13 States - Down To Tennessee

Sunday, May 14

Wonderful hike on Saturday, but this was going to be another long-haul day, especially since we’d never been that far South before.  It was also Mother’s Day!  Seems like we’re always traveling on Mother’s Day, which is a credit to our Mothers’ heritage.

That morning the hotel breakfast was waitressed (rather than buffet-style), and a young one spilled a tray of breakfast before we got seated.  Not a good way to start a day for her.  Hope she took it in stride, especially if she’s a mother, and we gave her a nice tip later.

Time to hit the road, but we actually had more of New River Gorge NP to see first.  We cruised through the town of Beckley and then way, way down route 3 in WV towards Hinton.  This was the real Southern entrance of the Park and where the New River (egged on by the Bluestone River) gets wild.  We turned North on the River Road (route 26) in Hinton and followed it for 20 miles or so along the riverside, downstream to the falls.

The river road on the West bank, and apparently the river road on the East bank, was a trip.  You might call it a hippie enclave, but I’m sure a number of the itinerant residents would object to being called hippies.  This was a riverside city made out of old RVs, trailers, ingenious shelters, and ancient porta-potties.  I’m sure all the stuff gets washed away and/or shifted every few years by the river.  But the people there seemed to be saying that they could take that, they just wanted to hang out on the river’s edge and fish when they needed to.  There would be bad years, but hopefully they’d be outnumbered by good years.

We got to the end of route 26, back in the territory administered by the National Park, and parked in their quarter-full lot for a wonderful, mellow hike.  This was the Sandstone Falls area itself (as opposed to the Sandstone Falls Overlook), and they have a boardwalk out to the falls, and then a nature trail on the island formed by the falls, which is a mile loop.

In an outrageous Spring, this place would have been overwhelmed as much as the trailer village we’d seen upstream, and it has often been overwhelmed by the river from the piles of debris that we saw around the island.  But at that time it was just right, and though we saw some spectacular water running through the island, most flowed around it, forming a beautiful falls and even more spectacular rapids.  The wider part of that juncture of the New River had formed the long, stately falls, across a few hundred yards.  But then we walked further out the boardwalk and the rest of the river was a wild cascade.  We had seen this part from the overlook the day before yesterday, and now we were right there with it, seeing the tumult and feeling the steam.

Great walk on the island trail after that, meeting only one other couple.  It was a yellow, sunny morning again after the rains of the last few days, and the plants and small wildflowers were reveling in the river mud.  Woodpeckers rattled and frogs honked.

Back to the car and it was still too early for lunch (and the parking lot was getting crowded), so we pressed on to the South, following route 20 back to Interstate 77, and back into Virginia.  As I say, my itch to see exotic places (the more vernacular the better) was scratched pretty good on that trip.  This late morning drive down through Southernmost WV and into VA was exactly what I wanted.

There were tunnels on the Interstate from WV into VA, and then a long, swoopy drive at 75 MPH (no one was going faster, so we didn’t) from the mountains into the valley.  We stopped at a rest area and had an excellent PB&J lunch in one of their pavilions, though some beggars bothered us (crows and chipmunks that is).

Switched to Interstate 81 in Wytheville (as before, lots of trucks but in general a genteel drive) and motored West in a seam of the mountains, through Bristol VA into Tennessee.  81 joined Interstate 40 and soon after that we finally exited on 66/441 through Sevierville (pronounced “SeVERE-ville”) to Pigeon Forge and then to Gatlinburg TN, right on the edge of the National Park.  This was as far West as we got that trip.  But hold on cowboy!

You would not believe the stretch of tourist traps between the Interstate and the National Park, or maybe you’ve seen or heard of it.  I’ll tell you, we were unprepared for it, expecting more rural landscape.  I should have been tipped off when I made hotel reservations and there were a lot of them with high prices.  I apologize to people who want entertainment strips like that, but this was way over the top for me and Sarah, I don’t even know how to describe it.  There were gigantic neon signs and billboards, and around every curve on the three-lane highway was another jaw-dropping spectacle.  Two that got me were the Hatfield and McCoy dinner theater, an all-you-can-eat attraction (to see hillbillys get even further denigrated?), and the upside-down palace, which really was an upside-down palace.

Anyway, the strip finally ended and we were traveling through a greenspace, but then we got to Gatlinburg TN and it was even worse!  Again, many people seemed to be loving the artificially propped-up fairyland that Gatlinburg was (they had a Bubba Gump shrimp house and an “Alpine” chairlift ride), and had chosen it as a vacation destination.  I had the feeling that I was in the wrong space and/or time, but when we finally arrived at our hotel the desk clerk assured me that I was in the right place and that we had a reservation.  Sarah and I counted ourselves lucky that the hotel we’d made reservations at was hanging on the outskirts of town, though they were building yet another hotel behind it, and to have our fifth-floor room be blessed with a mountain view.  They also had a patio overlooking “the Creek” that a lot of the hotels around there gushed about, but it was nothing really special.

We’d checked out local dinner options (we could have gone to Bubba Gump’s!), and there was a Smoky Mountains Brewery downtown.  Knowing we might be sorry but sometimes you have to go for it, we hiked over to the brewhouse and had a fine meal, though it was incredibly bright and noisy in there.  I got their guest IPA and then their flagship IPA, which was very impressive.  Sarah got a cocktail special and we both had salads.  Nice to be there but not for long, and I have to give our waiter four stars, though there was a bit of language difficulty.

Waded back through the writhing downtown and back to our fifth-floor room at the Hampton Inn – Historic Nature Trail (there are three Hampton Inns in town so don’t be fooled!).  A little reading and then soon to bed.  It had been a long road day and we forgot to get the mileage, but it had been quite a journey from Beckley.

13 States - The Gorge In the Rain

Saturday, May 13

The next morning our streak of great weather ran out, it was raining off and on outside, but you could tell (and the weather forecast backed us up) that the trend was towards more and more rain and we’d better get used to it.  So we did.

The Holiday Inn apparently sometimes did breakfast buffets and sometimes had waitressed breakfasts, probably depending on how many staff they had that morning.  That morning was a buffet and we fueled up on bacon and eggs for a good hike.  Sarah had a side of biscuits and gravy, but I declined.  At one restaurant she was asked if she wanted white or brown gravy on her mashed potatoes.  What a question!

We looked at weather forecasts and maps for a little bit.  We could make a major decision to skip the New River and instead head further South right away, but the forecast to the South was just the same, and we had been told we *had* to see “The Bridge.”  And so we did, who cares about rain?

It was a good-sized and rainy drive from Beckley up to the Canyon Rim VC, but fine for an early morning.  Just before the VC we passed over the bridge, which we couldn’t see well at that point … we couldn’t see anything well with the mist and the rain!  But we parked at the small, crowded VC, and saw their excellent short video about the history of the area.  We got some maps and some info, then were some of the only people to head out for their overlook, which was a winding set of stairways that took us down and down on the side of the gorge, to where we had a great view of the bridge and the river … supposedly.

The rain continued to spit, drizzle, mist, and shower on and off, and we brought umbrellas out onto the series of platforms descending from the trail by the VC.  But we put the umbrellas away and just glorified in the terrarium we were in the middle of.  The platforms and stairways hugged the steep bank, with beeches and maples and who knows what growing out of it.  Could have been some bears in there.  We went down and down the stairs among scents of the wet dirt and the new trees into the gorge where the mists danced around like sprites.  Up above us was the new bridge, with a steady traffic drone, but it was almost like another sprite, showing views of its steel architecture when the mist blew by, and the traffic sound receded as we went lower and lower.  And down way below us still was the river, suddenly visible when the curtains of mist parted.  We knew it was treacherous and had rapids and rocks, and we could hear it faintly, gurgling down below.

