ann arbor again

we are comfortably tucked into my mother's apartment in ann arbor, michigan.

the road trip was lovely. we started on saturday morning on highway 33, a small mountainous highway that begins in virginia and ends in indiana. we drove through the blue ridge and allegheny mountains, enjoying views, valleys, wild flowers and rocky ridges. if i would have taken photos of everything i wanted to, we'd still be on that road, in the mountains. so many crumbling buildings, kitschy yard decor, vintage sign boards, and beautiful landscapes.



we lunched at an outcropping of granite called seneca rocks.



tashi and i took a nice walk along the river while the driver napped



and then onward, onward, through quaint villages on winding roadways. we found a campground at north bend state park in west virginia, near the ohio border. a nice place with an area for tent camping, an increasing rarity in the world of satellite dish toting rvs.



we just happened to be there when they were having a "sports jamboree" and we were across the river from the gathering. it started out with some decent live music, moved on to some really painful karoke, and then ended with a live band and an elvis impersonator. the elvis act was actually quite fun; tashi and i had a little sock hop around the fire.

after dinner we took a little hike in the darkening of day. we ended up on the "cemetery trail" since tashi is into all thing haunted lately. on our way back down tashi kept saying that buried in the cemetery are the people who fell on the trail. i promptly fell after her third or fourth time of uttering this. and i fell hard. that's what i get for hiking in dansko clogs (i originally thought we were just going to take a walk around the campground). i practiced breathing for childbirth to get through the pain. and thought for sure i'd be going to the emergency room the next morning.

it was a sleepless night. on one side of us was a man snoring in his tent. on the other side was a family singing christian songs around the fire. a generator for the camground would occasionally emit a tornado of white noise. i awoke around 3am in an unbearable amount of pain from my ankle. i ended up taking two strong painkillers that i just happened to bring along (it takes A LOT for me to ingest a pharmaceutical). just as the pain was beginning to ebb, a child from the christian song singing family started screaming that their puppy was "shitting and puking and farting" in the tent. we proceeded to hear the dog barf and get spanked for doing so. in the mean time dan was making jokes that the snoring man sounded like someone unzipping their tent. this resulted in me going into hysterical laughter every time the guy snored.



sunday was a tired day



but we made it through the ohio flatlands



with a stop at the "spotted owl cafe" for lunch



this is my first time in ann arbor since we moved two years ago. dan and i took a walk downtown last night (well, i hobbled) and oogled at the changes. one of our favorite books stores is gone! there is a wine bar! what does it mean to name a restaurant, "no thai!"?

we are getting stuffed with my mother's amazing greek cuisine (so much for the diet which was just beginning to show some success) and are looking forward to visits and wanderings.

more soon! pictures added daily to flickr.