Tom’s Post 25 Sep for Stage 59 Swift Run Gap to Skyland, VA I apologize for not having posted events for a couple of days. I plead guilty to being charmed by the kind hospitality of Phil and Claudia Clark. These past two days have been extremely therapeutic for me, allowing some minor ailments to subside, and being able to relax for two days in a row. Nevertheless, we did take the time to tour the University of Virginia and old town Charlottesville on Tuesday, and then tour the Barboursville Vineyards and Winery, and then Jefferson’s home Monticello, on Wednesday. I especially enjoyed the winery tour with Phil’s neighbor David, being our personal tourguide. The Barboursville winery is owned by Italians, and so the wine is made as in Italy, with Pinot Grigio and Sangavese grapes, among others. The wines were excellent, as was David. Wednesday evening we had a great dinner at the Clark home along with David and his wife Amy, and their daughter and son-in-law, Patrick. The younger couple are studying French prior to their departing for the East Congo, where Patrick will be practicing pediatric medicine. It was an awesome evening, with of course, the men having an incredibly intellectual conversation in one part of the living room, and the ladies having their conversation in another. Thursday morning John and Nell McBeth, Phil Clark, and Rose and I rode our bikes along the Skyline Road in the Shenandoah National Park for about 23 miles. The purpose was to shorten the ride we would need to do to get to Front Royal the following day. It was pouring rain most of the way, and for the most part we were quite miserable. But we got our miles in. In the early afternoon, we had two riders join our group to cycle to West Point. Mike Allen, F-1, my West Point classmate who lives in New Jersey arrived at 2pm, and Tom Smith, my classmate who had already riden with us through California and later through Colorado, rejoined us once more. At 5pm, Phil and Claudia hosted a party in honor of our ride across America, and another six classmates and spouses from the area joined us in celebration. I felt so gratified that they drove out here to greet us, and you can a photo of all of us below. Is this a great class of West Pointer’s or what?
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 22:31:40 +0000
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