Hot Water and the Roanoke Star
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Arrived Friday afternoon in Roanoke, Virginia at my oldest daughters place for a short visit and figured the best place to put the motor home was on the hill in a semi-flat spot alongside the left edge of the house. The hill was too steep to just back it up on the grass so I decided I could drive diagonally across the front yard and then turn in alongside the house, back up and straighten out and then move onto the flattest area up to the fence. It worked great on first try and within minutes everything hooked up (water/electric) and everyone was ready to visit.
Typical in southern families the first order was to decide what was for dinner and run to the store to gather everything for a manicotti dinner along with a great salad and Texas toast. Hardy and filling at the same time. We spent the evening catching up on things and headed to sleep around eleven pm.
We were going to fix biscuits and gravy for breakfast but everyone seemed to be doing their own thing so no organized breakfast was happening on this Saturday morning. I had installed a new tank-less water heater but I could not get it to fire up so I worked on it this morning and shortly had running hot water in the camper. That will be so nice later on this trip when there will be times to boondock or stay in the National Parks where there is no water or electric hookups. It was nice seeing it fire up and almost instantly have running hot water throughout the RV. Yea hot water!
There is no internet hookup here so most of the day was spent doing chores (laundry, clean up, and organizing things) before heading out for dinner tonight. Golden Corral fared well for everyone’s varied food choices or quirks and provided a slowly ate but great meal, pleasing everyone.
On our drive home we drove by the Roanoke Star atop Roanoke Mountain, casting its presence and can be seen from anywhere in the valley. It was almost as bright as the Krispy Kreme “Hot Doughnuts Now” sign we passed after leaving dinner but I was being held as a prisoner in the car so they passed right by it without stopping for me. What is that all about, can’t give an old man a guilty pleasure in life?
It was almost eighty degrees here today so it was time to tweak things a bit and add two 12v rotating fans to help move some air inside the camper as I do not want to run the air conditioner yet as it is still too early in the season for that.
Another interesting person met along the way was a young man who used to live in Seward, Alaska who as the main person running the operation at Chantilly Farm named Landon Chaffee. He worked in Seward for several years after college but recently moved to a small town in Virginia to run this farm which host large bluegrass music festivals during the summer months.
He studied architecture in college which included some of the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. His wander lust kept him from pursuing that field after college but he may return to it in the future. He is enjoying running the day to day operations at the farm as they prepare for the first music festival shortly in May.
Sleeping under the Roanoke Star in Virginia, goodnight all thanks for following this journey!
P.S. With no internet and sometimes cell service these post may be a few days behind.