Back up the stairs and it wasn’t as bad a climb as the signs had warned.  Glad we were there when there wasn’t a long line of people going down and struggling back up.  It was still mid-morning when we got back to the car, and we drove the few miles up and down narrow and treacherous roads to the trailhead we really had our eyes on, the Endless Wall Trail in the Canyon Rim section of the Park.  And we’d chosen wisely.

We were a little surprised that the parking lot at the trailhead was half full, we had expected it to be deserted.  But it was Saturday and, though raining, this was the place to be.  We put on slickers, mine not waterproof, but it was already hot and humid and I didn’t want to over-gear for this trail.  We had lots of water and granola bars with us and were ready for a long hike, and it was glorious, super muddy and wet!

On that trail you start off through magical stands of big trees, with light shining through them onto the forest floor.  After a mile or so we were out on the canyon rim, traversing it to the South, and every once in a while there was a side trail out to the rim itself … don’t take one step too far!  There were extraordinary stands of beautiful, purple and red rhododendrons, and flowering shrubs of yellow and orange.  Beech and oak and who knows trees abounded and every once in a while we heard the sound of the river railroad far below, or got bombarded by raindrops.

The clay was astounding too, sandy and bright yellow in some places and then loamy and dark in others.  In some low places on the trail, different colors of clay swirled together.  We were walking on the green lava rocks we’d seen in Virginia, but this was upheaval up on the rim and at the bottom of the gorge old, old geology was exposed.  We passed and were passed by a few groups, all younger than us except one grandma-daughter-kids group where the grandma was our age and was enjoying the trail as much as we were.

Besides the scenic overlooks, where we could see mist, trees, cliffs, and sometimes the river below, there were rock-climbing gaps.  The Endless Wall part of the Park is a rock-climbing mecca, though we saw no climbers that day.  We checked out a few  of the rock-climbing sites though, and there were ladders and anchors for ropes that led to some pretty spectacular drops.

At one overlook the mist was clearing and we could see down to the tracks below, and to an endless freight train, lumbering up the New River.  Several young people joined us at the overlook and took pictures, one doing a yoga pose right on the edge of the rock.  Even her boyfriend had to not look, it was not a place to stumble!  We eventually reached the point where the trail turns back East to the next parking lot, where we had a granola bar, talked geology with some other visitors, and then turned around.

Rain and humidity and mud and scary vistas with mists enshrouding them and spectacular flowering bushes and the New River train tootling down below and countless severe drop-offs into the chasm.  This was a trail that we loved, and we were so glad to be there.  We got back to the parking lot after a long trek and it was *packed*.  There were people spinning their wheels in the mud, competing for the few vacant spots.  I’d been visualizing relaxing on the tailgate with a nice yogurt from the cooler when we got back to the trailhead, but instead we just got out of there immediately so someone else could take our space, and we headed back for the VC.

Made it back there and the sheltered picnic pavilion only had one other group in it, that soon departed.  We spread out our stuff on a picnic table and had an excellent PB&J lunch, perhaps getting a little too cool in the suddenly active breeze after our long and humid hike.  We took turns going to the bathrooms, and my Achilles tendons were suddenly all locked up.  Though not really long or featuring much elevation change, that had been a strenuous hike.

But the best part of that New River Gorge section was still to come, if we believed the people who had gushed about it, the Fayette Station Road Driving Tour.  The road winds down the East side of the gorge, then under the new bridge, then over the old bridge, and then back up the West side.  The Fayette Road was a critical place for early trade, and all commerce was routinely slowed to a standstill by crawling down the bank, over the rickety bridge, and then back up.  This is one reason why the new bridge is a marvel, the world's longest single-span arch bridge when it was completed in 1977 (now the 5th longest), reducing traffic time for crossing the gorge to less than a minute.  We’d crossed that in the morning, but now we were going to go the old way.

From the VC we wound downhill and downhill, under the new bridge and past lush viewpoints and sudden drop-offs.  We were in a group with several other cars, including a van with a burnt-out engine that produced lots of smoke.  Down over the old bridge (which doesn’t seem very trustworthy) in an amazingly close and relatively still stretch of the river, and then downstream for a bit where we stopped to clamber around the shore at the bottom of the gorge, near where the river turns fierce again.  Lots of others clambered there too, it was a pretty spectacular place with the sun finally coming out and the mist clearing above us.  A woman claimed to have seen an anhinga.  Some tubers ran the rapids and then climbed back up the few hundred yards to do it again.  Then I saw a lone pickup rolling into the lot, and the driver gazing up at the sky.  He crashed into a boulder and shattered his right headlight.  Talk about embarrassed!  He screwed out of there immediately, repeating a mantra of “Oh shit,” louder and louder.

Back in the car and we started up the gorge, realizing that the smoky van was not too far ahead of us.  We stopped again when the trail switched back to the right at the head of the Kaymoor Trail, which leads to an old coal mine.  Well, I’m going to remember this place for a long time.  It sure wasn’t deserted, and we didn’t go far up the Trail, but it was one of the most vertiginous, lush, earthy places I’ve ever seen.  We didn’t have much time to spend there but headed out the Trail and crossed one bridge over a raging stream, and then climbed up a steep slope to another waterfall that just filled me with joy.  It came down on us, thirty feet or so from the cliff above, went under the path across the cliff that we were standing on, and then cascaded another 50 feet or so into the stream below.  Can’t find a name for this falls in my maps, but I could have stayed and watched it forever, except it was spraying on me and finally drove us away, back down the Trail to the car, parked on a steep slope.

We drove up the last of that steep slope back to route 19, and then headed back to Beckley as the sun struggled to brighten up the late afternoon.  We loved New River Gorge, but it was time to return to the hotel, take off our wet and muddy clothes, and relax a bit.  I took a nap after we got back, and then joined Sarah in the lounge, where she’d been taking advantage of happy hour G&Ts.  I joined in with a few of the pedestrian porters, and we had a game of Parks before going back to their restaurant for dinner.

Soon to bed again after that, having traveled 66.1 miles that day by car, and endlessly more marvelous miles by foot.  Still raining hard as we fell asleep.

13 States - Southern West Virginia

Friday, May 12

Woke up after wrestling with the haunted bedspread all night and stumbled down to the small lobby/breakfast room after my morning routine.  They didn’t have much breakfast variety, but they had cereal and yogurt which I dug into while listening to characters.  There was a lady who was hassling the manager about wanting to have laundry done but ordering them to not dry it (must have been trail gear) and the lack of bananas.  She and a few other guests were Appalachian Trail hikers and exchanged Trail Names.  I reflected for a while and then figured mine would be “Aggrieved.”

That day we had a good stretch of miles to cover to get over to our next destination, in West Virginia.  But if we went there directly we’d arrive in early afternoon, so we had some wiggle room in the itinerary.  We figured this should be a day to start off by heading further down the Blue Ridge and then let serendipity strike.

So that’s what we did … we were getting used to traveling and it helped that the car was right outside the door, so there wasn’t too much schlepping of stuff involved in getting loaded up.  I like to have an iced/hot green tea or two while driving but I hate Bigelow tea, which is what every hotel carries.  Tea drinkers get no love in America.  I’d brought some good tea with me and we realized we could fill up our metal water bottles very morning with my teabags and the hotel’s hot water.

We headed back East out of Waynesboro and back uphill to Shenandoah’s Rockfish Gap entrance station, but then turned right instead of left.

