Southwest Virginia Blogs

We all have something in us that makes certain settings very comfortable mentally.  To me having water or mountains creates that virtual space which lets my mind wander beyond the physical boundaries of real property. 

Having mountains and oceans both is pretty special, but  not many places are that lucky especially if you want your water to be  warm salt water.

I have enjoyed living on the side of a mountain overlooking Roanoke.  I have taken many shots of the sun coming up over the mountains or the evening light sliding away from downtown.

The inspiration that you get when you look across a wide valley or a wide open expanse of blue water keeps the wheels under the human spirit turning.

The first step in dreaming is to see beyond your space.  It helps loosen the bounds on our minds.

It was a strange experience for me, the few years that we lived in Columbia, Md.  Our house in Columbia was surrounded by huge poplar trees.  It wasn't long before I felt smothered.  When I got to our home on the side of a mountain in Roanoke, I felt liberated.  In  fact each time I went back to Northern Virginia, I would feel the land closing in on me.

As soon I would cross into the Shenandoah Valley, I would feel like the whole world was spreading out in front of me.  Now that we get the chance to spend some time near open water, I can feel my mind racing across the water.

I feel especially lucky to have lived in so many wonder spots from the coast of Nova Scotia to Roanoke and North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.

Views inspire us but they can also provide a great feeling of peace as the day closes.

If ever there ever was a sign of global warming, it has to be that it is the middle of December and two Nova Scotia golf courses reopened this week according to a story in the Chronicle Herald.

That's definitely not the Canadian winter weather that I endured.  Seems like I remember some Nova Scotians once painting their golf balls orange so they could play in the snow.

All  golfers get a little desperate in the winter.  Few of them need much of a reason to abandon even Virginia and head to Pinehurst or Myrtle Beach this time of year.  Now maybe some of them can add Nova Scotia to the list of places where they can do winter golf.

I am sure the province could use the tourism dollars.  It would have the added benefit that the golfers once they got home would really appreciate their home weather.  They probably wouldn't even need to turn up the heat in their houses.

It has been unseasonably mild except in the Northwest corner of the country.  I know Roanoke was in the mid-sixties today and here on the coast, it was near seventy degrees.  I snapped today's sunset picture between the two bridges over the White Oak River between Cedar Point and Swansboro, NC.  That's close to Emerald Isle for those of you not familiar with North Carolina coastal geography.

As far as I am concerned the Nova Scotians can keep golfing in December.  I found plenty to do outside myself today.  There nothing wrong with fishing in short and sandals in December.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Just like the old days, I stayed up late last night to see how things were going to look with the morning sun.  In honor of the change that it appears we will see, I have included one of my favorite sunsets instead of one of my traditional sunrises.  This picture is of the sun going down over the White Oak River, nearly Emerald Isle, NC.

I hope this is the sunset of unaccountable government, but i know that the folks elected yesterday are still politicians so I will not get my hopes up too high.

My Canadian dwelling college roommate bet me five dollars that there would be no change in the US House.  He cannot be blamed for his lack of political savvy.  He hails from Massachusetts and lives in Nova Scotia where they have seen some of the first signs of winter already.  Unfortunately I cannot celebrate my victory since he appears to be dodging me on the Internet this morning.  I can remember seeing moths fly out of his wallet once so I am not surprised that he is hard to find this morning.

It is nice to see people demanding accountability in government even if it is a few years late.  Perhaps the President will take this opportunity to make some changes and at least create some successes in his last few years in office.  That might even temper history's view of him, but somehow I doubt that will happen on either front.

One of the neat things about the North Carolina's Crystal Coast is that everyone has a favorite restaurant and they're all different.  One of our neighbors had mentioned to me a while back that the Red Barn Grill in Hubert, NC was a great spot to get reasonably priced, very fresh seafood. He had described the directions from the gate at Camp Lejeune.

On one of our recent trips to Swansboro, I saw a sign for Route 172 which leads through Camp Lejeune.  On a whim we decided to see if we could find the Red Barn Grill since it was after 5 pm.  Since the roads didn't look like my neighbor's description, we stopped at Camp Lejeune's gate and asked directions from a youthful and clean cut Marine.  He had never heard of the Red Barn Grill, but on his advice we headed bad towards Route 24.

