A Mainer Heads South

Report from the Retreat... or, what you didn't see in Knitter's Review


On November 7-9, I flew down to Virginia for the second-annual Knitter's Review Retreat. As we know, getting there is half the fun. I posted a nice and tidy report of the event in KR, but here's a deeper look at what I found on the way to (and back from) the lodge.


It was a 2-hour drive, so prepare to be thrilled.







We began with a wonderful treat urban dwellers call "traffic." Is that rain I see? You betcha!











In case I had any doubts of my whereabouts, this friendly truck reminded me.










A detour through Culpeper led me to this fine culinary institution.














And if you had any doubts, there are plenty of places to take a leak in the Culpeper region.









Before turning off the main road, I had to make a detour to visit this mail-order institution in person. I left with replacement filters for my kitchen compost pail. Does it get any better than that?









I did a U-turn to catch this place. Darn, if only I'd brought my gun...









The last big town before Graves' is Madison, a contradiction between old and new. Here's the town café. If you look really closely you'll see several men in overalls sitting on the porch.










But yet at the end of this very same street, you come to this vista. Ah, progress!














There were loads of these everywhere I went.










I found this high school strangely depressing—enough, anyway, to stop the car and take a picture.











Hey, it's never too soon to start preparing for the holidays. (And likewise, it's never too late to start taking down the decorations from last year?)











I love this region enough to move here permanently. First I thought I'd get this fixer-upper...










Until I found this place. See? The renovations have already begun. Boy do I work fast.











The threat of development was everywhere, even on the borders of Graves'. This large farm immediately bordering Graves' just sold in several parcels for development. And something tells me they won't see much use for this lovely old barn. Alas.





And finally I arrived at the retreat, drove up the steep hillside, and parked my (upgraded at the airport) rental car in front of the hotel building. I was the only guest there that night and the night after everyone left. "The Shining," anyone?