There is one continuous Parkway in Virginia from Front Royal in the North down to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina.  The 105.5 mile section within Shenandoah NP is called the Skyline Drive, but the other 469 miles(!) is the Blue Ridge Parkway, which winds and winds along the crest of a mountain ridge through Virginia and North Carolina.  We’d never been on it but I was dying to check it out.  Would it be as beautiful as Shenandoah?  Would it be crowded?  Would it be a fun drive?  All questions about it were answered positively, it’s just a wonderful place.  Though an NPS site, there were barely any people there when we visited.  We had most of the overlooks we stopped at to ourselves.  The views are just as sublimely lovely as in the NP to the North, perhaps more so because it gains even more elevation.  And the speed limit is up to 45 instead of the plodding 35, so you can get some good cruising in.  In fact, many of the people we saw there were doing just that in motorcycle touring groups or little sports cars.

Our first stop was at the Humpback Rocks VC, a dozen or so miles South of the start.  It was closed, but we got some brochures from their kiosk and then had a great talk with a Ranger and volunteer who were just coming in to work.  I feel a little self-conscious about it but often introduce myself to NPS staff as a VIP from MIMA (Volunteer in Parks at the Minute Man NHS).  It breaks the ice and can help the conversation along because they realize I’m on their team and not just a visitor who might give them a hard time.  They were curious about our trip and gave us some good tips about where to go and what to see at New River, our next stop.

As with many NPS sites, the Blue Ridge Parkway is starved for funds and many of their facilities are run down.  They have a model mountain village at Humpback Rocks (shows you how old it is, the NPS would not do that now), but it’s been untouched for years, which kind of adds to the authenticity.  Many waysigns there and at other stops were so faded they were barely legible.  We had a good time looking around, on another crisp and clear mountain morning.

We stopped for another short hike a while later, at an overlook that featured a last-maintained-in-1970?? Geology Trail.  We had to push some brush aside to get at some of the signs, and some trees they mentioned were not there.  But the rocks were of course, and we learned that most of the green-black ones we were seeing were still young enough to be called lava, though further down in the valleys, sandstone and the underlying schist predominate.  The Blue Ridge and the other wrinkles in the Earth to its West, the Massanuttens and the Appalachians, were formed when Africa bumped into North America long ago.

We made several other stops along the incredible Blue Ridge Parkway.  One was at a trailhead for St. Mary’s Wilderness in the Washington and Jefferson National Forest.  One featured a restored stretch of railroad in the middle of nowhere, and a trail up to one of the most beautiful of the many waterfalls we saw on the trip.  We stopped again a while later at the Boston Knob Overlook for a possible lunch break, but realized that the morning was getting on and we began to wonder how far South we should go.

Some day I’ll go back there and do the whole 469 miles, but that would have taken us a couple of days to do then, and we had other things we wanted to see.  We pushed on instead of stopping for lunch, and Sarah started looking for nice restaurants.  But of course there was just spotty reception and apparently no nice restaurants until we returned to the double-edged sword of “civilization.”  We exited on route 60 in Buena Vista and went way, way downhill into that run down town, and then West to Lexington VA, which hosts Washington & Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, two major colleges.

I had this idea in my head that a “college town” would have good brewpubs, and sometimes I was right, but most times I was wrong.  This time we got lucky and after some hassle parking downtown we walked over to Salerno Wood Fired Pizza and Taproom, which is a pour-your-own taproom.  We had some excellent salads and I sampled their DIPAs, including Reaver Beach Hoptopus.  They had cider too, and Sarah tried their Buskey Blue Ridge Cider.

OK, left town after a late lunch and traveled another dozen miles West on 60, then picked up Interstate 64, winding over the afore-mentioned mountain ranges into West Virginia and the Ohio River watershed.  There were a high percentage of trucks and pickups on this road as well, our small SUV was an oddity, but most everyone was polite and we managed the sudden ups and downs pretty well.  Our destination was Beckley WV, but 30 or so miles East of there we saw signs for the Sandstone VC at New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, and so pulled off the Interstate there.

We were now in a different ecosystem and a different world.  The elevation is much lower in the New River valley, rhododendron thickets and deciduous trees predominated, and the flora was all younger.  Much of the area had been cleared and abused in the not-distant past for logging and coal mining, and then transporting those products down the New River to the Ohio.  The collision with the African plate had reverberated this far West and had forced the New River (which is actually an incredibly old waterway) into an entrenched bed in West Virginia, digging into the oldest geologic layers.

But back in the present day … we stopped at the Sandstone VC and actually wondered if it was open, there was only one other car there.  We saw a few exhibits outside and when we entered we were merrily greeted by a Ranger, with whom we had a great conversation.  The layout of the NP is confusing, I’d been researching hiking, but the Park is divided into at least four major sections over a very large area, and I couldn’t tell which we should opt for.  The Ranger cleared up my confusion and told us in Southern phraseology that what we wanted to do was visit Sandstone Falls and then the Grandview section today, then spend the night in Beckley, and then see the Canyon Rim section and possibly the Thurmond section tomorrow.

We thoroughly enjoyed that VC, they had extensive, new exhibits.  This *is* the newest National Park (a well-deserved promotion), and of course their exhibits and VCs are modern.  But disparities between NPS sites abound and we quietly had to wonder if this one deserved the attention it had gotten.  We had just seen amazing decay at the Blue Ridge sites, but this Park had a very ritzy VC, lots of staff just sitting around, and tons of exhibits paid for with cash that really could have gone to other Parks, like MIMA.  Oh well, it may be because of influential politicians directing that NPS funds should be spent in their home states.

And the Ranger had steered us right.  We followed her directions to go see the Sandstone Falls from the overlook a few miles South.  We climbed up some severe switchbacks to get there and then got a glimpse of the falls through the trees.  Maybe not the best spot, but it was a great introduction to the mighty New River.

From there we got back on the Interstate and traveled 15 miles or so further West to the turnoff for the Grandview section, which is then another 20 or so miles to the North.  This is another part of the Park that’s equipped for a huge amount of people but only had a dozen or so visitors that afternoon.  It has an events hall, an amphitheater, a sports field, and trails landscaped with wood chips, but they were mostly deserted.

We parked in the suddenly hot afternoon and walked out the paved path to the main overlook.  And there it was, the Grand View of the New River.  And it *was* pretty grand that sunny late afternoon, it’s a majestic bend of the river around a spur of the steep hills that enclose it.  To the left we could see a huge railroad yard, then visually follow the railroad tracks around the bend and disappearing up the river to the North, and then look up see the backdrop of the mountains all around.  It was another beautiful, clear, bright day, and we could see some kayakers down below on the river, negotiating a few rapids.  There was a couple and a photographer staging dramatic/romantic pictures in front of the view.

To tell you the truth though, we were a little underwhelmed by Grandview and were feeling a bit abashed about not being bowled over by it, as they obviously expected.  Great spot, but we wanted some adventure added in, and so left the viewing platform to the romantics and started off down the Grandview Rim Trail.  This was fun, no one around and incredible rhododendron thickets enclosing the wood-chipped trail.  Got some more great views on that trail, but then headed back to the car.  We had to get to Beckley!

Back 20 miles South and then longer than you’d think down the Interstate to the cluster of hotels where 64 meets 77 to the West of Beckley.  In some ways we were in nowhere West Virginia, but in other ways we were in a commercial hotspot.  Friendly Roxanne at the front desk of the Holiday Inn & Suites checked us in (“Have you ever stayed in an IHG hotel before?”  “I have no idea” … she laughed), and gave us the first room on the first floor, which in some ways was great but in other ways (like noise) was not so good.  Nice room though, and we’d traveled a lot that day and seen many things, so were ready for a decompression interlude.

