WATCH WHAT YOU ASK ME, AND OFF WE SHALL GO!

One of our ambitions while being retired here in Virginia is to get together with family members, friends and present as well as former co-workers that we just haven't had the chance to see easily enough when working full time.  I admit we have spent many weekends at Lake Anna these past few years, and so, if we didn't have friends visit here, we just never saw them.  This summer Ray especially has made an effort to get together with those really great people that he hasn't seen in years.  It is not like we won't see them when we are back in the States, or that we can't, it's just that time will be more limited.  So when asked "why are you still here and not in Panama", the first answer is that we are waiting for our daughter to get done with her job, for Pete's Sake (!), so we can hang out with her a bit (today is her last day of work until summer school in a few weeks), the second answer is "hello, I only just retired three weeks ago", and the final answer is that we just wanted to enjoy the lake house and play time in Virginia.

This past week had us really busy up and down the road early in the week.  We first drove to Richmond to go to the Apple Store to check out Apple TV and Ipads.  And drop a little bit of money there.  While there (it is about forty-five minutes south of here), we had dinner with the same friends we had previously enjoyed a weekend with on the Piankatank River.  The following day we had some banking to do north which took us about two hours to get to, of course.  And about banking, we recently watched Chris Powers "Panama for Real" video about opening a bank account in Panama.  We have since asked Clyde and Terry Coles (www.AlongtheGringoTrail.blogspot.com) to refresh our memory of their banking experiences, and also our attorney which bank is recommended and to get a reference letter from him.  While north, we visited this new shopping district that our friends had told us about and grazed our way through the chocolate shop and gelato cafe.  We had dinner with a former co-worker of Ray's from the law firm (she left the firm about five years ago).  I haven't had the opportunity to be with her often, and it was a treat to get to know her.  Hopefully, she will want to discover Panama and come visit us someday!  Still in Northern Virginia, we made our way to another restaurant to play Trivia Night.  We knew we would be in Falls Church to play trivia with our lake roommates and our daughter (yay!), so we made all of the other plans around being UP THERE in Northern Virginia.  We nibbled on chips and queso, drank margaritas, and had great fun even coming in third place.  And no, I don't remember the questions asked that night, but I was glad we had a team of awesomeness coming through with some correct answers!  Thinking we might be home in about ninety minutes since we left at ten pm, but knowing that the highway has many lanes shut down due to late night construction, we were thrilled when we were just three miles from the house, and we hadn't slowed down...yet.  The electronic signs that let us know if there are any troubles along the road failed us.  As we approached the cars stopping ahead, we were directly under the electronic sign that read "one lane ahead, 3 mile backup" or something like that, so we crawled merging from three lanes to one for the last three miles of our trip.  It took us two and a half hours to get home that night.  I did love the day, but that drive is taxing!  I was grouchy, and not in my bed until one am.  Payback to me for all the years Ray made this commute daily!

The next day was rest day, it was going to be a bit cloudy, so we went to the movies to see "Chef".  Loved it!  And while out and about on Wednesday, Ray got a text asking if we would be around the house Friday or Saturday.  His former Giant Food co-workers (going back to when he was eighteen years old), two wonderfully sweet women, were going to pay us a visit at the lake!  We chose Friday, since I was super busy Saturday, and while we were out on Thursday we bought lots of yummy food and drink to enjoy with these women.

Friday we did our usual walking, our core exercises (I am super proud of Ray for sticking this out with me!), I had already made Caramel Brownies (which we had just finished up from the week before when I made them for another get together), and around ten am, our guests arrived.  We showed them the house, we showed them pictures of the house we will live in in Panama, we chatted, lotioned up and hit the kayaks first.  What a smooth day it was on the water in kayaks.  Our kayaks were just gliding along the surface.  After a little more chatting on the water while kayaking, we then did what we do best here--floated for about two hours. During our chats, one of them happened to ask me what was on my bucket list.  I told them that while in the States I would like to see Nashville (which I am seeing in two weeks), and then I recently told them that I never made it to Niagara Falls last year, and I would like to get there soon.  We talked about traveling to Europe, and my mind wandered to food.  So I shared with them where I wanted to go before heading to Panama, and what road trips I would be taking until August.

