2025-09-28 12:00:00
Trip: 54
Nights: 183-184
It's a solid 4 hour drive from RVA to Floyd VA. The forecast was for a complete rain out on Saturday. We came anyway as this was a visit the town camping trip, not a hiking and exploring trip. As I start this on my phone at 3:30PM I'm sitting outside at Buffalo Mountain Brewing enjoy an Irish Red Ale. It hasn't rained all day, although I do think the weather will keep us in the camper tonight. There is a guy doing acoustic rock standards on mandolin at the brewery.
We are camping at Hippie Hollow, which is a Hipcamp. It lives up to its name. The campground is a couple of acres right on the creek. The owner lives on site in an RV and he has 4 or 5 sites for rent. He does have a nice bathroom with a shower in a portable trailer, with a permanent bath house under construction. He mentioned that he was in RVA a couple of weeks ago for the Widespread Panic concert. I've got 50A service and water, camping about 2 miles from town. And about 1 mile from this brewery.
Live music is the reason to visit Floyd. It's a literal 1 stoplight town, but within 1 block of that stoplight last night there were at least 6 live music opportunities. Americana jam sessions on the street are a thing here. There were 3 last night all within 50 yards of each other, guitar, stand up bass, mandolin, fiddle, and washboard players coming in and out of the groups as they played. The artists market had live music too. 2 small "clubs" had touring bands and a cover charge. The population of Floyd at the 2020 census was 440 people. That is one live music act for every 80 people. And I'm told last night was a little slow. Can any place in the world match that live music per capital ratio?
We got in around 3:30 PM on Friday and after setting up camp headed "downtown." We wandering the 1 block each direction from the stoplight checking out some stores and galleries and stopping to enjoy the jam sessions. After dinner at the local Mexican place we enjoyed some more street music before heading back to camp before it got dark. It was raining by 8 PM so Friday night was a play cards and drink beer in the camper while streaming the Red Sox radio feed kind of night. The good guys locked up a playoff spot on a walk off hit and I stifled my desire to celebrate loudly as there was a tent in the neighboring campsite. But I did celebrate, silently.
Saturday morning we slept in until 8, expecting it to be raining. It wasn't raining, and as I looked at the radar I realized the forecast was off and it would not be a rain out today. It was about 2 hours later when the forecast updated. Score one for the humans over AI.
So we spent the late morning and early afternoon on Saturday continuing to explore Floyd. We walked into just about every shop and gallery and had pleasant conversations with every shop owner we encountered. You don't get to browse quietly in Floyd. You at least have to chat with somebody as the price of entering the store. After a late lunch at the local diner we visited the local historical society museum and then went over to the brewery. Rain chased us inside from our front porch spot at the brewery around 4 PM. Once the storm passed we went to Food Lion as neither of us wanted to eat out again, and we had planned on dinner out Saturday night, so we had nothing to prepare for dinner. The rain started again just as we got back to the camper, and it was still raining when I went to sleep shortly after midnight.
On Sunday we went to the local park about a mile from the campground and spent a little over an hour with the local bird population. We identified 26 species, nobody was a rarity or particularly special. But that is fine with me. I'm perfectly happy walking around the woods for an hour with the Robins and Cardinals. #AllBirdsAreSpecial After that we packed up the camper and had an uneventful drive home.
I can't believe I've been in VA since 1998 and that was my first extended visit to Floyd. I did stop in to meet a friend for about an hour a few years back. Floyd is my kind of people. It reminds me of Davis, WV in that it's an enclave of sanity in an area that is mostly in favor of the shit happening in the country right now. I suspect there are more of these oasis' in VA and WV, and now I want to find them.
2025-09-24 12:00:00
My very first forays onto the Internet were clicking around Gopher Space via a gateway in a dial-up BBS that I frequented. THis would have been 1991 or 92, I think. So last wek, when I ran into this article about the simple joys of browsing Gopher sites I knew what I needed to do.
You'll need Lynx or some sort of browser plug-in to surf around Gopher space, and you should absolutely do it. There is a surprisingly active community of people maintaining Gopher blogs, or phlogs. You can go here as a starting point.
Have fun.
2025-09-20 12:00:00
I'm proudly Antifa. As was my grandfather who was injured in a Kamikaze attack on the USS Santee on October 25, 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
If you aren't anti-fascist you are pro-fascist. That is not an opinion, that is literally how the concepts of pro and anti work.
2025-09-14 12:00:00
It's fall migration season! We went birding both mornings this weekend. We got 46 species this morning, including some really nice warblers such as Wilson's, Prothonotary, Hooded, and a bunch more. The eBird list is at https://ebird.org/checklist/S273359482.. The trees are still full of leaves and warblers never sit still, making them very hard to photograph, so no photos. My camera does not do well auto-focusing a bird in the leaves. I did get some nice butterfly shots this morning though.
I also did my fall yard maintenance this week, pulling a big pile of weeds by hand and mowing, raking, over seeding and fertilizing. I mixed in some clover seed in the backyard. I also built a pine bark island under the bird feeders, since nothing desirable grows under them anyway.
If you are looking to get away from big tech the Rebel Tech Alliance has lists of alternatives to the usual suspects.
Someone in Tasmania has been traveling the country making 360 degree photos of the amazing scenery, and they've shared it all online.
I Tried Every To Do app and Ended Up with a.txt file is a blog post that delivers exactly what you would expect based on the title.