Where to go for dinner?  There were actually no great choices around, and a small number of iffy choices a half hour away.  But the Holiday Inn had a restaurant and so we ate there from their limited menu.  The only acceptable beer they had was a porter from Devil’s Backbone, and I had a couple.

Soon to bed after that, having traveled 199 adventuresome miles that day.

13 States - Return To Shenandoah

Thursday, May 11

Woke up after a good sleep in that luxurious hotel and strategized for the day.  We were excited to head a bit South to Front Royal and re-create our 2019 trip to  Shenandoah National Park.  We had had some great times hiking in it and wanted to do that again, but realized we would have to keep in mind that we’d need to get to the Southern end of the Park by the end of the day to be well situated for our next destination.

The first point of order was breakfast and we walked over to Steamy’s, where we’d had great loaded bagels on the last trip.  Things have changed though and it was take-out only, so we walked back to the Hotel and tried their breakfast, at the Pizzeria Uno in their lobby.  It was surprisingly good, with great coffee and a friendly waitress.  They had some complicated stuff on their menu and I got quinoa and avocado poached eggs with some questionable hot sauce … perhaps a little *too* complicated before a long car ride.

Anyway, it was time to pack up the car and get out of town, back to Interstate 81 (after a gas fill-up), then East on Interstate 66 for a stretch, and then South through the town of Front Royal to the Park entrance.  Just five miles past that we were already entranced with the Skyline Drive, and we pulled over into Dickie’s Ridge VC.  The sky had looked a little unsettled early that morning, but even so there was still great visibility and any overcast was now disappearing.  It was cooler than we’d expected; I almost got out my windbreaker at that point and I sure needed it later at even higher elevations.

Got some great advice from a Ranger at Dickie’s Ridge and we were off, tootling around the curves (always at the speed limit) up into the sky!  The Ranger had recommended Little Stony Face Trail and we pulled over there, shocked to see that the parking lot was already almost full.  Where had these people come from??

Put on a lot of bug spray, though bugs turned out to be never a problem on the trip.  We climbed up the Appalachian Trail and along that for a bit, then detoured over to the Little Stony Face view, which was pretty but not spectacular.  The lovely stone of the Shenandoah was all around us though, and the bright trees.  All along the Blue Ridge, you could have pinpointed your elevation by the foliage.  The trees were all leafed out in the valleys and hollows, but were yellower, redder, or even bare as you went higher and higher up the peaks of the ridge.

The most wonderful thing about that trail was not the views, but the sudden explosions of trilliums.  We were perhaps a little past peak wildflower time in the Virginia mountains, but the magic was still going on if you looked a bit.  And another astonishing thing was the millipedes.  They’re just creepy bugs in some settings, but these were out in the middle of the woods like us and were everywhere, if you looked closely, moving like they were meant to be there.

In all aspects, Shenandoah NP was as spectacular and lovely as I’d remembered it from our Fall 2019 trip.  The mountains were covered with all shades of green as well as many shades of yellow and red, the sky was a brilliant pastel blue with white clouds, and the clouds cast shadows on the mountains.  Skyline Drive (and the Blue Ridge Parkway to the South) runs along the tops of the mountains, winding and winding uphill and down, sometimes on knife edges.  The scenery changes with every second as you drive and get different angles on it, and when you stand still and take in the whole panorama it’s not static either.  Your senses fasten on this soaring bird, then that small blue lake glistening in the valley, then the swoop of trees up to a summit, then a patch of wildflowers at your feet.

The next recommendation from the Ranger was the Rose River Trail, and maybe we should have prepared a bit better for a long hike, but we were psyched and jumped right into it when we got there.  It’s a loop trail, but it’s about 1000’ of elevation change and 4 miles long.  We were too excited to pause to make and pack lunch, but we had plenty of water and granola bars.  The trail started off steeply downhill and we began to wonder what we were getting into, we knew we’d be making up that elevation later.

This was a great hike!  In the first couple of miles there were a good number of people, heading down the downhill side of the trail.  It went along the steepest part of the river and then dropped down a steep bank to the Rose River Falls.  We hope all those people made it out, because by the time we got to the Falls, we were deep in the valley and some of the people who had hiked down there didn’t look very mobile and would have a long haul to get back.

The trail then continued and looped to the South, back uphill on another fascinating tributary of the river, featuring cascade after cascade over large boulders and fallen trees.  Didn’t see anyone for the next few miles.  This steep part of the hike was captivating, though it showed signs of never ending and we were beginning to wear down ourselves.  It finally took us to the bottom of the Dark Hollow Falls, where we’d been with S&J in 2019.  Didn’t climb up those falls, but detoured back to the North up a fire road and eventually made it back to the trailhead.

What a great hike and what time was it??  We realized we’d better hit the dusty trail tout de suite, and saddled up for the South end of the Park, many miles away.  We simply had to stop briefly at a few incredible overlooks, but kept on pressing down to our destination of Waynesboro.

Sarah researched dinner options as always, but the pickings in Waynesboro were slim.  We finally settled on The River (not the radio station) and went directly there when we got into town.  This was not a good dinner choice either, though who knew?  Our waitress forgot our beers (I got a Basic City 6th Lord IPA, which was nowhere as good as its name) and our burgers were greasy.  Besides that it was ok I guess.  But we soon decamped for the Super 8 Waynesboro.  Not bad, but there was a good amount of noise in the corridor at night and my bedspread was haunted, always diagonal.

We had traveled 139.5 miles that day, most of it rolling left and right and uphill and downhill at 35MPH through the captivating Blue Ridge.

13 States - Into Northern Virginia

Wednesday, May 10

The only breakfast option in the hotel was a Starbucks, but we looked on the map and I realized the Lincoln Diner was just a block out the back door and had great reviews.  It was a crowded, real diner with full booths, and had a dining room in the back where we were able to get seats.  It was exactly what you’d expect from a diner serving breakfast: quick and good coffee and unpretentious and inexpensive eggs, omelets, and toast.  We were surrounded by tables full of groups of guys, some with military insignia and tattoos.  They looked happy to be at Gettysburg but a little nervous about what memories and feelings would come up during the day.

We packed up pretty quickly on a beautiful, warm and breezy morning, and drove the few miles down to the Visitor Center (we actually had to follow a detour almost all around it) at the Gettysburg National Military Park.  The VC was obviously geared up for hordes of people and luckily it was not at full capacity, though it was already getting crowded with swarms of schoolchildren on field trips and the groups of grim men.  We had to pay @$17.75 for the “Film, Cyclorama, and Museum” experience and wondered if it would be worth it.  It sure was.

Let me digress a bit and talk about our feelings coming into the experience and afterwards.  Neither I nor Sarah glorify militarism, and we feel that the American Civil War and its bloody battles were tragic wastes of the lives of working people, as puppets of the rich merchants and politicians who were calling the shots.  We realize there was a moral aspect too, to say the least, and are heartened by the story of the nation turning away from slavery, and realize what a wrenching change it must have been.  But as opposed to many people, we generally don’t want to hear the details!  We know that over half a million soldiers died in it, but have little interest in learning about where and when and how.

But here we were traveling near Gettysburg on our quest to see National Parks, I’d been told by several people of different backgrounds that I had to see Gettysburg sometime, I work at a National Historical Park, and we realized we needed to stop there.  We figured at the least it would be a lovely place on a Spring day.  So we went and we’re glad we did, though it was a lot more than we expected.

