A Happy 250th

Kim, Mark, Kim, Mark

For Ms. B. and me, our social calendar for the July 4 weekend was pretty full. On Friday, we met our friends, the "Other Mark & Kim," at Gioia dell'Amore Cellars (formerly Autumn Creek) a short distance down the road in North Carolina. The winery and tasting room is beautiful, though the wine is mostly kind of meh. Their Meritage is pretty good. Kimberly and I have hung out many times with Mark & Kim in the company of several of our other NC friends, but I believe this was the first time we've gotten together as couples. We did have a great time.

Yesterday morning, on the Fourth, we met friends Bob & Yvonne at the Forest Park Country Club swimming pool, where I spent many days as a youngster, especially on Fourths of July. Also a lot fun, and we fortunately had a tent to protect us from the sun, as it was 100°F out there. We all spent a lot of our time in the water. To keep ourselves refreshed, we drank — brace yourselves — Claw Tails (a variant of the ubiquitous White Claw). You know, the stuff that is often described as "drinking TV static while someone yells the name of a fruit from another room." Yeah, that. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I liked it. And so did Brugger. My God, what have we become? Anyway, the club provided burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill, and I had a really tasty burger for lunch.

 

We spent the afternoon back home, largely de-sweating ourselves (this took some effort). Then late in the day, we headed back over to Bob & Yvonne's for a very enjoyable Fourth of July party. Lots of nice folks in attendance, all of whom we'd met on other occasions, including friends Scott & Jamie, with whom we sometimes do karaoke at one venue or another. We managed to drink a bit more without getting too toasted. Not Claw Tails this time.

Anyhoo, it was all good company, with good food and good drinks. So, here it is — Happy 250th to the USA, and fuck anyone, inside or outside (especially on the inside), who tries to hijack our ideals and our heritage. I have spoken.

Yvonne, Bob, Brugger, Old Dude

Fred, Bob, Jamie, Scott

Yvonne, Brugger

Magda, Old Dude, Stefan

Social Animals?

Dragon Glass Winery's mascot

Ms. Brugger and I may not be committed homebodies, but socialites we are definitely not. We occasionally go out and about to interact with other members of the human species, but rarely for lengthy periods and almost never without a few days' recovery time. Okay, I exaggerate, but we both lean far closer to the introverted than the extroverted end of the scale. So I dunno what the hell happened this past week. We ventured into the land of the living with frightful enthusiasm, looking damn-near respectable, and behaving like mere minor-league sociopaths. Wot?

There's a new brewery open in town — Renewal Brewing — which Ms. B. and I visited on opening night a couple of weeks ago, and we decided to give it another go this past Thursday with my longest existing childhood friend, Ms. Gretchen. Renewal's brewpub currently occupies the building's basement (known as the "speakeasy"), and the owner soon plans to open a restaurant on the main floor as well as a rooftop bar. It's a great spot, with appealing ambiance, excellent service, and some tasty brews. After sampling a variety of Renewal's offerings, Ms. B., Ms. G., and I headed to dinner at Wild Magnolia restaurant, which has been around for several years, with decent food and atmosphere. And an enjoyable evening this turned out to be.

Old dude, Ms. B., and friend Gretchen at Renewal Brewing in Uptown Martinsville

Saturday, we loaded up with picnic goodies and sallied forth to Gioia dell'Amore Winery (formerly Autumn Creek), where we met friends Joe and Suzy, enjoyed a serious picnic lunch, and drank some decent NC wine (no, "decent NC wine" is not always an oxymoron). Afterward, on a whim, we looked at the map to see if there might be any wineries other than the ones we knew about relatively nearby and discovered one called Dragon Glass Winery, which makes only sweet wines. Ms. B. and I rarely — okay, call it never — go for sweet wine, but since this was a second destination and an attractive location, we figured we could call it dessert. Here, neither of us could finish more than a glass because when I say this wine is "sweet," we're talking "cloying." Still, we enjoyed our experiences at both locations. A damned good day.

Sunday, The No-Dead-Weight Irregulars — this time consisting of friend Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker), friend Natalie (a.k.a. Fishdownthestair), and an old dude — gathered again for a Sunday outing and landed ourselves near Chapel Hill, NC, at a place I don't really know what to call. There's Fearrington, Farrington, and Ferrington, all clustered right there, and where one ends and another begins, I've got no fucking idea. Anyway, there are gamelands full of geocaches there, and we hiked after a bunch. The heat was hot, the hiking tough, and the bugs plentiful (including a bunch of ticks, the lousy little bloodfuckers), but we found some mighty cool caches. Sadly, several of the "Halloween" series we sought appeared to be missing, but assuming the cache owners put out replacements, the location will probably be good for another outing.