Which brings me to this--Al's Steak House restaurant has been around since 1956 in Alexandria and supposedly has the best Philly cheese steak.  John Severson has owned it since 1965, and this is who we met yesterday. So the main reason we ventured up I-95 north (again, will we never learn!) is because Al's has been on my list of places to go to put down a cheesesteak sub.  I never eat steak and cheese subs (always substitute chicken when I even have a sub for that matter), but I knew I would just get myself ready for the big day, and go for it!  The Dairy Godmother for frozen custard is right down the street, but alas, it is closed on Tuesdays. Maybe another day.  As usual, we were stuck in traffic traveling up the highway, but the chatter was good.   We were lucky to be able to pull right up to the restaurant, park the car, and, with only three tables in the place, we luckily had our pick.  We placed our order, and I sunk my teeth into the best bread ever!  And the steak and cheese wasn't so bad either.  The restaurant was warm, but I need to get used to this!  The drive home took no time at all, the ice cream was good but not like Sweet Frog, more chatter, and another great day had passed by.  I could check Al's off my list!  We will be seeing these friends again soon, too!  They want to take adventures with us!

Infamous Al's

My sub (I forgot to add lettuce and tomatoes!)

A few ice creams with lots of sauce poured on top!

 After more walking, exercising and, today, kayaking in the rapids (okay, the water was not smooth as glass today, and it was not the rapids, but it was so choppy!), Ray and I went to another movie (storms were supposed to move in--not yet), shopped, dropped some more of our fixed income money, and are taking the day off from Duolingo.  I think I need to take some days off of subs, ice cream and popcorn, too!  I might be a totally different person (I could be two!) when I arrive in Panama!

ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF WALKING, MY TRUE LOVE SAID TO ME...

Twelve birds a chirping, eleven crows a cawing, ten bunnies hopping, nine fish a jumping, eight birds a chirping, seven hummers humming, six heron flying, five dogs barking, four floating rafts, three ducks quack, two eagles soar, and retirees move to Chame soon!

Lame I know, but this is what I was singing while floating in the lake today.  Making up songs to pass the time.  The water was warm, only slightly refreshing, and after about two hours, we called it a day.

Five gorgeous weekends have passed, and now the heat wave begins today.  We have been so lucky to have rain during the week (quite stormy), and by the time Saturday rolls around, the temperatures are reasonably normal for this time of year (low to mid-eighties), and the air is dry.  Not sure why I care that the weekends are pleasant since I can float and enjoy the day any day of the week!  However, I have been waiting and waiting for just a little bit of morning rain.  This would prevent another morning walk.  Okay, I admit it.  I do love getting back to the house after a four mile walk feeling a great accomplishment. The end of the walk is so gratifying!  Ray and I were saying to each other the other day (maybe this was day eight of walking) that we like the feeling of doing right for ourselves.  Taking the time, but more so having the time to do the things we want to do.  We even started doing some exercises for our core.  Many years ago I worked with a dentist (for sixteen years) that owned several Gold's Gyms.  When he started talking about "our core, and strengthening the core", I thought "yep, another ploy to get people into the gym".  But it makes sense.  Once this feels good, the back doesn't seem to ache as much (or it could be that I haven't been hunched over patients for over two weeks).  Thank goodness we can laugh at each other while doing these "core" exercise.  But I have been waiting for the skies to be dark at seven am, the rain to be falling and to just roll over in bed and keep sleeping.  It's not happening.  The storms start late in the day when it does rain, and I don't want to put off a walk when the temperatures have increased.  And I can't use rain as my excuse.

 It was a gorgeous Saturday this past weekend to go to an old neighbor's house for their daughters graduation party.  We also toured our home that we just sold in April, and we are so happy with what the new homeowners have done with the place (we were living there when many changes were being made, but it was nice to see it complete).  And then we met our beautiful girl for an early Father's Day lunch.  So great to catch up with her again face to face!  Great conversation and a wonderful meal!  I forgot to take pictures, but I will get them soon enough!

While biding our time waiting for traffic on I-95 South to clear a bit, we went to a Nissan dealership to look at a few different SUV's.  In Panama, we will look at cars in Panama City and also La Chorrera (Nissan dealership here).  We wanted to compare the XTerra here which is the XTrail there, and also the Pathfinder.  Meanwhile, Ray has been in contact with someone in Panama City selling a used XTrail.  If the car is available in six weeks, we will check it out.  Keep options open.  And we now have an appointment at the Embassy to start the procedure for our driver's license.  Luis will be ready to pick us up at the hotel the Wednesday of the week we arrive in Panama, and he will walk us through it all.

