Friend Time

73 and humid already. Going to be a hot one. The past 2 days, same.

My friends Nancy and Don are still visiting from Arizona as they work on their cabin in the woods about 3 miles or so from my house. After about 10 days or so they were able to get their gear back their road to the cabin, so they have been staying out there for about a week. It's been a challenge for them and expensive as they've had to buy dump truck load after load and sometimes carry the gravel in buckets to fill big mudholes rutted out by four-wheelers. At the cabin, they've been painting, cleaning, clearing brush, and enjoying the wilderness. Working hard every day.

So Wednesday I took Nancy for a road trip, just to give her a day off. We stopped in Spencer to pick up from one of my pickers, then moseyed up Route 14 through tiny towns and beautiful lush countryside. Stopped at a thrift, then made our way to Ellenboro and Dodd's Log Cabin Restaurant for lunch. I ordered my favorite, macaroni and cheese, as a side to my chicken wrap but the bowl of pasta was so big, I had no room for the sandwich. Comfort food need totally satisfied. I rarely make mac and cheese because, well, it's not really healthy, is it. But I do love it, and order it sometimes when we eat out. This bowlful was delicious.

The goal of this trip was Berdine's, the coolest oldtime store in West Virginia. In operation since 1908, Berdine's offers toys, trinkets, antiques, gadgets, scientific stuff, books, and fun for kids of all ages. They even have an old-time candy counter. Nancy has been a clown, sometime storyteller, and daycare teacher and I knew she'd love this place. She did. We spent a long time there, just checking out all the cool stuff. Finally, we were homeward bound after a stop at Walmart so she could stock up on a few things for the cabin. 

As I was driving her back to her road, where she would have a half-mile hike back to her cabin, we ran into a couple of our neighbors who were out for an evening ride on their four-wheeler. When they heard that Nancy would have to walk in, they immediately offered to turn around and give her a ride. That was wonderful, as she had quite a bit of stuff that she would have had to leave in her truck, which was parked where I was going to drop her off, since the road is still too rough for my van.

It was a good day, and a break for both of us.

Yesterday Nancy was here again, to help me put up green beans. There weren't really very many, and I could easily have done them myself, but why not spend that time with a friend, enjoying conversation and time together? They'll be leaving before long and it may be two years or more before they make the trip again. 

Nancy loves to polish silver, and boy did I have a job for her. There were 2 of these teapots, and she cleaned them both. Isn't it a pretty thing? We had a lot of porch time, and then this time Larry took her back to the cabin in his truck, since the road was better after the past two days of Don's work. 

I don't get a lot of girl time--I am usually too work-focused to allow myself the time for visiting. But I need to change that, because we're all getting older and those hours with friends are precious. Of course, COVID didn't help. The pandemic demanded that we hole up, but now as more people are vaccinated--and almost all of my friends are--it's time to break out of that mold. It's funny how easily we slipped into it, just not going out, not seeing people. So here's to friends, and time together. And that COVID-variant better stay away.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.