To Virginia and Back

 Last week Sheila, Courtney and I boarded a plane to take us to Sheila's sister out in Chesapeake, VA.  After connecting in Atlanta (my first time thru that airport) we arrived at their local time at 1:00 AM.  The folks at the Avis counter were top notch in that one, and Delta Airlines managed to regain some points with me.

I had met my sister-in-law when she was here in Tucson, but I had not met the rest of her family.  They were great hosts and I felt an instant connection to my brother-in-law.  Side trips were made to Virginia's Eastern Shore and down to Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina where I got to visit the spot where the Wright brothers changed the world on one cold December morning over 100 years ago.  

While in the Tarheel State, I sampled some eastern North Carolina barbecue, which I had when I was last there in 2012.  This time it was a different place, and no offense to anyone there, but I just wasn't impressed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it had flavor, but my palate seems to be more favorable to what I had in Texas and what I've had off of my grill.  It's that I won't go out of my way for eastern NC barbecue, but I hope that sometime next year I will be in the western part of that state to try it Piedmont style.

Virginia is a beautiful state, and was when I lived in Manassas in 1975.  My memories of Manassas are very fond, and for a long time I wanted to go back there and live.  While in Arlington on business in 1989 I drove to Manassas and saw that it had changed so much that I wouldn't even consider living there now.  It's grown, the traffic was worse, and I'm sure that it's reached the intolerable point some time ago.

I should post some pictures of this, which means I might create a photo album page at some point in the future.  I'm still too jet-lagged to do anything like that today.  We got back late Wednesday night, and I'm slowly unpacking and getting things back to where they used to be before we left.  We enjoyed that trip very much and definitely want to do it again next year.  

There's still some traveling we want to do.  Our next road trip will take us over into the Land of Enchantment, as that I want to visit the Space Museum in Alamogordo as well as some other places.  After that I'm thinking Prescott and Sedona.

Before I go, one announcement that I didn't think I'd be making.

I'm giving some thought to coming out of retirement.  No, I am not bored or anything like that.  It's that some of the jobs that the recruiters have been contacting me about look like they'd be really fun and interesting to do.  I have turned down lots of interview requests recently, but I'm thinking, why not update my resume, throw it out there, and see what happens?

Ideally it would be a part time contracting gig, and one of my former employers would offer me that, and possibly another former employer.  The money would be useful and would help further my recreational pursuits.  

It's something to think about some more, but I can't tell you which way I will go on this.  

But as busy as I have been in retirement, if I go back to the workforce then I could get some rest.