As an example of my naivete as to military things, I realized only while watching their film about the details of the Battle of Gettysburg, that if the battle site was in Pennsylvania that means Confederate General Lee invaded Pennsylvania … which is the North!  As far as the South fighting against “Northern aggression,” what the fuck was Lee doing in Pennsylvania?  The answer is well documented: he was trying to intimidate the North, and he was there to capture free black people and make them slaves.  This seems pretty aggressive to me, and incredibly immoral.  I can’t believe that upper-level officers who fought for “the South” are still admired.  In Winchester VA we drove on Jubal Early Drive and I wanted to open my door and spit on the street.

I believe in freedom and I’m disgusted by people who misinterpret what that concept is.  “Freedom” has to be qualified and federated or else you’re stuck in logical conundrums like, “freedom to enslave other people,” and “freedom to plow up another man’s field,” and “freedom to kill” or “freedom to deny other’s rights.”  If you’re going to have a country, it needs to have a federal government.  An association of states can be beneficial, but does not lend itself to the universal application of morality, as we’re seeing in the EU.

But to be fair, the U.S. Civil War can be seen from many sides.  Another naïve question I’d always had in the back of my mind was why didn’t the North just let the South secede?  Why was it such a big deal to keep the Union together?  There’s a cynical answer to this too, that was touched on in the film.  The big thing is that the North needed the South.  It was the product produced by the Southern slave farms, cotton, that fueled our economy.  The North had the commercial abilities and the mills, but it was nothing without the export-worthy product of the South and so the businessmen in the North could not let the South go.

A break from my polemic back to the narrative.  As implied, our minds were captured by the film describing the events of July 1-3, 1863.  Two massively powerful armies fought on the site of the town and the surrounding fields, creating destruction that saddened us.  After the battle, in which a number of farms were destroyed, many never to recover, the people of that small town were left with the task of nursing thousands of wounded men from both sides (who continued to try to kill each other) and of burying the tens of thousands of corpses from both sides that were littering their streets and fields.  The armies marched on.

The film was very good, and then we went upstairs to the “cyclorama.”  After the battle, Paul Philippoteaux was commissioned with re-creating the scene in a painting.  Narrative paintings were the most realistic media of the latter 19th century, and Philippoteaux and team documented the battle in detail.  The huge painting has been restored after a long fight with time and neglect, is displayed in the cyclorama exhibit at Gettysburg NMP, and is well worth seeing.  They ushered us upstairs to see the painting in the round and we were kind of impressed but not really.  Then the lights went down.

We’d just heard about what happened on July 2 and 3 in the film, and the room flashed and echoed with the sights and sounds from those sub-battles while we whirled around to follow it all.  The simulation had us standing on Cemetery Ridge, which the North defended on the 3rd while the Confederates attacked it in waves from their positions on Seminary Ridge.  Different parts of the painting lit up and we realized how realistic it was.  There was the artillery being used, the men dying and the medics trying to pull them away, and the armies rushing this way and that, spearing with bayonets.  The squads and their leaders were rendered in amazing detail: what General stood where, how far each squad was able to advance, where the wells and field hospitals were, what kinds of artillery were placed where, etc.

It was frightening to me, and I’m sure to the people in the audience who had been in combat it must have been intense.  What an incredible effect from a 19th century artifact (enhanced by 21st century technology).  I hate to say it, but the production was worthy of the money they demanded for it.  Sarah and I breathed a bit when it was over and were some of the last to leave the theater, the exit being surrounded by some more very good interpretive displays, including further interpretation of the massive painting.  We hadn’t gone in there with the goal of learning all about the Battle of Gettysburg, but they sure educated us.

The Museum (and massive book/gift shop) was next, and again, they had some excellent exhibits.  I always wondered about why artillery was so pivotal in 19th century warfare (let alone earlier times), and they had exhibits that explained that, as well as one we loved, about musical instruments armies used.

But the swarms of schoolchildren and the crowds of enthusiasts made us realize we needed to get out of there.  We talked with a kind Ranger and were directed to the Cemetery Ridge Trail, out the back door of the monumental VC.  Phew, back out in the sun and the fresh air and we had another nice talk with a Ranger out there, who steered us in the right direction for an excellent walk through the woods, over to a restored farmhouse that served as General Mead’s headquarters.  What?  We had thought we’d exited from the Civil War but as we passed the Federal’s HQ we were now back in the conflict, hiking past where the artillery had lined up on Cemetery Ridge.

As mentioned, it was a lovely Spring day with colors in the sky and birds chirping all over.  But we were now in the middle of the painting we had just seen, without the soldiers, noise, and danger luckily, looking West down the long slope the Confederates had charged up.  Down in the valley below the Ridge we were standing on were a few farmhouses, just like in the painting, and on the Ridge itself were an incredible array of stone monuments and sculptures in place of the soldiers and artillery.  We went for a nice walk down a mown path in the fields, inspecting monuments as we passed.  At that moment, it didn’t seem like the battle had happened in the distant past, it seemed like it had just occurred and we were still living with the aftermath.  Everyone there we observed was as awed as we were.  What does freedom mean and war cost?  I think most of the people there were asking these questions of themselves.

Anyway, we were done.  We had our fill of reading inscriptions on monuments and headed back to the VC, past Mead’s Headquarters and into the blessed woods.  Took the long way around the VC (we didn’t want to go back in) and got to the car.  It was just after noon, we were just a few miles out of town, and our parking validation was still good!  So we headed back up into the city, parked the car, and had a great lunch back at Ploughman’s in Lincoln Square.

One thing about Lincoln Square in the middle of Gettysburg was that the parade of trucks was never-ending, just as it had been on the Pennsylvania highways the day before.  We sat there with our beer/cider (Sarah got a flight of ciders and a bunch to go, I got a Gut Czech Pilsner from the same brewery as produced the excellent Yellow Birch, Michaux Brewery), our cheese, and our pickle (actually apple chutney), and watched giant truck after giant truck roll through town.  After lunch we wanted to visit the David Wills House, where Abraham Lincoln had spent the night before the Gettysburg Address, but it wasn’t open on Wednesdays.  Contrary to urban myth, Lincoln did not scribble the text of the speech on a napkin in the train ride up from Washington.  He composed it carefully in the White House and then worked on a final draft in the Wills House the night before the dedication of the National Cemetery.  And the house still exists in the middle of Gettysburg, as I say, a charming town.

We stuffed ourselves back into the car in the parking garage and said, ok we’re leaving Gettysburg and those “war” feelings for good!  But on the way South out of town we had to make one more stop and it was a good one.  Just before you get out of there is the Longstreet Observation Tower, on the ridge General Longstreet’s men departed for their deaths.  As I say, it was a beautiful day with great visibility and we could see the whole battlefield/town/farming area stretched out below us and we got the chance to shudder again at the brutality.  There was an old metal placard with topographic indentations up there to help you site various features.

Then we were definitely out of there, driving on farm roads and eventually larger roads down into Maryland.  We realized that, even though Gettysburg had soaked up a lot of time, we were still ahead of schedule.  We wanted to get to Winchester VA that night but had plenty of time to get there, and then suddenly a sign for Catoctin Aqueduct appeared, and we zoomed South, with the Google directions lady trying to catch up.

She had us go this way and then that way, and then down there, and then over those dusty railroad tracks, and then there we were, at Lock 29 in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park.  We read a few signs and then went for a hike up the towpath towards the aqueduct itself, which is a mile and a half one-way.  Lovely walk along the towpath, remembering Mom being so excited about the history of it and marveling at huge beech trees.

We got to the aqueduct, which carried the canal (and boats in it of course) over Catoctin Creek.  This was a magical place, being deep in the woods, near a huge river, and full of history.  A bicyclist from Austria happened along and we had a nice conversation, admiring the reconstructed engineering feat, the wrought-iron railings, and the nesting cliff swallows.  Paralleling the towpath was the railroad that replaced it, and we heard and then saw a couple of trains swoop by as we hung out there and then made our way back down the towpath, one train a quick burst of engines and one a loonnngg freight train.