For lunch, we settled on the nearby Town Hall Burger & Beer, where we've eaten on numerous other caching outings. Damned good dead critter here — lamb for me, and cow for my compadres.

This week is shaping up to be kinda busy as well. Perhaps we'll survive it yet again with flying colors. Woot.

"Hobbit Hole" cache — open wide!

L: big bony spider; R: little bony dude

Bony bat!

Not a geocache, but a very large millicritter

Bushwhacking, Raining, Wining, and Braining

Friday was my last day of full-time work, at least at The Mailbox. Our boss, Sharon, put together a nice Zoom presentation featuring photos of her ten favorite Mark Moments, which I think we all enjoyed. It certainly hit some of the high points from the day job over all these many years. The idea of retirement hasn't really sunk in yet, since tomorrow would have been just another day back at work, and now it won't.

Friday evening, Brugger and I rode up to Martinsville and met friends Samaire and Stephen at La Plazita, a relatively new Mexican restaurant in Uptown Martinsville. The food was pretty good, the service a little less brag-worthy. Stephen said it's been much better on their previous visits, so I'm sure I'll give the place another try before long. Afterward, we retired to Pleasant Hill, where we put our heads together to come up with some ideas for the upcoming release of my collection, Fugue Devil: Resurgence, which Samaire's company, Black Raven Books, is set to release in the spring. We didn't knock off till sometime in the wee hours, but it was both productive and enjoyable.

Yesterday, Ms. B. and I headed down to Autumn Creek Vineyards, where we met friends Terry & Beth for wine and picnicking. The new owners of Autumn Creek — David & Laura — made us feel very welcome, which we appreciated. The wine is decent; North Carolina wine, to be sure, but decent.

This morning, the usual Sunday geocaching gathering of the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars — Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie), Old Rob (a.k.a. Old Rob), and Old Rodan (a.k.a. me) — appeared questionable, given an ominous weather forecast and Natalie not feeling tip-top. However, it wasn't raining at our regular meeting time, and Natalie said she felt better, so off we went, this time to several destinations in and around Winston-Salem. We sought several along the Salem Creek Greenway, all of which were fun, particularly since no rain was falling at the time. Just above, you see me at a cache called "You Shall Not Cross!" (GC9N9HQ). I did kind of want to cross, but since the remains of the old bridge are blocked off, I just opted to stand there for a while.

After that, we snagged a couple of other random caches and then headed to the Muddy Creek Greenway, a few miles west of town. By now, splatters of rain had begun, and once on the trail, it began coming down in earnest. Did this dissuade us? No, because we are tenacious (though I've heard some folks of our acquaintance use any number of other descriptors). We had a fairly long hike ahead of us — about three miles round trip — but we managed to make it somewhat longer and far more difficult. After finding two of our three target caches, we failed to look closely enough at the map to determine that bushwhacking to the next cache without backtracking to the greenway was actually a bad... BAD... idea. The river, we learned, is of considerable breadth and quite in the way. Apart from the plummeting temperature and increasing downpour, we now had dense, tangled woods and lots of deep muckity-muck to complicated our journey. This ended up adding a couple of extra miles of hiking before we could get back on the greenway and backtrack. I'm sure the extra workout in the cold and rain did us a spot of good, don't you think?

It wasn't necessarily fun, but at the end of the day, most gratifying.

This coming week, I plan to put in significant work on my current Ameri-Scares novel and, hopefully, start plotting a new novel for grown-ups. It feels like high time.

Onward.

Big honking railroad bridge over the Salem Creek Greenway

I've not been this wet since the last time we hiked 5.4 miles in a downpour. Some call us tenacious.
Some call us other things.

Two Charity Events, Two Trains, One Kentucky Derby, and a Welsh Dragon

Man, the shit is getting real at the Kentucky Derby.

Nice stud, wot?!