It was then I decided to try my favorite gadget on what I had at one time labeled "my new portable computer" which turns out to be my heavily computerized Acura MDX.  That  favorite device would be my GPS which I often describe as  a "Great Road Warrior tool." On the trip down from Roanoke to Swansboro I had discovered a neat feature which actually tells you the names of the services at a particular Interstate exit.  It also will list restaurants ranked by distance in an area where you're traveling. 

We've used that feature successfully before on trips to the NC coast when the hunger for barbecue struck us. Since we were a few miles from any known restaurant, I guessed that the GPS would have a listing for the Red Barn Grill.  A few taps on the touch sensitive screen and my guess was proven correct.  Without even slowing down or changing direction, we were off on a culinary adventure.  The GPS had also shown the distance to the Red Barn Grill as eleven miles so the trip was going to be short.

In just a few minutes we were pulling up in front of the restaurant where I noticed a hand lettered sign that said "Fresh Local Oysters."  I was sold immediately, and we started walking towards the building.  It was pretty obvious from the GPS that we were at the end of the road and a later look at another map confirmed it.

Once inside, we eventually figured out that you needed to order at the counter and then go wait at your table for your food in what appeared to be a converted general store.  Of course I went for the fried oysters, and my wife, Glenda, decided to try the flounder fillet.  It wasn't long before our food arrived.  It was fresh, tasty, and came with the fried seafood restaurant standard of "fries, slaw, and hush puppies."  The oysters were small but very good.  Glenda opined that her flounder hadn't been out of the water very long.  It was a very good meal at a reasonable price and was even served on a red-checkered table cloth.  The hush puppies were better than average but not up to the standard of the Sobotta Family Hush Puppies.

Of course it is pretty hard to beat home cooking, and I still favor fresh caught flounder either from the local sea food market or my own hook and line.  That way I can do my own cooking and end up with what something really special, "A Southern delicacy, pan fried flounder."

However, don't let that stop you from trying the Red Barn Grill in Hubert. It's a interesting experience with good seafood.  The other food must be pretty good also since they were out of their spaghetti special before 5:30 pm.  They also seem to be open for breakfast, but it's a little far us to give that a try. 

We didn't have great cell phone coverage in the area so if you're calling for directions, do it before you get on the road.  Their phone number is (910) 326-1163.  The address for the Red Barn Grill is 101 Red Barn Rd, Hubert, NC.

One other note, if you're out shopping for an auto GPS, they are not all created equal.  I find the one on our Toyota Avalon to be of limited usefulness while the one on our Acura MDX is something that I use all the time.  The rule for GPSs would be try before you buy.

One of the neat things about the North Carolina's Crystal Coast is that everyone has a favorite restaurant and they're all different.  One of our neighbors had mentioned to me a while back that the Red Barn Grill in Hubert, NC was a great spot to get reasonably priced, very fresh seafood. He had described the directions from the gate at Camp Lejeune.

On one of our recent trips to Swansboro, I saw a sign for Route 172 which leads through Camp Lejeune.  On a whim we decided to see if we could find the Red Barn Grill since it was after 5 pm.  Since the roads didn't look like my neighbor's description, we stopped at Camp Lejeune's gate and asked directions from a youthful and clean cut Marine.  He had never heard of the Red Barn Grill, but on his advice we headed bad towards Route 24.

It was then I decided to try my favorite gadget on what I had at one time labeled "my new portable computer" which turns out to be my heavily computerized Acura MDX.  That  favorite device would be my GPS which I often describe as  a "Great Road Warrior tool." On the trip down from Roanoke to Swansboro I had discovered a neat feature which actually tells you the names of the services at a particular Interstate exit.  It also will list restaurants ranked by distance in an area where you're traveling. 

We've used that feature successfully before on trips to the NC coast when the hunger for barbecue struck us. Since we were a few miles from any known restaurant, I guessed that the GPS would have a listing for the Red Barn Grill.  A few taps on the touch sensitive screen and my guess was proven correct.  Without even slowing down or changing direction, we were off on a culinary adventure.  The GPS had also shown the distance to the Red Barn Grill as eleven miles so the trip was going to be short.

