the Mill Mountain star — but we certainly saw it from the valley below. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a wonderful drive with some great scenery (and a LOT of hard-core bikers doing those mountain roads).

We found our way back to Cindy’s afterwards, and Cindy had prepared us a wonderful dinner. It was enjoyed by all. I hadn’t had a steak in a long, long time, but Cindy was offering — so who am I to turn that down? It was good stuff.

2003.09.19 – kentucky

oddly misty dark and dreary out here in eastern kentucky. following in the wake of a wake, really, what with Isabel having moved on through.

I was looking through the road atlas, and as i was trying to make a decision to either stop in Huntington or Charleston, West Virginia, i noticed that West Virginia has a wonderful array of odd town names. There is Left Hand, War, Coco, Enon, Bim, and Hix. I know a lot of immigrants moved into West Virginia in the late 1900s, and I can only assume that Russian immigrants founded the town of Czar, which lies quite close to Volga. (Czar being the name for a class of Russian rulers, and Volga being the river in Moscow). Now that I say this, I remember that ole’ Matty Rasnake (ne’ Rashnik) and his kin hailed from West Virginia by some way. Hmm. On a similar note, and one that should make Matt smile, there is in fact a town called “Pie”. just “Pie”. I would like to get some pie in “Pie”.

I’ve travelled this way quite a few times in my past — many times during my youth, and each time I remember thinking about the gap between Kentucky and Virginia the Appalachians. That was the boundary of these United States for so long, something imposed by King Chauncy of England (oh, like you know). Now we stretch from east coast to west, north and south, and now even upwards into space. Is that for the good? It’s hard to say sometimes. We, as human beings, can now experience so much that often we end up experiencing less in the way of minutia.

You can fly over these mountains in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza — a journey that once took us weeks to cross. Yes, I realize that driving at 70 miles per hour doesn’t exactly afford you the luxury of smelling the roadside roses, but I’d like to think that we are experiencing this country in a more natural fashion. Seeing the change in foliage, the changes in scenery — thats what makes it for me.

more later…

Kelly and I leave on our road-trip through the North-east today after work. First stop — ole’ Virginny to see mah kinfolk. Then, on to Baltimore to see Kelly’s extremely-distant kinfolk. (I’m fairly certain they are related). After that, Cooperstown, New York for the Baseball Hall of Fame! After that, I haven’t a clue. All I know is that Red Sox tickets are sold out through the end of the season, so it’s hard to believe we’d get tickets. Anyway — the idea is to check out Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and all points Northeast (save New York City proper), and then return home through Canadia and down through, like, Ohio or some such. The Dayton Air Museum will be a stop, I say!

In short, watch this space!

Internation Talk Like a Pirate Day is tomorrow, September 19th! Check out the official TLAPD site, replete with English-to-Pirate translator!