This weekend, I attended two charity events in two days, which I expect is a first for me. On Friday night, Ms. B. and I accompanied our friends Joe and Suzy Albanese to the fund-raising auction & gala at Piedmont Classical High School, where Suzy teaches. A few weeks ago, I went to the school to speak to students about writing (see "The Author Speaks," April 18, 2017), and this weekend, Suzy was kind enough to pick up a copy of Blue Devil Island to offer at the auction. Happily, it commanded a good price for a good cause. The school provided live music, drinks, and a massive spread of excellent hors d'oeuvres, which made for an enjoyable and worthy event.

And last night, Ms. B. and I accompanied our friends Jenny Chapman and Doug Cox to Autumn Creek Vineyards to attend the fancy Run for the Roses Derby Day, their annual fundraiser for Help, Inc., an organization that helps victims of domestic violence. Derby Day is a fairly lavish affair, with a huge auction, raffles for prizes, a catered buffet, Autumn Creek wine, more live music, and the Kentucky Derby on a huge screen TV (my horse did not win, alas). All in all, a most entertaining and worthwhile experience, and I must say I should enjoy making this a regular tradition.

Beth and Suzy at the Piedmont Classical High School Gala

Ms. B. sporting a fancy-ass hat for Kentucky Derby Day

The crowd gathers to watch the Kentucky Derby at Autumn Creek Vineyards

Once again, I spent part of the weekend helping out my mom in Martinsville, while also managing to get in some hiking and geocaching. Yesterday morning, I took a long hike on the trails at Bryan Park North to pick up some of Night-hawk's new hides, and he was kind enough to offer me a first-to-find opportunity on one of them prior to its publication as a birthday bonus for an old, decrepit man. I rather enjoy the trail there that runs near the train tracks because there you are, out in the middle of the woods, and — what do you know — here comes a big old train rumbling past you. While I was out there, two trains came by, one running north, one running south (not at the same time!). I tend to enjoy train-spotting, as long as I'm not sitting endlessly at a railroad crossing while a long one goes creeping by.

The section of trail of Bryan Park North that runs near the train tracks

Tis far better to encounter one of these while hiking in the woods than while sitting at a railroad crossing

This morning, after running some errands in Martinsville, I headed up to Fairy Stone Park in Patrick County, VA, to go after a relatively new cache hidden there. It proved a quick find at a scenic spot near Philpott Lake, making for find #9,419. I quite love that area, I do, as I spent quite a bit of time there from the time I was a little kid through my college days at nearby Ferrum College. And finally, on the way back home, I stopped in Reidsville at The Celtic Fringe to satisfy my craving for their Welsh Dragon burger, which is a third-pound Angus beef patty simmered in their one-and-only Welsh Dragon ghost pepper sauce and topped with pepper jack cheese, candied red cabbage, arugula, and mayonnaise. (I even like to dip my french fries — which are excellent, by the way — in a side cup of the sauce.) Make no mistake, this is pure, delicious, wonderful hellfire! The flavorful, always perfectly cooked burger, the candied red cabbage, and just a veneer of mayo perfectly complement this sweet but fiery ghost pepper concoction. Inevitably, if you order a Welsh Dragon Burger, your server will ask you if you're aware of what you're getting into, and justifiably so, as I can only imagine the folly of some tyro with a passing fondness for hot sauce going all-out with one of these.

Not a good idea, my friends.

Kimberly's birthday is coming up this week, so more festivities loom — as do sixteen tons of work at the office as well as at home. One of these days, I've gotta get some rest.

Bigfoot's latrine? Near "VSP Get L.O.S.T. at Fairy Stone State Park" (GC6YJVW)

The old dude on the hunt at Fairy Stone Park

Arf'ing hot, man.

Bottoms Up

Too busy to blog much recently, but I did want to add a personal entry since I do enjoy having some written/visual record of certain occasions. Last night, headed up to Martinsville with Ms. B., had a nice dinner at The Third Bay, where we ran into old friend Rod Berry, as is fairly traditional. Then sank some wine — even Mum joined in for a little — and watched The Blair Witch Project, which I had watched not long ago, though it had been many years for Ms. Brugger. I do rather enjoy it, apart from the annoying characters.

After the usual morning errands with Mum, Brugger and I headed down to Autumn Creek Vineyards, where we met Joe & Suzy Albanese for another happy spot of wine and stimulating conversation (a bit political, but spirited rather than ugly). One of the highlights here was a visit by Winery Duck, who made quite a few friends out on the patio. Autumn Creek's logo is a graphic of a duck butt with "Bottoms Up" imprinted on it.

Tomorrow, there will be much hiking and geocaching. Yay!