also

I tried to edit the post David put up from Twin Oaks. For some reason the formatting got funny and a lot was cut out. Now the formatting is still funny but at least all of the words are there!

And He's Off!

David finally began feeling better at the end of last week. He ended up having to get the doctor to give him a second type of antibiotics. The first was amoxicillin based and not strong enough at all. Fortunately, the doctor he went to was mine in high school and i babysat for him, so he responded promptly to David's phone call and sent a new prescription to the pharmacy without David having to go in for a second appointment, this saved us about $70, although by the time we got the second prescription, we have spent almost $300 on David's sinus infection.

It is frustrating to have to spend so much money on something that is not an exciting part of AQ but at the same time, that is why we worked hard to save money, so we would be able to handle whatever situation comes our way. I also think it is important to remember that the money we have saved is to fund AQ and we need to remember not to get wrapped up in worrying how much money we spend. Of course we aren't going to be needlessly extravagant, but we need to adjust to the feeling of seeing money constantly leaving our bank account and never going in.

Anyway, back to more exciting and important things. On Saturday morning I drove David, his bike (a LeMond cyclocross bike he calls the Lemon), and the Danger Cart (his name for the B.O.B. tralier) up to the north entrance of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesboro, VA. It is about 40 minutes away from Harrisonburg. David had an absolutely gorgeous day for the first leg of his trip. We got to the mountain at about nine in the morning. We parked the car at the first overlook, which gave us a view off to the east, towards Waynesboro and Charlottesville. There was still mist down in the foothills but on Afton we had a cerulean blue sky with puffy cumulus clouds and it was in the high 60's or low 70's, I'm guessing.

David attached the Danger Cart, loaded his bag and took a practice loop around the parking area. He has his work cut out for him, for sure. He obviously isn't in the ideal physical condition for this trip. He had planned to have about a week after Twin Oaks to ride every day and take the trailer up Reddish Knob (a very steep ride along the VA/WV border) to get a good idea of the handling and difficulty of pulling the cart. The trailer weighs about fifty pounds so it is adding considerably to his challenge.

I got to talk to David last night for the first report. He has taken our phone with him for safety. I told him I would like to hear from him everyday but I know that might not be possible. Otherwise, every other day would be nice and under no circumstances is he to go three days without calling and checking in with me. I told him if he has to, he can stop a picnicker and explain that he has a crazy wife and if she does hear from him she will call the Park Service and initiate a search. Hopefully he won't have to resort to this but I thought it was useful to illustrate my seriousness. I have a schedule of his ride so I know what section he is riding everyday and what campground he should be in every night, in case anyone is concerned about safety.

Oh, and David said everything was going well. He is worn out at the end of each day of course but thinks he will be able to finish. He was already making friends, a couple of guys who are riding with a third friend following with a camper invited him to have dinner with them in the campground last night.

After I saw David off, I drove up to Leesburg to visit my friend Diane, whom many of you know. We have been friends for just about our entire lives. She and her husband, Kevin, are special education teachers in Loudon County. We had a great time doing nothing in particular and catching up with each other. I brought her knitting needles and a ball of pretty purple yarn to encourage her in learning to knit. She and Kevin are about six months in to looking for a house in the area; it's amusing how different our lives are at the moment.

Now I have a whole week to myself. My plan is to work on several sewing projects I have and to keep visiting with my family. This is the first time since I graduated from Sewanee that I have been in Harrrisonburg for an extended period of time and all of my parents are around as well. It is really nice to be in town for longer and not feel rushed in my visiting.

leaving the farm, time in harrisonburg

We have now been away from Twin Oaks for almost a week. We didn't use the computers much so the blog was somewhat neglected and I know everyone is dying to hear all about it, so I think we will both reflect on it this month. I am still not sure I have had enough time to decide how I really feel about Twin Oaks as a possibility for our future. I am very glad that we went. We saw and learned lots of interesting things and met some great people. We really enjoyed everyone who was in our visitor group - Zitian, Momoko, Diana, Liv, Bailee, Jordan, and Rick.

We left last Friday and drove Liv to Richmond and had lunch with my brother Matthew, who has just started his freshman year at VCU. It was awesome to see him, I'm still having trouble comprehending that he is 18 and in college. We saw his dorm and took him to lunch at a neat little place called Ipanema cafe, which a resident of Twin Oaks told us about (he went to VCU and now sells Twin Oaks tofu and tempeh to them). It was delicious. On our way out of Richmond we got stuck in gridlock for a while. It was a bit of a rude awakening to come into that after three weeks on a farm. It made us yell "Run Away, Run Awaaaaaaay," and I have to admit some of our dislikes of Twin Oaks seemed a lot less important at that moment. Fortunately we made it to Charlottesville and had a great evening with Jason and Ellen (see previous post on their wedding in Cleveland) and David Lowe and his girlfriend Meg. We stayed up really late with Jason and Ellen and I started to feel tired and lame but they said they never stay up that late either, so I felt less lame.

Now we are in Harrisonburg, staying with my family. David is attempting to get ready for his bike ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway but has a nasty sinus infection at the moment. We hope he will be ready to go on Sunday or Monday. It is nice to be in Harrisonburg for a while, we are rarely here for this much time so it feels more relaxed seeing family. It is also really fortunate that we are here right now to help my mom. My uncle Joe died while we were at Twin Oaks and I am very grateful that it is easy for me to be here now to help her start going through the house and to be around when family comes. If we were still in our same set up in Atlanta there is no way I would be able to do this.