Father's Day was another blue-skied, warm and sunny day.  We started our morning with that walk, of course, and then we finished cutting some tree limbs in the yard.  Ray and I had cut many limbs down already this past week that were hovering over the roof of the shed (that pretty much only holds our rafts for floating and kayak supplies) and the house.  Since the lake house roomies were here, while one was cleaning a bit on the inside of the house, the other helped us with the trees.  It was all going along so well.  Until the last tree, and we needed the very tall ladder.  And Ray went to pull at the branch he had just cut with his two dollar saw.  He lost his balance and his footing high up on the ladder.  The roommate that was holding the ladder tried to break his fall (? we think), I had my back turned and was staying away from falling branches at the ready to move them to the burn pile, and down came Ray.  He landed on some soft dirt but right on his back he went perhaps hitting the roommates right wrist.  We iced her wrist.  She floated for the day.  She had a broken wrist last fall when she fell, and this one didn't seem to be as painful.  We hoped for a severe sprain or perhaps a hairline fracture.  Nope, her arm is broken.  In a hard cast.  I think Ray and I will play it safe and just float.  And go to movies.  No more yard work for us for a while!  I need him to be whole for Panama.

TO PLAN OR NOT TO PLAN DURING THIS RETIREMENT THING

NOW, as of this week, I am feeling this retired thing here.  Last weekend, my family and friends asked how I was liking retired life, and I had to respond with "it hasn't hit me yet, because I have been traveling the road for the past week".  But now, once returning home from Tazewell, waking  without setting the alarm (ahhh), not having a bedtime, walking every morning, and going to the movies yesterday in the middle of the afternoon, because I can...well, this is just fantastic!  And on day three of being retired and at home with Ray, we seem to be settling into a bit of a routine.  Sort of.  We have plans here and there, but what do we do on those days when nothing is planned?  Dilemmas.  

Things fell into place for the second weekend of my retirement when it still felt like I was on a ten day vacation.  Upon our return from Tazewell, we did normal "back from a trip" things such as grocery shopping, stopping at Costco (of course) and laundry.  Then Friday was spent catching up with my sister here at the lake house floating, drinking Sangria and grilling chicken apple sausage for dinner.  She has not been to the lake house many times, and it was a beautifully warm, sunny day to share all of our latest stories.  Only one lake house roommate came for the weekend, and she arrived after I had put myself to bed that night.  The weekend brought more blue skies and warm temperatures with low humidity.  So the three of us caught up with each other while doing none other than...floating.  Ray and I would wake in the morning and start walking before the sun would come up over the trees, stop at The Barn for the newspaper, and then we would float.  Saturday night we had big plans to go out to dinner to a favorite Mexican restaurant, but we were so full from our late lunch, that we only managed to get out to the new ice cream shop in Mineral, VA.  It was tough to do, but someone has to break in these new businesses!

Sunday, another gorgeous day (what is going on here!), we met with my sister (again, wow!) at her house along with our daughter, her boyfriend, my nephews and my brother-in-law (I want to leave "ex" out when I "title" him, because he isn't ever an "ex".  He has been a constant in the family since he and my sister divorced sixteen years ago.  And he came up with a FANTASTIC new name for my blog once we do move to Panama--stay tuned.)  We were celebrating my sister's next door neighbor's 70th birthday on the block.  My parents lived in the house my sister has since bought, so this neighbor has been a constant in our lives for forty years.  A beautiful party and a great time spent with the family.  These events are appreciated even more, because Ray and I don't have to think about preparing for work the next day (him having to go to bed by eight pm to wake at three am), and we are celebrating family again.  We enjoyed being on familiar Benson Court, celebrating our neighbor's birthday, her one year mark from battling breast cancer, but also feeling my parents right there by my side with us.  

