Traipsing Through Virginia

Work took me to DC and Virginia last week. I always enjoying visiting my old stomping grounds. I just wish it wasn't usually in the dead of winter. Single digit temperatures + a 1/2 mile walk to the meeting location = frozen face. Actually, I employed all my best cold weather gear and body heat conserving techniques. No frostbite here!

The Virginia portion of the trip included a ridiculous amount of driving. I can complain about it since I'm the one who planned my schedule :) That little rental Ford Focus added 800+ miles to its odometer in 5 days and I'd basically forgotten how to use the gear shift in our car by the time I got home.

Cold temperatures continued throughout my travels, but the only time I ran into snow trouble was in Southwest Virginia. For those who don't know, my job involves working with high school exchange students. I was going to visit a student who lives in a house up on a hill just over the WV state line. There's a fair bit of snow up in the mountains of West Virginia this time of year! As I was slowly creeping up the driveway, I had to go up a slight hill, and gravity wasn't interested in that happening. I'm sure all sorts of physics factors were at work - low friction coefficient on icy slush, the mass of the car, reduced velocity, the aforementioned gravity...the end result was the car sliding backwards. So, I applied the brakes gently. Then two 16 year old exchange students, who I suspect have never driven a car before, attempted to guide me to a safe resting place. The stood by the car shouting such helpful directions as "More! Now straight! No, more!" The one standing in front of the car said "towards me!" as I was traveling in reverse...

Somehow we managed to maneuver the vehicle around with its front pointed back down the hill, and I was able to inch down the mountain without further problems. It was pretty entertaining :)

And now, a couple photos from my flights.

Arriving as the sun sets, with a slight blanket of snow below.

Departure Day: deep freeze has set in. This is the frozen Potomac River with the Lincoln Memorial on the right

Frozen Mall + river. In just a few short months, this place will be teeming with cherry blossoms and signs of spring!

Someday I'll try to convince D.F. to write a guest post about our visitors from a couple weeks back - he was the main tour guide, as I had to work. Or I'll take notes and ghost write for him :)