In just a few minutes we were pulling up in front of the restaurant where I noticed a hand lettered sign that said "Fresh Local Oysters."  I was sold immediately, and we started walking towards the building.  It was pretty obvious from the GPS that we were at the end of the road and a later look at another map confirmed it.

Once inside, we eventually figured out that you needed to order at the counter and then go wait at your table for your food in what appeared to be a converted general store.  Of course I went for the fried oysters, and my wife, Glenda, decided to try the flounder fillet.  It wasn't long before our food arrived.  It was fresh, tasty, and came with the fried seafood restaurant standard of "fries, slaw, and hush puppies."  The oysters were small but very good.  Glenda opined that her flounder hadn't been out of the water very long.  It was a very good meal at a reasonable price and was even served on a red-checkered table cloth.  The hush puppies were better than average but not up to the standard of the Sobotta Family Hush Puppies.

Of course it is pretty hard to beat home cooking, and I still favor fresh caught flounder either from the local sea food market or my own hook and line.  That way I can do my own cooking and end up with what something really special, "A Southern delicacy, pan fried flounder."

However, don't let that stop you from trying the Red Barn Grill in Hubert. It's a interesting experience with good seafood.  The other food must be pretty good also since they were out of their spaghetti special before 5:30 pm.  They also seem to be open for breakfast, but it's a little far us to give that a try. 

We didn't have great cell phone coverage in the area so if you're calling for directions, do it before you get on the road.  Their phone number is (910) 326-1163.  The address for the Red Barn Grill is 101 Red Barn Rd, Hubert, NC.

One other note, if you're out shopping for an auto GPS, they are not all created equal.  I find the one on our Toyota Avalon to be of limited usefulness while the one on our Acura MDX is something that I use all the time.  The rule for GPSs would be try before you buy.

One of the neat things about the North Carolina's Crystal Coast is that everyone has a favorite restaurant and they're all different.  One of our neighbors had mentioned to me a while back that the Red Barn Grill in Hubert, NC was a great spot to get reasonably priced, very fresh seafood. He had described the directions from the gate at Camp Lejeune.

On one of our recent trips to Swansboro, I saw a sign for Route 172 which leads through Camp Lejeune.  On a whim we decided to see if we could find the Red Barn Grill since it was after 5 pm.  Since the roads didn't look like my neighbor's description, we stopped at Camp Lejeune's gate and asked directions from a youthful and clean cut Marine.  He had never heard of the Red Barn Grill, but on his advice we headed bad towards Route 24.

It was then I decided to try my favorite gadget on what I had at one time labeled "my new portable computer" which turns out to be my heavily computerized Acura MDX.  That  favorite device would be my GPS which I often describe as  a "Great Road Warrior tool." On the trip down from Roanoke to Swansboro I had discovered a neat feature which actually tells you the names of the services at a particular Interstate exit.  It also will list restaurants ranked by distance in an area where you're traveling. 

We've used that feature successfully before on trips to the NC coast when the hunger for barbecue struck us. Since we were a few miles from any known restaurant, I guessed that the GPS would have a listing for the Red Barn Grill.  A few taps on the touch sensitive screen and my guess was proven correct.  Without even slowing down or changing direction, we were off on a culinary adventure.  The GPS had also shown the distance to the Red Barn Grill as eleven miles so the trip was going to be short.

In just a few minutes we were pulling up in front of the restaurant where I noticed a hand lettered sign that said "Fresh Local Oysters."  I was sold immediately, and we started walking towards the building.  It was pretty obvious from the GPS that we were at the end of the road and a later look at another map confirmed it.

Once inside, we eventually figured out that you needed to order at the counter and then go wait at your table for your food in what appeared to be a converted general store.  Of course I went for the fried oysters, and my wife, Glenda, decided to try the flounder fillet.  It wasn't long before our food arrived.  It was fresh, tasty, and came with the fried seafood restaurant standard of "fries, slaw, and hush puppies."  The oysters were small but very good.  Glenda opined that her flounder hadn't been out of the water very long.  It was a very good meal at a reasonable price and was even served on a red-checkered table cloth.  The hush puppies were better than average but not up to the standard of the Sobotta Family Hush Puppies.

