The majestic mountains to the shining sea, and back to the mountains

Today we said goodbye to the beach and all that goes with it on The Outer Banks of North Carolina.  It was a good visit, great weather and the traffic and crowds were zilch.  We ate good seafood, drank good beer and spirits, met friends from MIG and traveled up and down the roads to see the sites and scenes.  It's a great place to visit now and then.  But the mountains are a calling again so we set our compass west, and then north.  We started at sea level and by the end of the day we will have traveled almost 400 miles and to a height of 2,000 ft above sea level.  It was a good day.  

Leaving the OBX and crossing over to the main land. 

What I stair at for hours and hours, often hands free!

Lunch rolled around and we stopped at Ralph's BQ.  Delicious NC style pulled pork.  

John has the cool look going again, huh?

We made the mistake of going through Richmond, VA instead of bypassing.  Traffic was painful. 

This BMW caught our eye in Richmond.  Pretty fancy custom paint.  We thought Dave Clark would like this.  

Back to riding.  

We stopped for gas and ice crime, and map reading.  

Wow, the lumber business is booming in VA and NC. I hate to see trees and forests wiped out, but society needs the wood.  

Came up on wreck today.  Scary looking, car in a ditch.  

The mountains rising...

Blue Ridge...that's why they are called this.  

Tonight we are camping at the Best Western in Stauton, VA. The air is crisp and clean. We ate a fantastic dinner at Mrs. Rose Restaurant and the crowd was more in the demographics of John's generation than of mine or younger.  That was okay, because we both were moving slow with aches and pains of the all day ride.  Tomorrow we cross over into West-by-God-Virginia to tackle another curvey road cutting through mountains.  I'm hoping we are home by mid to late afternoon.  

So some of you might remember during my tour of the west coast last summer, our son Conor brought home a new puppy, named Bo.  My wife Cathy, was not happy and I was on the road during all the drama. It worked out, Bo is a great dog and we love him very much.  I have missed him on this trip. Here is a favorite picture of him howling!

Well me and Cathy have been debating on getting another dog, like we used to have with Molly and Indy.  Our dog trainer recommended getting Bo a female companion.  So for a while I had been looking and looking.  About a week before my trip, I found a dog named Taffy that seemed like she was a fit for what we wanted.  A female retriever mix.  I found Taffy on dog finder.com and she was in San Antonio, Tx!  I said something to Cathy and filled out the longest most throrough application I have ever seen. They emailed me letting me know they would be calling my references and running a background check of me.  I told them I would be traveling but to call me or Cathy.  

Well they called my references, (thanks John and Scott!) and then called me yesterday for an interview. I found out we qualified and then the real hard work started...to convince Cathy to go along with it.  After a day of thinking about it and Cathy talking to folks with the organization, she gave the green light and I sent the adoption fee tonight.  Taffy will be transported to Columbus, OH on Saturday May 16!  We are excited and I'm sure Bo is going to love her!

Meet Taffy!

Have a great day!