cube.

Yeah, it needs punctuation.

As you know, we've been playing mechanic trying to keep Tom's Saturn running. The A/C, the tires, the belt, the alternator. Tom drove it home one day about a month ago, just before we were leaving for bridge day, and it started bucking and stalling and not shifting. He managed to get into a parking spot here before it completely died on him.

I stood staring at it for a while, and had NO IDEA what was wrong with it. Not one clue, though we did eventually whittle it down to "probably the electrical system". But exactly what in the electrical system? The computer? The battery? The damn alternator again? A co-worker found an electrical shop that would diagnose our problem for $50. I found another co-worker who came out and poked around the engine and jumped it to listen to it (as we had earlier) and said that it was the electrical system, but it could be that the electrical system was failing because the computer was failing. All I was seeing was $$$ and I was getting tired of having to budget money in for this car to get repaired. I kept thinking about the bucking that Tom described, and how if it was the alternator or computer, what says that there wasn't a HUGE transmission problem underneath that.

I had been hoping to be a little more liquid when we started thinking about buying a new car. But it was that or start budgeting in more than a car payment a month for car repairs.

The Saturn has served us well; no two ways about that. It drove our butts around for 8 years. And it may and probably will live again as a car for a teen age driver- two co-workers are battling over it, one for a nephew and one for a daughter. Both are hobby mechanics and can take their time over months to figure out how to get it working again.

Meanwhile, we needed a new car. Tom already had one picked out, and it did fit in the budget I was trying to stick to. We tried to go through the Costco Auto Program, but the car was too new for their discounts. We still went to that dealership though, because we figured it was a good bet since they worked with Costco. Please note: We Love Costco.

It only took a test drive and walk around for us to decide that we liked it. Ok, loved it. Tom is not a traditional car person; he bought the Saturn because it only had two doors and people wouldn't want to ride in the back. (Ask my parents. And his.) This was also going to be a non-traditional, non-American car.

Ironically, I was the one who made the salesman pop the hood. Tom was playing inside and I was talking horsepower. How did that happen?

So, the next day, we went to pick up our new car. SUV? Box? Toaster? Whatever.











Oh, this thing is FUN.

Bridge Day!

Everyone should have a Bucket List. A short one with a list of things that need to be done at some point in their life, for their current location. Mine goes something like this:

1. Shenandoah, camping, Luray Caverns
2. Shenandoah, leaf peeping
3. Suffolk County Peanut Festival
4. King's Dominion
5. OBX
6. Biltmore
7. New Gorge Bridge, WV

Oh, well. Look at that. New Gorge Bridge. Hmm, there's thing called Bridge Day they celebrate there where once a year the bridge is shut down and it's a whole dang festival going on. And will you look at that, it's in October.

How wonderfully convenient. So, off we went to Fayetteville, WV.

Let me just tell you that Virginia is long damn state. The only way to mentally get through this thing is in stages. Tidewater to Richmond, Richmond to Charlottesville, Charlottesville to the end. And that last legs is a killer.

We tried to stop for dinner at a Ruby Tuesday's, but it must have been the only restaurant for a 50 mile radius. So we opted for an Applebee's. Things were going well until I sat down and spilled soda all over the table. Hurray.

We get back on the road and it's dark. I mean DARK. High beams on the highway dark. We coast into West Virginia, and have to get off the highway about 45 minutes later while the navigator is still saying we have an hour to go. It was very easy to figure out why when we get on this road to the hotel.

There are very large mountains in West Virginia. Yeah...

So for the next 50 minutes I'm driving through these dark winding back country mountain roads with the overdrive off on my automatic wishing that I still had a stick and a few FRICKIN' street lights with the occasionally country bumpkin climbing up the tailpipe. Hey, while you're up there, check the oil, ok?

Did I mention that it was drizzling the whole.time.? Yeah...

So, finally around 9:30 we pulled into the hotel, and found that the parking lot was completely filled because the hotel was booked. I think it was combination of bridge day and a WVU game. The morning, the place was empty.

Now, as our tradition goes, there must always be a picture of the view from the room. Famous ones include: Blancaneaux, Afrika! Afrika!, Innsbruck, Lake Geneva, Grindlewald, and, the best of all, Frankfurt.

So, to continue the tradition, here we have the view from our room:


Fabulous, isn't it? Nothing like staring at a Sunoco station! Thankfully, all these hotels have blackout drapes.

We hit the continental breakfast in the lobby, which was actually quite a generous spread, really. Then we were off to the bridge!

This was an interesting experience. This celebration actually shuts down a major highway for a day, and takes over a National Recreation area. You are also allowed to park on the highway.


It's a lot like a county fair, except the attractions are not rides. There were food carts and food vendors, and Bible Thumpers handing out free Bibles. Yes, I took one. Duh?


Tom's been craving a gyro ever since we got gypped out of one at the Greek Fest*.

So, you're thinking, if the food is not the reason and rides are not the reason... what is it that makes the state and national gov't shut down a major highway.

That's easy. The Jumpers.

The wha...?

The Jumpers.

You jump here:


and you land here:


and you fall through this:

976 feet to the bottom.

with one of these:

Though I don't think that I would choose that particular chute.

This is a major event for BASE jumpers. Generally, the National Park Service bans BASE jumping in all parks. Well, this particular day, it's an organized event with 800 people jumping about every 20 to 30 seconds from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This is massive organized jump-- people come from all over the world to do this jump.





I have no intention of ever doing this jump. Ever. But I do enjoy watching these nuts.

See him in the corner hands up?

Just one of 800+ nuts going off this thing for my amusement.

So, once they get down to the bottom, they are driven back up and repack their wet chutes. All that work for about minute forty of falling-- but hey, even Santa was getting into the act.