Back at the lock we detoured down to the Lander boat ramp on the Potomac River.  Now more sedate but still flowing strongly enough to not be navigable upstream without a good engine, a few dozen miles downstream from Harper’s Ferry.

And speaking of Harper’s Ferry, that was our next destination, after the Google lady got us back on the right track.  We dipped into Virginia and then back up North to West Virginia, and then followed the road down into the small town of Harper’s Ferry.  Signs commanded us to park at the VC but we wanted a quick peak downtown and that’s what we got, past the Post Office we’d been to with Sally and Jim back in 2019.  We didn’t stop though, and drove back up the bluffs to the Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park VC, where we got a map and refilled our water bottles.

OK, the day was getting on.  It wasn’t that long a drive from there over to Winchester VA, where we’d booked a room in the George Washington Grand Hotel.  We’d stayed there with S&J on the previous trip and were eager to return.  Winchester is perhaps not as charming as Gettysburg, but is still a wonderful small city and features a classic old hotel in the middle of town.  Parked at the municipal garage again, which cost was discounted from our hotel rate.  They gave us a great third floor room overlooking Picadilly Street, and I had perhaps my best sleep of the trip there.

The pool in the GW Hotel wasn’t open when we were there before, but I was determined to try it, and it was open!  It features “Greek” columns and sculpture and proved to be a lot of fun.  I was floating through the statuary when a family group showed up and the kids were suddenly quieted by the sight of an elderly man enjoying the pool.  I was done and exited quickly so they could enjoy it as much as I had.  Squeals of delight followed me to the elevator.

Made a bad decision about dinner that night, going to the only place that had been open on our 2019 trip (Picadilly Public House) and expecting at least as good a meal.  It was much worse however, and the beer selection was pretty bad (Vienna Lager from Devil’s Backbone was the best), though we just wanted to eat and get back to our room and then bed, which soon was the story.

104.9 miles that day, not that much distance but a lot of things to see and think about!

13 States - To Gettysburg

Tuesday, May 9

We spent a good amount of time thinking about what to bring on our trip down the Appalachians and back up the coast, and possibly over-packed.  Mid-Spring can bring changing weather, and we didn’t want to find ourselves without enough light clothes for hot days or heavy clothes for cold/rainy days.  We needed the right footwear for mountain trails and also for the shore, and we needed good trail packs with mosquito/sunscreen/first aid stuff/ropes/knives/whistles/etc.  We also needed to have enough food in the cooler for lunches in the middle of nowhere and for evenings when we couldn’t find restaurants.  And we didn’t want to be lugging big suitcases and a heavy cooler in and out of hotels, so needed to split it all strategically between multiple duffel bags and insulated bags.

We got everything packed and in the car … the only thing I forgot was my yoga pad!  Kona and Hilo were sure our organizations were all about a big trip up to Maine and so did their thing of trying to hide when we were ready to leave.  But we found them and kissed them goodbye and headed out for the highway by a little after 9:00AM on a sunny Spring Tuesday.

And we immediately found ourselves in a traffic jam!  There’d been an accident on route 128 just South of the Mass Pike and we crawled through the back-up in Waltham and Weston until we could break free.  But we had no set schedule, only a rough itinerary, and so were just amused rather than really upset.

Our first destination was Gettysburg PA.  The Google map lady tried to scare us away from going through Manhattan, but I wanted to re-travel the roads I’d driven many times when I was younger and she had to admit that the alternative route she was suggesting (the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Garden State) was not a pretty picture itself.  Here we were traveling in mid-day on a Tuesday when school was still in session and the traffic was a clusterfuck!  Oh well, that’s what we’d signed up for and that’s what we got.

Turned off the Turnpike in Sturbridge and shifted to the Parkways down through Connecticut and New York, South of the Charter Oak Bridge.  We followed these all the way to the expressways leading us over the Harlem River and to the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson to New Jersey.  By then we were barely inching forwards, not even crawling, and when things opened up a bit as we headed South through New Jersey we were kept jumping by outrageously dangerous drivers weaving in and out of the thick traffic.

Finally turned off in Newark and headed West on Interstate 78, but this featured more of the same.  We stopped for gas before leaving New Jersey (Sarah opined that it was the dirtiest bathroom she’d ever seen) and the traffic eventually thinned out a bit as we entered Pennsylvania, but there were an incredible number of trucks sharing the road with us.  Honestly, 75% of the traffic was trucks by then and it was a bizarre experience … were there really that many trucks in the world?  I guess we need to get out more.

The Google traffic lady spoke up as we approached Harrisburg, warning us of a traffic jam ahead.  After the road experiences we’d had already we were ready to believe her and followed her directions for a circuitous route to 83 South and then to 76 West over the Susquehanna.  Though we griped about this dictator, there were a good number of times when the Google lady prompted us to avoid traffic jams, and though she could be confusing when re-calculating, we grew to depend on her.  I can’t recall what shortcuts we took a lot of the time … at one point she had us whipping down small back roads in farm country in the middle of North Carolina in order to avoid a long, long, construction backup on Interstate 95 that we could catch glimpses of as we zipped around it.

We finally were on route 15 South to Gettysburg and could barely get a few calming breaths in before she sent us another detour into town.  But Gettysburg is such a nice, charming little city when you get there.  We parked in a municipal garage behind the genteel Gettysburg Hotel ($12 for 24 hours) and checked into a nice second floor room that had no microwave or refrigerator.  After some clumsy unpacking (we knew that in a few days we’d be pros at this) and a little decompression we headed out on the street, seeking dinner.

Sarah had done some research and actually found a cider bar.  Sarah loves cider, it was a beautiful early evening, and we stopped for a drink (Yellow Birch NEIPA for me and Arkansas Black Cider for Sarah) at a table on the sidewalk outside the Ploughman Taproom in Lincoln Square, where a couple of buskers were playing guitars.  Then a few blocks down to Garryowen Irish Pub, named after the old traditional marching and drinking song.  Most of the other patrons there were groups of guys, and we realized they were all around us, men making a pilgrimage to a military park.  I had a Green Grunge IPA and Country Chicken Salad.

Soon back to the hotel and an early bedtime.  We’d traveled 431.6 miles from Woburn.

13 States - Introduction

I’d been itching to get out of our cloistered routine in Massachusetts and Maine.  We really hadn’t gone much of anywhere since the pandemic started, and I had thought that I’d be traveling a lot in my retirement.  Persistent drawbacks were that COVID is still out there, that the number of people in the world can make traveling a pain in the ass, and that we didn’t want to leave our kitties.

But we lined up Dave to cat-sit for two weeks and we finally got out and on the road in May 2023, determined to visit three of the East-of-the-Mississippi National Parks we’d never visited, and to see a lot of other stuff besides that.

As expected, we hit a lot of traffic, waded through a lot of people, and had to put up with rainy days, but we had a great time and successfully completed the planned itinerary.  A quick synopsis is that we drove over 3000 miles (and took a ferry for another 18), at 32.9MPG in our 2021 Subaru Forester, were in 13 states in 13 days and nights, passed several hundred “dollar” stores (Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar) without going in, and visited 16 parks of various sorts.

Our reviews of everything will have to be mixed.  No hotel we stayed at gets good marks across the board.  We tried a lot of good beers and ciders but were limited to just bad ones in some places, we stumbled on some good restaurants but also were forced to select some pitiful ones, and we loved all of the parks but had to put up with painful experiences to enjoy some of them.  In all, I’d have to say it was about what we expected, and I know it scratched my travel itch for a while.

