It was almost the worst Thanksgiving ever. We had put John's dogs out in my yard temporarily while we were unloading his car and getting things set up in the house. Well, those dogs managed to burst out through the gate in record time. I came outside to leash them up for a walk, and saw two black dogs bounding off, a block away. I called them back, and they turned around and came running toward me... just as a car came barreling down the street. I watched in horror thinking I was about to witness the unthinkable, unable to do anything to prevent it. The driver did slow down and swerved trying to avoid them, but Zoe was hit! I saw her roll forward and thought it was the end, but by some miracle of GOD she leapt right back up, ran straight to me along with her brother, and was completely okay. I looked her over and couldn't see anything but dust. We took them for a walk and watched her carefully for any sign of injury, but there was none. So this Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for that miracle.
We kept Thanksgiving dinner simple this year, since it was just the two of us. I cooked a whole chicken, partially in the crock pot and partially in the oven, and made stuffing and gravy. John made a green bean casserole and mashed potatoes, and bought an apple pie from a high-end bakery. We ate so much of the delicious savory stuff that we had no room for dessert!
Friday morning was a little crazy, as we knew it would be. We had to get all the music gear packed up and the dogs back to John's house, and drive a couple hours to get to DuCard Vineyards for our last, and longest, gig of the year. We had a nice time there, sold some of our new CDs, and left with two good bottles of wine.
We had booked a motel room for two nights at Graves Mountain. In the main lodge where we picked up our key, there was an old-time/bluegrass jam going on, so we listened in for a little bit before going up to our room and re-heating some Thanksgiving leftovers. This time we made sure to leave room for that yummy pie!
Graves Mountain is a complex with multiple cabins and motel buildings. We stayed up in the Hilltop Motel, and this was the view from the balcony in the morning, looking down on the main lodge:
We walked down to the lodge to partake in their breakfast buffet. Unlike your typical buffet, they bring all the dishes to you, and you serve yourself from those, family style. After eating way too much, we wandered through the various rooms to see what there was to see. One room upstairs is full of beautiful wood-inlay artwork that apparently had been given by the artist to the patriarch of the operation, Mr. Graves. This was one of our favorites:
Downstairs was a game room with a piano, foosball, and a ping-pong table. John and I played a 3-set match, which he won, but only barely. We were pretty equally matched in our suckitude, and probably spent more time chasing the ball than volleying, but had a lot of fun and worked off at least part of the heavy breakfast. After that we still had the steep uphill climb back to our room.
About noon, we set off on a hike. There was a spur trail right behind our building, so we took that instead of driving to a more prominent trailhead. The map provided by the lodge did not appear to match reality, so I just set my GPS tracker and we followed trail signs part of the time, and other times followed unmarked trails as the whim hit us.
We ended up on a farm with very friendly alpacas who came running towards us wanting their heads scritched. There were some goats in the paddock with them as well.
We talked with the property owner, apologizing for trespassing, explaining that we were just trying to get back to Graves Mountain. He did not seem annoyed with us at all; on the contrary, he said he had a surplus of eggs and wanted us to take some. We happily accepted, and hiked back "home" taking turns carrying the precious cargo that could not be stuffed in a backpack.
Later in the afternoon we headed up to Bald Top Brewing Co., with beer being only the secondary attraction, the main one being their amazing wood-fired pizza. We lucked out, arriving just in time to capture a gorgeous sunset.
Back in the main lodge at Graves Mtn., the group that had been jamming the night before had an official gig. We sat there in the cozy room with the blazing fire for quite awhile, drinking beer from Bald Top and listening to their music.
John sat in with them on "Friend of the Devil" while their bass player was taking a break.
As the music wound down, we went over to the game room where I challenged John to a ping-pong rematch. This time I lost horribly, and I blame that on the beer. After that, I sat down at the piano. The tuning was a little off but not horribly so. The E above middle C would not play at all, nor the E above that, but I started playing anyway, and John sang with me. We were just playing and singing for ourselves, but another couple wandered in and enjoyed it, and we got to talking, and next thing we knew we were sharing a couple of bottles of wine with them and chatting about this and that. Fun meeting you, Ana and Matt!
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