I think best on my feet, moving forward, doing something. I’ve had a lot to think about lately, so I decided I needed to move. This is the first year in long time I won’t be packing up, picking a new town, new house, new life. I needed to keep moving though, so a start-of-summer road trip was perfect. I’d heard from a friend of a friend that there was a good strawberry crop in southern Virginia, just a few hours away. The directions to the u-pick farm were delightfully southern. Highway for a few hours. Then take the Ferry by the old Fort.

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Drive down the road until you see the abandoned house.

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It’ll be on your right. Unfortunately a lot of people heard from a friend of friend, and the fields were pretty picked over. Worse, there wasn’t much to be had in the way of lunch. Don’t worry I managed to improvise. And by improvise, I mean wait until the farmer brought a fresh strawberry pie out of the oven and devour it while it was still warm:

strawberry pie

Pie isn’t much for substance though, and driving through backroads gives you the impression you’ve driven through decades instead of miles. This gas station proved it:.

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They directed us to ‘town’ for lunch, where the feeling of turning back the clock only got worse.
The local movies theater’s summer display:

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Pulled up by the post office:

 

old car

The post office (note the nuclear shelter symbol on the wall, I haven’t seen those for a while):

 

nuclear shelter

 

I talked to a few locals, and discovered I wasn’t back in time, just in a place that didn’t feel the need to catch up. Grabbed a quick lunch at the local diner, followed by some pictures of the only hotel in town (which sadly didn’t have a room for me for the night):

 

old houseI decided I’d rather head back toward my own era. One of the folks caught me shooting photos though. These digital snaps are my test shots. When I really shoot, it’s on a mechanical 35mm older than I am. I think that’s why he directed me to the tree outside of town – the one with “a skull in the roots”. At first you don’t see it, then you kind of do:

 

 

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Needless to say, I was happy to get home. Even happier to be greeted by one of my amaryllis in full bloom. They only bloom at Christmas but I guess their calendar was a bit off this year.

amaryllis

 

It brought me a smile. People say time heals all wounds. My trip through time helped mine enough that I’m already day dreaming about the next one.