Phil's 83rd With Another Great Band, day three

Another groggy hotel morning after a middling sleep, but another very good aud tape from the night before was already up, and the memory of Saturday night's concert was strong.  Local weather forecasters had been predicting arctic temperatures for the weekend, but we were determined to go out for a short adventure anyway.  The wind was strong but the sunlight was brilliant and we had a fine time exploring Kosciuszko Park in downtown Stamford, including inspecting the hurricane barrier and finding a hidden kayak.  We ended up having lunch afterwards in a crowded nearby restaurant (The Sign Of the Whale) with a booming DJ soundtrack.  Stamford is a very weird city IMO.

Anyway, back to the hotel for a short game of Parks and then an afternoon nap.  And soon it was time to head off to Port Chester for a third night.  Start time was earlier on that Sunday (March 19), and Port Chester was deserted this time, except for the people already lining up for the general admission.  This was Phil's 100th concert at the renovated Cap, and Pete Shapiro came out and did a tribute, including unveiling a 100th Anniversary banner.  They handed out towels with the same print on them!  They do some little things very nicely at the Capitol Theater.

Then the band came out and got right back into it.  Saturday night had definitely been the concert of the weekend, but this one was fine in its own way:

• Tennessee Jed
• Bertha
• Turn On Your Love Light
• Me and My Uncle
• Bird Song
• Ramble On Rose
• Box of Rain

More fantastic string interweaving between Rick, Grahame, and Katie on Tennessee Jed, and another great star turn by Nicki on Lovelight.  A bit of lack of practice was shown in the intro to MAMU, which everyone seemed confused about.  We sure were!  It seemed that at the last second Rick decided to sing MAMU instead of Jack-a-Roe and the others played along.  But then Bird Song reached the stratosphere and zoomed back to earth and they played a cracking Ramble On Rose.  And we would have been really disappointed if we hadn't heard Phil doing another cover of Box Of Rain.  Talk about the list of all-time great songs!

Phew, another long set break and we were fading.  It had been a long weekend and we hadn't been getting a lot of rest.  But still one more set to go:

• Terrapin Station
• Jack O'Roses
• Touch of Grey
• West L.A. Fadeaway
• Shakedown Street
• Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
• Estimated Prophet
• Sugaree

We had no idea if they were going to leave the Terrapin reservation after what they'd done last night, but they did a beautiful, straight-ahead cover instead, and then Grahame did the lovely sequel of Jack O'Roses.  The crowd exploded again at James's cover of Touch, and he followed with his cover of Shakedown after Nicki did West L.A.  Great Half-Step, nice Estimated and Sugaree, and then we were done.  Such a great time and such wonderful musicianship from everyone on stage.

Phil came out for one more Donor Rap and then they encored with BEW.  I was hoping Phil would sing the "old man" chorus as he used to do with Furthur, but he may have been reaching the end of his energy and let the boys sing it instead.  Goodbye Phil, we'll hope to see you again!

Well, that was it.  Back downstairs through the crowd one last time and soon back to the car on a more temperate evening than the TV weather people had prepped us for.  And then back to Stamford and the Hampton Suites. 

Phil's 83rd With Another Great Band, day two

As tired as we were, we all had pretty lousy night's sleeps.  Again, might be better if the beds weren't so small, and it might have been better if we could have actually turned down the heat in the room (we figured out how to crack the window for the next couple of nights).  And it might have been better if my bed hadn't apparently hosted a thousand-pound gorilla recently.  It was not an old bed but had a distinct list to it, that I corrected to a large degree that morning by stuffing pillows underneath where the mattress was most depressed.

Dave found a great aud of last night's show had already been posted, so we had a soundtrack.  After breakfast Dave and I went in search of a local CVS that Google Maps showed us so we could get water (horrible tap water).  Amusingly, it was integrated into a huge Target on top of a massive parking garage and we had to climb four stories to get there while the Target Dog (tryout?) paced us on elevator (nice chick on the leash).  We needed the exercise I guess.

Played a round of Tapestry in the breakfast room later that morning. I took a second city walk on that sunny, almost-warm Saturday (March 18), and then had a nice nap.  Sarah and Dave were down in the bar when I got up, but it must have taken me a few hours to really wake up.  Maybe it was the stress but I was not feeling 100% ... but soon we were in the balcony at the Cap again and everything was fine.  Usually Friday is the crazy, crowded night, but Port Chester on that Saturday was wall to wall people.  There was a massive traffic jam downtown, Kiosko was more packed than I've ever seen it, and the theater itself was stuffed.  Whatever ... they came on with a little delay and played the best concert of the weekend.

• Deal
• Jack Straw
• Peggy-O
• Cassidy
• Loose Lucy
• They Love Each Other
• One More Saturday Night

Again, this band shone.  We've seen several not-incredibly-well-rehearsed sets from Phil & Friends, but these guys were tight and got better and better through the set.  They successfully achieved lift-off in Cassidy and then Grahame and Nicki roared back to earth for the precise refrain.  And then Nicki provided the highlight of the set again with a rocking, rambling, funky Loose Lucy that had everyone jumping up and down.  Another highlight was Rick's superb, right in time vocal on One More Saturday Night.

Another longer than average set break, but eventually the backstage camera showed us Phil gathering everyone for a backstage huddle, and then the straggled back out onto stage.  Halfway through the weekend already again!  But now it was time for the best:

• Eyes of the World
• The Eleven
• Uncle John's Band
• Sugar Magnolia
• Dark Star
• Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
• Dark Star
• China Cat Sunflower
• Terrapin Station (refrain)

Great start with Eyes, led by Grahame's great rhythm, Phil's monstrous lopes, and James's emotion.  And what a set list to follow!  I had to shake Dave several times (and he shook me) to verify that they were actually playing such a great selection from the best of all time list of songs.  I mean, look at that list!  As delighted as we were when they played Dark Star, when they went into LSD it was just surreal.  James and Nicki sang the verses (or at least tried to, they stumbled on some of the words, "Yeah I know that's what the teleprompter says, but that's just weird ... I mean, what's a newspaper taxi?").

But the weirdest part of the set was when China Cat was winding down and we were settling in for an excellent closing Rider, and then Grahame called the band all together around Molo, as he had at that juncture of the evening the night before.  We were ready for something unexpected, but not for this jump, right into the middle of the last section of Terrapin!?!  That was weird, especially when they quickly wrapped it up, smiled at the crowd, and then left the stage.  That was a mind-blower.

Phil came out for another lovely Donor Rap, and then introduced the band again.  To my delight they encored with their upbeat cover of Ripple, I love hearing this great song played at such a delightful pace.  And then it was over.  Watched Phil fiddle with his amps one more time and then shuffle off stage, and we also shuffled away.  Down to the street and back up to the car for a routine ride back to the hotel.

Phil's 83rd With Another Great Band, day one

Yikes, another wonderful weekend journey to the Phil Island!  Phil had had such a great band with him last Fall, and we were delighted to learn that he'd have a very similar band for his 83rd birthday celebration in Spring 2023.  Don't know how long he can keep going ... or how long we can, three day rock and roll weekends are becoming a little stressful.

On his actual birthday, March 15, he played at the Cap with exactly the same super-band he'd had with him in the Fall, including Natalie Cressman and Jennifer Hartswick.  We didn't go down for that, but went for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shows (the 17th-19th).  The band consisted of Phil and son Grahame, John Medeski, Rick Mitarotonda, John Molo, James Casey, and instead of Natalie and Jennifer we got Nicki Bluhm and Katie Jacoby.