This guide to replacing the stock apps on an Android phone with FOSS options is great place to start if that sort of thing appeals to you. I've already done the biggies, mail and calendar, by using K9 and Etar respectively. But there is more I can do, and I plan to do it.
This blog post argues that if we want to see forums and communities on the open web that rival Facebook, etc. then we need to do the hard work of building those communities ourselves.
The Death of the Corporate Job makes a compelling argument that many corporate jobs are mostly performance art. A lot of people learned during COVID working from home that they could do their job in 3 hours a day. But now that are back in the office trying to look busy 10 hours a day. So they attend meetings where no decisions are made and create PowerPoint decks about the meeting that nobody will read. The more industrious are working on their side project between BS corporate meetings.
And finally, via my buddy Ryan, a list of notable rocks from Wikipedia.
And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2025-09-06 12:00:00
90+F today in Richmond. 70F tomorrow. Welcome to fall in Richmond. The run of cool temps two weeks ago was fake fall, which was followed by second summer this week with temps back up in the 90s and the drop tomorrow is RVA settling into fall for real. The 4 seasons thing is a fake news. We have 13 seasons in Richmond.
Last weekend was glorious. 3 days with no cell service at the campground and absolutely perfect weather the entire time. I wish I could do that every weekend. Work continues to keep me very busy, although I feel like I'm working much harder this year and making less. Welcome to self-employment? I'm not sure what I'll be doing year. I may have options for FT employment, maybe a PT job and PT self-employment, or maybe I stay FT freelance. Or maybe I hit the $1.8 billion Powerball this weekend and none of you ever hear from me again.
What would you do if you won the lottery for really big bucks? I would put an insane amount aside to live on, like $50 million or something, write big checks to family, and then start a foundation and my "job" for the rest of my life would be to give it all away to people working to make the world a better place.
I don't have many links again. I need to work harder at saving things I find online.
A list of some off the best streaming indie radio stations in the US. I've completely quit Spotify, etc. as my source of background music when working or whatever. I always go with streaming radio stations now.
This article about Octavia Butler's uncannily accurate predictions of the future is interesting.
The best wildlife photos of the year, so far.
A new blog about productivity software from the early days of the PC area. Wordstar and Lotus 123 FTW!
And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2025-09-01 12:00:00
Trip: 53
Nights: 180-182
We camped for 3 nights in the Loft Mountain campground. Loft Mountain is my favorite campground in SNP because it's in the less developed, less visited Southern region of the park. We got in around 5:30 PM on Saturday and after setting up camp enjoyed a chill evening around the campfire in the cool mountain air. It was low 60s during the day and upper 40s at night the entire weekend. That is ideal camping weather.
On Saturday we took the dog and did a scenic drive along Skyline Drive, stopping at just about all the scenic overlooks between Loft Mountain and Big Meadows. At Big Meadows we stopped at the picnic area for lunch. It was a postcard perfect blue sky day in the mountains. After making the drive back to the campground we spent the afternoon lounging at the campsite while reading.
One thing that we have leaned is that Teddy does not enjoy camping. He will not sleep outdoors. So all afternoon he was on his bed beside us while we relaxed, but he just will not sleep outdoors. But the time we go into the camper for the evening he is so tired that he can barely walk. And he can barely walk on a good day due to his age. However, if we try to leave him in the camper he will bark, so he has to be outside with us. Luckily, I think our pet sitter will be available for our final two planned trips of the year.
On Sunday, we took our time getting up and then made omelets for breakfast. After that I packed my backpack and headed out to do a couple of hikes. My first hike started at the Ivy Creek overlook on Skyline Drive. It's 2.8 miles out and back on the Appalachian trail with Ivy Creek being the turnaround point. At about .8 miles there is a stunning west facing overlook. Ivy Creek was a pleasant surprise at the bottom as it was gurgling nicely and my 5 minute break there to the sound of water falling over the rocks was very relaxing. Since the hike in is almost all downhill that means the hike back to the car is all uphill. But it is not too bad.
After lunch at a west facing overlook where I could pick up a cell signal for a quick check on the state of the world I headed for my second hike. But not before I killed a couple of Spotted Lanternfly moths that landed near me. Spotted Lanternfly are stunningly beautiful, and also invasive and very damaging to US forests. You should always eliminate them when you have the opportunity.
The second hike was a 2.1 mile loop with two fabulous overlooks. It starts across Skyline Drive from the Loft Wayside and does a counter clockwise loop. The first .6 miles are uphill but the payoff at the top of worth it. The rocky summit provides an unobstructed 180 view. After that it is a gentle 1.6 mile downhill hike back to Skyline Drive about 100 yards north of where you started.
Both hikes are worth doing but if you have to pick one do the second one. The views from the top are spectacular. Also the wayside sells individual locally brewed beers for $2 a can, so a post hike beer is convenient and cheap.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the Loft Mountain wayside for their famous blackberry ice cream. It lives up to its press. On Sunday night I made one of our favorite camping meals, Cacio e Pepe. I don't make it true to the original recipe though, I use freshly grated parmigiana cheese instead. It's still tasty though. Sunday night we played cribbage, with we winning both games.
The drive home on Monday was uneventful. Teddy was asleep before we got out of the campground and didn't even stir when I stopped for gas. The poor dog, forced to spend the weekend in the mountains, mostly outdoors, with his humans.
