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Go to 2006 Tour

 

PART 1: We're on the Road Again...
PART 2: Virginia and DC Hello
PART 3: Emergence from the Wild
PART 4: Hello from the Road
PART 5: California Dreamin' Part 1
PART 6: California Dreamin' Part 2
PART 7: Sedona as a New Age Tourist
PART 8: Sedona to South Florida; The Road Home


Part Two; Virginia and DC Hello

Hi all,

May and early June are a great time of year. We spent a wonderful week in Virginia, attending the Lazaris Congress of Magicians and getting really high on the thrilling and uplifting transcendent energy and the friendship of so many wonderful and loving people. We also froze our tushes off in the high elevations of the workshop site (Wintergreen Resort) where cold sleety rain and misty fog kept temperatures low until the last couple of days.

We parked at the Misty Mountain RV Park and drove 20 miles to the workshop site. Virginia this time of year is in her late spring attire. We seemed to sail down charming country roads through hilly forests and cozy dales - through canyons of tall green trees, abundantly bedecked in their fresh unblemished leaves and backdropped by serene blue-green mountains. The air was clean and refreshing and there were very few other vehicles on the road. Passing by thickets of blackberry bushes with their lightly fragrant white blooms, mingled with the rich sweet smells of honeysuckle and wild herbs, nostalgia swept through me for those early summer Tennesse days of my childhood. So many times I awakened and ecstatically ran out the door to greet the nature all around me. Like Virginia, in Tennesse May was youthful, vibrant and green, green, green. What bliss! While Daniel and I live by the ocean, our hearts are definitely attached to mountains and forests.

We then spent 10 days in the midst of Washington DC. Yes, there is an RV park there with woods surrounding it and deer that come to nibble the tender shoots of the growing shrubs. A walking trail led us through a forest next to the Beltway, an extremely congested high speed interstate highway. We spent a delightful weekend with my sister, her husband, and their two grown daughters and husbands. We got to meet the newest member of the family who gave me the status of great aunt. My sister and I sorted through mother's effects in various boxes in her basement and guest room.
They are all artsy urban intellectuals - indoor people. So we become temporarily sedentary and overstuffed ourselves on great food. My sister is a restaurant reviewer and so we go to restaurants she wishes to check out.
The waiters, managers, chefs etc. fawn on her and we're gifted with exquisite free sample dishes on top of our ordered food. It took my body 5 days to catch up on digesting all the goodies we gorged ourselves with at the French, Chinese gourmet, and Indian restaurants. After seeing my sister and brother in law off to Florida (ironic - they were going to Boca Raton!
while we were in their neighborhood up here), I channeled two evenings back to back. Although we experienced gridlock on the Beltway, the people we met and the beautiful surroundings were a gift.

The day after the second event, we returned back to Virginia, and into an RV park in the remote hills and forests near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here the forests were older and the trees more majestic. Deep rest and peace was offered here as a contrast to hectic DC. Stormy weather rushed in, courtesy of tropical storm Barry. Rain dripped on the roof of the RV less than 3 feet above my head. We were snuggled safely warm and dry, but so very close to nature at the same time. The smells of the rain mingled with the honeysuckle was yet another lift beyond the previous visit. Ecstacy!

Since I usually have a hard time handling man-made (petrochemicals) and concentrated smells such as perfumes and essential oils, the true fresh air and nature's smells are such a wonderful break - a healing for the lungs.
Nightime temperatures are cool and we turn off the electric, going "off the grid" somewhat. We wake up to glorious birdsong and the sound of wind stirring the leaves of the tall trees behind our campsite. Will we ever return to civilization? Will we want to? haha

Warmest wishes to you,

Ginger