Which brings me to Monday with Ray.  Now what do we do? Okay, we have to get into some sort of routine or find things to do or we might go crazy here waiting for things to happen.  There are things that we do have planned such as going to see my former co-workers for a party on Friday, seeing our daughter Saturday, dinner and movies with friends in Richmond next week, trivia night with our daughter and friends about ninety minutes from here on a weeknight next week (such a drive for us during the week, but oh yeah, what else are we going to do!), July 4th celebration, a trip to Nashville with our daughter just because, and a road trip to Pittsburgh to catch up with Ray's friends and former co-workers at that office.  All of the things that are "around the corner" are keeping us busy, getting us to those final good-byes before we leave, but there are those days where nothing is planned.  I am in no way planning the days at the lake house.  Ray told me I was not allowed to make plans for him or me for that matter.  There is no direction.  It looks like on these days our "routine" is to wake up, walk, catch up on emails, stalk facebook, clean the house or do laundry just a little bit, float, watch the birds, squirrels and crows attack the bird food (slowly getting Ray to like birds--through the window), clean out the gutters, trim back tree branches laying on the roof, and now we have added Spanish lessons to the mix!  

One squirrel shaking the feeder to help his three friends below.

Gutters need a little emptying.

At night time, sometime after we decide to have dinner, Ray and I sit on the couch together practicing Spanish.  Duolingo is the program we are using for now.  You really have had to have Spanish to work with this program.  It seems to assume we remember, if we ever knew, what "el oso" is in Spanish (the bear).  Or that we will need to know the word "bear", but it does get Ray and I into the phrases again, the verbage, and this now gives us something to talk about on those early morning walks!  When in Panama, we will take lessons.  Maybe we will be considered Spanish 2 by then!  I will say these hearing aids are the best, because I can hear the woman now when she says those phrases REALLY fast!  Here's hoping I will understand SOME of what I am being told when I have a little more Spanish under my belt.  Maybe with our four ears, Ray and I will be able to figure out what has been said, and with our two brains, we will be able to come up with what to say back.  

As far as our retirement to Panama goes in less than eight weeks, Ray has scheduled (and hopefully all things go according to our "planning") and actually PLANNED our first week to look like the following:  

The first day we meet with the attorney to get our permanent Visa.  She will need one and a half days with us for this.  The second day he has coordinated time with an insurance broker to hopefully start the paperwork and process of getting us medical insurance along with car and renters insurance. Thanks to our great friends, Clyde and Terry Coles, for providing us with her email information.  And on day three, he has scheduled time with Luis (a driver that we used for airport shuttling on our last visit) to take us to get our drivers licenses.  Sometime during those three days, we are also shopping and maybe buying a car!  

Sheesh, I better relax now!

 

LANGUAGE, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND LIFE LESSONS IN TAZEWEL

Six days into retirement has found me on my last day in Tazewell, VA visiting Ray's mom.  This will be the last visit here before we move to Panama.  Ray has made two trips recently to drop off clothing we purged from our closets, clothing Carly and her roommates purged from their closets, and an antique sewing machine that was his grandmother's.  They were pretty much twenty-four hour trips.  Other trips we have made here (last year when this same grandmother passed away) have been over weekends or so, since we were both working, and Carly was in school.  For this visit, we wanted to spend another day or so here.  And this past weekend Ray's aunt passed away--his mom's sister--so we had a funeral to attend as well.  I think I wrote in a previous post about Tazewell, but I will reiterate here a little bit about this county.  Tazewell County has a population of 50,000 people along with a lot of cows and some horses.  It's coal mining country and includes rock quarries.  And let's not forget there are many unemployed young people with one disability or another to keep them from working.

Since we are here with more time on our hands than usual, Ray took me on a road trip forty-five minutes away to Hungry Mother State Park.  Why he has never taken me with Carly to this lovely park, I haven't a clue.  Oh yeah, because our trips have been shorter in the past.  Ray has been here as a child swimming in the lake.  This park is Number One of two attractions in Marion County (the next county over) according to TripAdvisor.  There is a 108-acre lake with kayaks, paddle boards, paddle boats, swimming, hiking, cabins and boating.  It also has the park system's first conference center.  Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed settlements south of this park, Molly Marley and her child survived the attack.  They escaped the raiders' base, wandered around eating berries, and then Molly collapsed.  The child wandered down a creek, and when he found help all he could say was "Hungry Mother".  Molly died, and this is why Molly's Knob is one of the more difficult hiking trails in the park (3,270 feet).  The stream is now called Hungry Mother Creek.  There you have it...History Lesson for the week.

