The Road to Nowhere

Have you ever been on road trip without a road map? And furthermore have you literally been the back seat rider (not backseat driver)? Well, I was this past Friday on a preplanned Garmin GPS controlled drive. It was a trip to "wild and wonderful" West by God Virginia to Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. http://www.cassrailroad.com/ However, getting there from Front Royal, VA turned out to be the real adventure. Looks pretty simple on the map http://www.cassrailroad.com/map.html I ask the driver if we had a WV paper map in the car and the response was no but Garmin route had been check against a map before leaving left home. In hindsight I can now say without reservation that did not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling as soon as we left the paved highway into the wild and wonderful wilderness of a crush and run road. My first response under my breath was WTF and then I voiced my concern are you sure? The response was, "Garmin sez this is the way". Turns out Garmin must have recalculated when we zigged back northwest on US-250 and WV-92 instead of zagging southwest on WV-92 and WV-28 and then forgot to tell us to make a U-turn in Bartow, WV. Anyhow it put us on unpaved Forest Rd 235 and I remember us going by the Cheat Mountain Club. http://www.cheatmountainclub.com/ The Garmin took us by this lodge on our adventure. Looks like a great place to have a family reunion but pricey! We should have checked it out. http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1115 We left Front Royal at 7 a.m. with plans to ride the 11 a.m. train. We got to Cass, WV in time to see the 1 p.m. train leaving for Whittaker station. so we ended up riding the 3 p.m. train. We had plenty of time for our picnic lunch while waiting on the next train. Good time was had by all and there was much laughter over this mis-adventure that turned out fine in the end. I am however, still working on my "Let go let God" routine. Not quite there yet. On the way back we drove by Radio Telescope in Green Bank, WV https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/gbt

Tis the Season again and still and I must remember that

I really feel off the blogger's wagon last year as far as this blog site goes. But I really have gotten carried away posting away here: www.alfabb.com hopefully with some helpful advise.

Just read this article in Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greggfairbrothers/2011/12/17/this-is-the-season-3/ While not in business I find my monkey wrench advise I share about Alfa Romeo wrenching sometimes takes over my life.

Front Royal Road Trip and Winery Report

Drove up the Front Royal, VA Friday morning to install two sinks and a elder friendly high rise twolet in my Father in Law's house. After a full day doing sink installs we had steak dinner at Joe's Steak House with her dad. It was a super meal Today after finishing the installs, Mary Lee and I took a Winery Recon Ride this afternoon. Headed east on Route 55 out of Front Royal. Lots of winerys in VA and we drove by a bunch today and chose two to visit. First one was Barell Oak Winery (BOW) a dog friendly place. They have a Bow and a Wow tasting of 10 wines. I chose the Bow tasting and tried 6 of the 10 and chose to take home a bottle of BOWHaus White 2010. Their Chocolate Lab dessert wine was super, too. Next we went to MiracleValley Vineyard and tried 7 and bought 3 - Cobbler Mountain White, a 2008 Merlot and Sweet Michelle. We finished off the day with dinner date to Casteriana's Italian Restaurant in Front Royal. I had a superb Shrimp Primavera with fresh veggies in white wine sauce. ML had Tortellini Michelangelo with chicken and ham in a sherri cream sause. Tomorrow home again to VB.