We were at the bridge for about 2.5 hours watching this. And it was a lot of fun to watch. There were a few of these people, you were holding your breath, thinking, omg, pull the chute, PULL THE CHUTE they were waiting so long.

However, that was it for the bridge. There really wasn't much more to do there. I knew that it wasn't going to be an all day thing and had a plan. I had done some research and there were a few things to do around the area, and we were on our way to Hawk Nest Landing State Park.

At Hawk's Nest, I had learned there was a jet boat trip up the river to see the bridge from the bottom, and therefore the jumping crazies.


You can see the crazy just above the tree line in this one.

But the view of the bridge and the river and the mountains was amazing.



It was a bit of an expensive little excursion, but well worth it. The rain, low clouds and cold temperatures did not take away from this at all. It was just something I had never done and may never do again and I loved every second of it.

Well, we bid the bridge goodbye and headed back up the river--

-- and had to find to what else to do with the rest of our day. We headed back to our hotel and tried to find something, only discover that where we wanted to be was 20 miles on the other side of the (closed) bridge that was 19 miles away. We decided to give it a try.

We passed the Mystery Hole that presented itself as more of a shit hole. We kept driving-- and passed some of the MOST scenic country I have seen in a long time. Waterfalls, and old mills and I was angry that we didn't have time (or a place to pull over) to take some pictures.

Driving like mad, having to go to the bathroom and tired as all get out, we missed the coalmine tour we were trying to get to by about 10 minutes because the last turn off sign for the thing was missing. *angry* So then we decided to drive back and find something to eat.

There ain't much outside of Beckley, West Virginia.

Now, it's getting late, it's getting dark, I'm getting hungry, it's starting to rain-- and the temperature is dropping. I'm on a road I've never been on before, and there's no restaurants to be found. Eventually we wound up going back to the hotel and asking what was around.

Applebee's. Yeah. Only thing in town. Great. Well, it's food. So, we went to Applebee's for the second night in a row. Hooray.

Next morning, we were up and at breakfast by 8:30 a.m. We had a long drive home and one more stop to make on the way home. You may or may not recognize this gentleman:



If you do, stop staring at nickles.

Yes, this is Mr. Thomas Jefferson, of Founding Father's fame. We decided since we were all the way out there, we might as well stop at Monticello. It was only 2 hours from home, but who knew the next time we'd be out this way. We still have stuff on the bucket list here, people!

This is a beautiful setting, and once you're up there, you know why he picked this spot to build his house, and keep his plantation. He owned most of what you see when you're standing in the gardens, which is were we started.

You catch a little bus up the hill, and should you ever find yourself here, I would recommend that. Don't walk it; there's plenty of walking to do. You're let off by a small gift shop, and you can either head up the walk to the house or you can head off down the road to the gardens and the remains of the slave houses.



A observation building at the gardens. What you see here in the foreground is the experimental gardens. Jefferson was a scientist and he was very much into botany among many other things. But his gardens played with hybrids and trying to create new strains of veggies and fruits. What they have planted now is a small representation of what Jefferson had. There's also a tree nursery just over the edge beyond that little observation building.

When you get to the end of the gardens, you walk back on the road with the slave quarters on it. However, there's not much left to them, except a random chimney and some bricks in the ground. These were all the house and grounds slaves. One little girl asked our tour guide later, "Was he nice to his slaves?" and the answer was that he may have been but he employed ruthless and cruel slavemasters, so he couldn't really answer the question. While walking by the remains of these houses, it was hard to understand why someone who would provide good shelter, plenty of food, and education, would allow crap like some of the slavemasters obviously employed. Though much as everyone else, he was a victim of his times.

The famous side of the house, much as the White House, is actually the back of the house. You walk in through the front door and are lead through house, which has a lot of it's original furniture, portraits, decoration and books. Mr. Jefferson did not believe in staircases. There are two in the house and how the ladies that lived there got up and down them in those ridiculous dresses I'll never know. They were barely 18" wide, steep as all get out, and had barely any railing.

Jefferson had so many books, he basically started the Library of Congress**. His original instruments were still in his morning chamber, which had some of the very first skylights used in architecture. They are still doing research on the house, and found that the color they have on the wall in the family sitting room is wrong and will be repainting.

You are allowed to walk under the house, as well, to see where all the work to keep the house going went on. We didn't really stop to look because -- well, we had seen more and better information about the archeology of old houses at Bacon's Castle. So we now wandered out to the formal gardens to see the famous side of the house.



It was actually cool to see it. We stood for a moment and then headed down the path back to the parking lot-- but along the way we passed the only thing that the Monticello Foundation doesn't own on the property-- the Jefferson Family cemetery. It belongs to the descendants of his white family- there are about 2000 known relatives. They are still trying to find all of his black relatives, and trying to figure out just how many of Sally Hemings's children he fathered.

Naturally, you can't actually walk among the graves; they know better than to leave it open to the public. You can easily find Jefferson's grave marker though, as it's huge.



After a walk around, we found the path back to the parking lots. I would also recommend this if you find yourself there. It's a gentle slope down to the visitor center, and a nice walk even if your feet are hurting.

We headed back down and decided to head out home. We still had two hours and we were getting hungry and wanted to be home.

Of course, I should mention that before we left the house, Tom had an experiment to perform. He reached into his pocket--



Yes, he needed to check if the nickle matched the building. He said they were off. The real building has a notably octagonal roof, and the nickle looks round. He said they shouldn't mislead people.


__________________________________
*Gypped, because they RAN OUT of Gyros. What kind of Greeks run out of gyros at a Greek fest?
**I'm sure mom thinks that my collection rivals this.