Thursday, September 18, 2014

Take me home, country roads: Part 1

I know, I know!
It's too easy a title for a post about a trip to West Virginia.
But I'm sticking with it.

     I am starting this post with a mini-rant.  Stop complaining about air travel!
Yes, you have to take your shoes off.  Don't wear knee-high lace up boots!
Yes, you may be patted down by a stranger.  I was patted down WAAAY more thoroughly in a Muslim country than ever in the USA.  The fact that it was a fully veiled woman who did it didn't make it any better or worse.
Yes, the planes are cramped and miserable.  You are not in 
an episode of "Mad Men"! It's 2014.
Wear comfortable clothes, footies with sport slides, and be grateful you are able to travel at all.
Ahhh....I feel better. And things are looking up:
Apparently, TSA agents are undergoing "friendliness" training and on the day I passed this über simple grading stand, I'm pleased to say I was able to tap the green smiley face.

My smiley face turned to a frowny face
when I had to travel on a puddle jumper to get from Florida to West Virginia.
My problem with air travel is I'm afraid of it.
I wasn't going to pay $20 to sit on the aisle by the exit door so as punishment for my thrift, I was smashed up against a window with nothing to look at (or listen to) but the propeller and when I look at a propeller, I am helpless to do anything but mentally chant, 
"KEEP TURNING...KEEP TURNING..."

Thank goodness my friends had the common sense
to get me to a winery within minutes of landing.

The grapes were beautiful and we couldn't resist a giddy impulse to eat them right off the vine.
Our experience was only lightly tinged with regret when we were told they were laden with pesticides.
Oh well...the wine tasting was still yummy and fun.
Chemical load, be damned!

We then headed to my friend, Anne's, home in rural West Virginia.  Here was my view every day:
Really, really nice.
Some official institutes just released survey info concluding that Florida is the flattest state 
in the US  and West Virginia is the least flat.  
Diana, who joined us from Missouri, pointed out that Missouri still has the most meth labs. 
 She's SO competitive!

There was an abundance of fabulous fruits and vegetables.
Aren't these gorgeous?
If only someone could tell me what they are.
I know the stripey red things are some kind of amazing tomato but I thought the yellow things 
were bell peppers until I studied the photo later and saw they had tomato-like stems.
Whatever they are, I'm sure they're delicious.

When you see this picture...
...you probably think, "What nice firewood."
Wrong!
These are mushroom logs, inoculated with the spores of edible mushrooms.  I have never seen such a thing and I wish I could have mushroom logs in Florida 
but I'd probably only grow a crop of palmetto bugs.

Payday!
We ate this 'shroom for dinner.

Here's a mushroom we found in the woods:
Like some kind of Chihuly piece.
We did NOT eat this one.

And here is a tiny little begonia from Anne's garden.
Just looking at it makes me want to scream, "Totes adorbs!!!















2 comments:

  1. You HAD to begin with that song. You had no choice. I must stop thinking about it now, though, or I will get a loop stuck in my head. Beautiful country. I have never been there, but maybe some day.

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  2. Thank you for the precious comment! You are the best! :-)

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