Tickets went fast, but we got good balcony seats and rooms at the same Hampton Inn in Stamford that we'd stayed at before.  We decided to plan for a more mellow weekend this time, and brought some board games with us.  We like the hotel in Stamford, but wish the beds were bigger (they're doubles).

And this was another weekend of musical excellence.  I don't know if anything can surpass the shows we saw in Fall 2022, but these were excellent in their own right, though perhaps a little more up and down.

Picked up Dave in early afternoon on Friday the 17th (after getting another COVID booster and a pneumonia shot that morning) and headed Southwest on a chilly and windy late-Winter day.  This time we took 295 and then jogged West on route 6 over to 395 in Connecticut, and then down to Norwich where we met back up with 95 into the maw of Western Connecticut.  And quite a maw it is.  Over the course of the weekend we saw lots of outrageously dangerous behavior on the roads, more the closer we got to the big cities, and lots of traffic congestion, most of which we were able to avoid luckily.  Got to the hotel in Stamford eventually and had some time to relax before heading out to the show.

Parked and ate at Kiosko of course and then squeezed into center balcony seats in the Cap.  Not long before the band came on, with Nicki and then Katie to Phil's left.  Nicki, Katie, and James were pretty close together but each had a distinct station, and each made a distinct, and excellent, contribution to the band.

We'd seen James back in the Fall, but he actually shone more without teammates Natalie and Jennifer, taking quite a number of vocal leads and playing some rocking sax.  The crowd *loved* him and gave him the loudest and longest ovations all weekend.  I'd seen Nicki with Phil, but this time she did not just sit back and play the role of chick singer.  She was perhaps the most important harmony singer on the stage, watching Grahame like a hawk to make doubly certain she got the timings just right.  She played some excellent percussion, but she shone most on her leads, not only singing well but also getting the band and the crowd to follow her moves.  She was quite a dynamic front person on those songs.

And I was a little concerned about Katie at the start.  I've seen her several times in small ensembles and been very impressed by her in that setting.  I admit you've got to have some stage presence to be part of the Who's touring band (as she is), but I didn't know how well she'd hold up in a large psychedelic rock band.  But any reservations I had were put to rest by the middle of the first song.  She stuck to her fire-engine red, V-bodied violin all weekend, and she rocked as much or more as anyone else on stage.  And boy did she bring the creativity and the psychedelics!  Several jams featured amazing extended interplay between Rick on the left, Grahame next to him shredding away, and Katie over on the right, bent over her fiddle and staring at them like, "Is this a competition?  'Cause if it is, try this on for size guys!"  And you could tell that the big man in the middle loved it.

Here's the first set:

• Casey Jones
• Althea
• Friend of the Devil
• Here Comes Sunshine
• Easy Wind
• U.S. Blues
• Truckin'

Fantastic first set and, as I say, Katie was just dominant.  But the song of the set was Easy Wind, on which Nicki *took over,* not only belting it out with a great blues growl but also getting the crowd to sing along and meandering over between the guitarists to dance and egg them on.

Also have to mention John Medeski.  When we'd seen them in  Fall 2022 one slight criticism was that he wasn't mixed well.  But over this weekend we were treated to lots of Medeski, not only very well amplified and mixed piano but also some extended organ leads, which were a great addition to the ensemble sound.

The rest of the band was as good as ever.  Molo was in top form, Grahame was in fine voice and continues to excel on guitar, playing a couple of classic rhythm parts and matching Rick on the dual leads.  And what can you say about Phil?  He only took a couple of leads and needed lots of backup support on those, but he was as nimble, powerful, and spacey as he's ever been on bass.  I've never heard anyone play bass like that guy.

Well I was impressed.  Silly me to have a Phil band exceed my expectations once again, but they sure did.  Pretty long set break (maybe Phil needed a nap?? I could have used one), and then the second set was even better:

• Passenger
• New Speedway Boogie
• Dear Prudence
• Cold Rain and Snow
• He's Gone
• The Music Never Stopped
• Viola Lee Blues
• Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad

The classic Phil rocker to get us started, and then a classic Phil set to follow.  James emoted all over the stage on Dear Prudence and he had the entire theater hanging on his every shake and shiver.  Rick turned in another great vocal on CR&S, Nicki knocked it even further out of the park on Music.  And then Grahame got everyone in a huddle around Molo and power-shifted into Viola Lee, with all of us on that wagon Nashville-bound.

Phil came out for a Rap and then introduced the band.  He got everybody right and especially Katie, whom he called "the startling Katie Jacoby," she sure had been startling us and also Rick and Grahame!  For an encore they changed up the pattern again and did an excellent St. Patrick's Day cover of Whiskey In the Jar.  Or as Sarah pointed out, at least some of the innumerable verses.  Back into the late-Winter night after it was over and then a short drive back to Stamford and soon to bed.

Work History - The Last Few Years, 2017-2021 - Not the End

Wow, I was going to retire!!!  But I didn’t want to blow it.  Among other things that could go wrong, I worried about how to tell my friend, Boss15, about this, and if that would poison my last days at D&B.  Various websites advised not to announce retirement until the last minute for fear of retaliation, etc.  But I knew that if I just walked out the door I’d feel horrible.  I still remember my conversation with Boss15 in early January 2021 clearly.  I asked if he remembered our recent conversation about planning for retirement (he was a conscientious manager and had raised that subject), and told him that my biggest worry was leaving my friends in a bad spot when I retired.  He thought I was rambling but then got it and said, “Oh my God, when??”  He probably had no idea that I was of retirement age, but he understood right away what I was trying to tell him and what it meant.  He was afraid I was going to say, “In two weeks,” and when I told him that it’d be the end of June he let out a huge sigh of relief and said, “Ok, message received, we have to start planning for this now.  And by the way, congratulations!!”

My last six months went really well.  I wrapped up parts of the huge news vendor project and handed that off to finance people, and was told that my one remaining goal was to document everything I did..  The question was who was going to succeed me?  The long-term plan was to not depend on one person or one technology for the important task of ingesting and analyzing news, but this was not going to happen soon.  Luckily, we were able to re-hire a colleague who’d worked with Avention legacy technology before.  My last few weeks were mostly meeting with him and walking him through parts of the @200 pages of documentation, spreadsheets, slide shows, and back of the envelope drawings I’d compiled.  My qualification to everything I showed him was, “This is how I did it but you should do it your way.”  And I’m content in feeling that he will.  I ended my work career doing a highly multi-dimensional task, and feel that my colleagues will continue to do right by it, which may (should!) mean moving on to better technologies and methods.  Time for me to head out to the upper pasture.

And I was very fortunate to get five retirement parties!  I went out to drinks and dinner with some old work friends from Inforonics.  I also had lunch with my successor and his current manager, who was my Boss12.  Many of the old gang from OneSource/Avention (including some who didn’t work there any more) took me out for a big lunch at Kimball’s in Westford, a place I’d been going to for years for work lunches and other functions.  And the big official going-away party was at the Mighty Squirrel brewery in Waltham.  Lots of people from the Waltham office showed up; the office hadn’t existed for almost a year at that point and it was a reunion for everyone.

The fifth was that I finally got to meet and hang out with Boss15.  He’s a Red Sox fan (grew up in Connecticut) and drove up to visit his sister in Lexington, and then take me out to a Red Sox vs. Yankees game at Fenway!  We had great seats and it was a warm, mellow afternoon, and the Red Sox won.  What a wonderful gesture from a friend I’d gone through some work battles shoulder to shoulder with over the past year and a half.  This was a great ending to my work career.

June 30th 2021 came, and there wasn’t much more for me to do.  At the end of the day I logged off the VPN, shut down my faithful laptop … and the world didn’t end.  Another chapter of life had started.