Of course it is pretty hard to beat home cooking, and I still favor fresh caught flounder either from the local sea food market or my own hook and line.  That way I can do my own cooking and end up with what something really special, "A Southern delicacy, pan fried flounder."

However, don't let that stop you from trying the Red Barn Grill in Hubert. It's a interesting experience with good seafood.  The other food must be pretty good also since they were out of their spaghetti special before 5:30 pm.  They also seem to be open for breakfast, but it's a little far us to give that a try. 

We didn't have great cell phone coverage in the area so if you're calling for directions, do it before you get on the road.  Their phone number is (910) 326-1163.  The address for the Red Barn Grill is 101 Red Barn Rd, Hubert, NC.

One other note, if you're out shopping for an auto GPS, they are not all created equal.  I find the one on our Toyota Avalon to be of limited usefulness while the one on our Acura MDX is something that I use all the time.  The rule for GPSs would be try before you buy.

We're starting to see our first serious stretch of sunshine after nearly eleven inches of rain up here on the mountain.  I woke to find an article, "Cow tipping? Probably bull," in today's Roanoke Times. The story  pulled me into another time and place.

It brought back memories of my first up close and personal experiences with cows.  I  had just bought our first few head of cattle from the guy who sold me one of our farms.  Cows being what they are, they immediately broke through some fences and got mixed up with the neighbor's dairy cattle.  Our first chore was to separate the two herds.  I should have stopped right there and given the cows to the local dairy farmer, but I didn't.  We eventually got rid of those cows and enjoyed a relatively cowless time in Nova Scotia.

As today's (09-06-06)  Shoe cartoon indicates, I don't think my memory was very good even then.  My wife, Glenda and I moved to New Brunswick. We ended up with nearly two hundred head of cattle.  Most years we saw between 60 and 70 calves born.  I was there for many of the births.  We actually ran that farm for nearly ten years until we dispersed our cattle herd in the fall of 1981.

I shoved more cattle through handling chutes than I care to remember.  I once had a bull that stalked me for a couple of months until I tricked him onto a truck headed for the slaughter house.  We had mostly purebred Angus cattle, but over the years we had experience with Charolais, Herefords, and even a Guernsey which I milked for several years.

Anyone that tells you he's done cow tipping is full of bull.  First off, no cow that I've ever met would let you sneak up on them.  Secondly most that I've seen would either run or run after you if you tried to hit them anywhere.  The cow tipping reminds me of the tractor tipping in Cars, the movie, which I wrote about in my post, "Cars- A great movie."  Tractors are pretty darn stable unless you drive them on a hillside where most SUVs would have already turned over.

While cow tipping is a pretty easy mystery to clear up, I've been looking for some more explanation on the  George Allen "Macaca" incident.  I was born in North Carolina and have spent much of my life wandering the south from Tennessee to Virginia.  I've never heard the term "Macaca" until the news reports of this event so I was a little mystified.  Of course I don't travel in the circle of those who keep a hangman's noose on display.

Last night I read an article, "George Allen's 'macaca moment’" in the The Week Magazine.  It offered up a pretty good explanation.

“Macaca,” derived from macaque, a genus of monkey, is a racial slur used in France against foreigners with dark skin. Allen—who has a French Tunisian mother and speaks French fluently...

Naturally the French are to blame.  :)

The rest of the article went on to highlight some interesting points about Allen.

The irony here, said Michael Scherer in Salon.com, is that the man Allen insulted is a native-born Virginian of Asian Indian heritage, whereas Allen, the son of legendary NFL coach George Allen, grew up wealthy in California. Since then, however, he’s been wearing cowboy boots, chewing tobacco, and wooing the Republican Party’s right wing as a “down-home” champion of the “‘real America,’ the one without homosexuals, movie moguls, or Ivy League professors who want to ban guns and burn flags.” Hey, it worked for George W. Bush, said Mike Allen in The Washington Post.

Well with this news "Florida's Katherine Harris won the Republican primary despite dismal poll numbers, a subpoena in a bribery investigation and droves of campaign deserters,"  I think it might be time to stop reading the news for a while.