Lea gets her nature on

One of the cool things about Abingdon is a 35-mile long rails-to-trails project called the Virginia Creeper Trail. It starts in Damascus and winds its way slowly downhill towards Abingdon. Local shuttle services will haul you by truck up to Damascus so you can spend a leisurely day basically coasting through some really spectacular scenery. Like this.

Nearest to Abingdon, at the end of the trail, things aren't so spectacular, sad to say. I decided to combat my grumpiness (it turns out there IS a "four-month sleep shakeup," and Lea is, as ever, slightly ahead of schedule) by getting out on the trail today. It was a pleasant walk, for sure, but the recent growth in this part of the county has turned the end of the trail into, essentially, a journey through McMansionville (oh, and there's a country club too). I strolled just over three miles, and it was a nice enough walk. Just not the idyllic ahhhhh-the-mountains kind of experience I was going for. Oh well. It was fun to get Lea outdoors and wearing her most hipster article of clothing to date.





In other news, not only have we moved several hundred miles, but we also seem to have found ourselves in an entirely different decade, thanks to:

(1) The Moonlight Theatre, a drive-in(!) just a few miles from here, whose north-facing sign says "Opening Soon." The south-facing side of the sign? "See other side." I kind of think they didn't have another "P."
(2) Local milk, which can be purchased in thick glass bottles to be returned to the grocery store for a deposit. You can actually still get the stuff delivered to your house if you want.
(3) Our fantastically friendly next-door neighbors, Becky and her two-and-a-half year old granddaughter Emmy. When we pulled into the lot at the same time, Emmy rushed over to see Lea and proclaimed "I like my new neighbors!" in a tone that made you really feel like her day had just been made. Awww.