The road to the park is a two lane road up and over three mountains called "Back of the Dragon".  This was named in 2011 (or 12, but does it matter?), because of the curves.  There are 230 of these fantastic curves, and the road is a motorcyclists dream.  The Back of the Dragon runs 32 miles between Marion and Tazewell County.  It has reverse curves, switchbacks (a road that has many sharp turns for climbing a steep hill), and steep grades.  Geography Lesson for the week.  

It started to drizzle and rain some while in the mountains (I thought of Panama--nice weather and warmer temps off the PanAm Highway near the beaches with the mountains being cooler and mistier at times).  But I loved it.  What a great road trip!  And then I saw the chicken fighting farms and that made me sad.  Ray and I thought the little chickens were tied to the pretty blue and yellow barrels so they couldn't go far, and they could get ample food.  My mother-in-law informed me that they were tied up to ready them for chicken fighting.  I was not happy.  Life Lesson for the week.  

Found the beach!

The lake at Hungry Mother State Park

Kayaking in the rain

The bridge that took us to an island

Ray stands in front of "The Restaurant" and Molly's gift shop

Looking down the mountain at Tazewell

Chicken farm  

Once we toured Marion County, its Main Street, enjoyed some BBQ pulled chicken for lunch and stopped at McDonald's to get Sweet Tea for his mom (and Ray), we made our way back to Tazewell.  Because there was going to be a funeral today (more about this in a minute), there are visitors coming and going in Ray's moms house.  Two of Ray's cousins come to the house around three pm or so and stay until we go to bed.  They have been cleaning there mom's trailer up, and there is A LOT to clean.  The funeral is not taking place, because there are no funds for a viewing, service, etc.  So she is being cremated and a service might take place later in the summer.  There weren't any provisions made before the aunt died which I believe happens quite a bit.  Another life lesson--have things in order.  

Today, Ray and I decided to head to Claypool Hills Mall.  I wanted to look in Belk department store for bathing suit bottoms.  I have boring black bottoms, but with some new tankini tops I had just bought, I was hoping to find colored one's.  And we have a Belk at home, so it would be easy enough to make returns if necessary.  No such luck for the bathing suit bottoms, but we did buy my mother-in-law a larger patio umbrella for her porch which we found in the Kmart there.  I must say I was a bit depressed walking this mall.  Depressed walking a mall!?  It used to be booming!  I had been here once before at night time, and there were at least people walking the mall.  School is out.  Where are the kids?  Not there.  The "mall" houses a Belk and Big Kmart as anchor stores, a nail salon, a jewelry store, an Italian restaurant, an ammunition/hunting/gun store, and a movie theater (movies are current though!).   All other stores are gated and empty.  

But wait!  Ray wanted to drive a different route to the mall.  He asked his mom for directions.  These were the directions she gave him (sounded like we were in Panama) to the mall:

                

Go to Busthead, a big white empty building, next to a wood chip pile (no street names even though there are streets here), and locate these buildings

AND when we wanted to find his Uncle's house:

Go to the end of the road Busthead is on, on the right (really on the left--oops) with a van in front.

I did just find out that until about ten years ago, there weren't many streets with names here.  They had to start naming streets for 911 purposes.

Since we drove too far and didn't get to the mall right away with the above directions, (Busthead was not really visible from the road--there is a trailer is in front of it), Ray gave me a tour of Amanote Road.  This is one road that coal miners lived, including his grandfather.  Most of the houses still look lived in, and one house has a car on its porch.  Not in the yard, or the driveway, but on the porch.  And we drove through Cedar Bluff.  Fifteen years ago, this town had one thousand people in it and is two square miles. And then we found the mall.  Driving around, Ray knew we could take "the four lane" (meaning highway, but not really a highway), and I have been to "The Jumps" (a big steep hill that you fly over in your car when driving) and down the "Holler" (down in the Valley).  When I get back to the grocery store at home in Bumpass, I have to make sure I get a big enough "buggy' (shopping cart), and if I forget to bring my bags with me, I will have the groceries packed in "pokes" (brown paper bags).  Language lesson of the week.  

The mall with Ray's head (all closed up)

One anchor store, Big Kmart

In the window of the ammunition store

In the other window

More mall

Gringos, Mexican restaurant, no more

After all of this schooling this week, I need summer break.  And some fuel!  It's off to KFC for some dinner for the family, and we will then eat No Bake Cookies mom made for us!

Wonderfully delicious!