Epilogue

Those of you who have logged on in the hopes that there will be one last posting, you shall be rewarded. I just wanted to finish the days I missed (August 12-15th), write about the bullet points, and mostly tell you about the great families we stayed with the 12th & 13th.
I have just scored myself an hour of free Internet at the MLK Jr. public library in downtown DC, where they have a very complex system of reserving and securing a computer. It is an enormous and beautiful library.
So, first the family we stayed with on the 12th. We had just come down from the Blue Ridge Parkway and we rode into Afton. We called Kevin and Jennifer and they came, he in his truck, she in her Suburu, to pick us and our bikes up and take us to their house in Faber, where they live with their 17 yr. old soccer star daughter, three dogs, and two cats, on 12 gorgeous acres with a pond you can swim in. They built their house and it is one of those under earth houses...I forget what the official name is...there is one in Village Homes. It was just beautiful. (I took pictures) They both had done lots of long distance bike touring so they could totally relate to everything. We swam in the pond, the boys went fishing for the first time...and by pure luck no one got snagged in the face by a hook..or caught an actual fish...except Kevin..who caught a Bass that he immed. unhooked and threw back in..much to Solomon's relief. We had a delicious dinner of homemade Manicotti and a mouthwatering green salad. Solomon spent most of his time with the dogs and is now soooo jonsing for a puppy. Kevin and Jennifer didn't help matters by constantly saying "awww, a boy his age needs a dog". For now he has Yonah...we said we would see about a dog when Yonah goes off to college. He may not be able to hold out that long.
Anyhow, the next morning we all went into town for breakfast at the local hot spot and then they both went to their respective jobs and we got on our bikes and headed into Charlottsville. They are an amazing family and we just loved hanging out with them. We had a great day at Monticello and all that..I think we already wrote about that..and then we went to Tom and Carmi's house. Matt knows them from when he lived on Kibbutz Gezer and Chicky and Steve had e-mailed us to tell us that they now lived in Charlotsville. So we rode to their house around 7pm, jumped in their pool, and had dinner with them and their daughter, Tamar (also 17 yrs. old,a dancer, who had just gotten back from a few weeks in Israel and was suffering withdrawal longings). Matt and I slept outside in this screened in porch area with a bed and I tried to see some meteors but fell asleep before I could see any. The next day we got up early, rode back to that breakfast place and had breakfast (same waiter, cook, everything), bought some groceries, and headed out for Remington where we were planning on sleeping. Well, after 70 hard, hilly, hot miles we got to Remington and there was NO place to sleep. Not even a park or gas station. So we went to Opal where about 3 different locals told us they would "not recommend staying at either of the two hotels in town". But the alternative was another 7 miles, along a really busy freeway, out of our way...so we got a room and it was skankier than we have ever seen. I think I already wrote about this so I'll just say that from there we headed out at early as possible. We thought it was going to be a relatively easy 50 miles to DC but as you know, it was almost 90. But we made it and have been having a blast in DC. Jonathan and Yaniv came to see us and we all went to the spy museum. Then we met back up with them after our meeting with Markey's office staff and we took the Metro (I love the metro in DC) to one of Sharon's favorite restaurants in DC, the Lebanese Taverna. We had been once before with Sharon and her family, when we were staying with them in DC (they were in DC for a year working for NSF)and it was really good. Well, after 10 weeks of canned peas, Doritos, and grilled cheese sandwiches...it was AMAZING!!!! Even Loni (Jonathan) said "make sure you thank Sharon for me..this is really great". So, there you go Sharon!!
We said goodbye to Loni and Yaniv at the train station stop and they went back to New York, and we rolled back to our hotel. Now I am really done eating like that! I have to stop eating like I'm biking 60 miles everyday or I will turn into a big, round melon!
I will try to hit as many of the bullet points as I can before my time runs out.
#1 the girl and her mom on the porch. We were up early this morning and it was still cool. It was about 7am and really quiet. It was a Sunday so no cars. We were in an area of rolling hills and enormous, perfectly mown lawns with houses set between the lawns, about an acre apart. We had not seen lawn ornaments for awhile so I was surprised to see a plastic fawn on the lawn of the house we were approaching. There was a young girl sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, fiddling with something in her lap. She was tanned and trim, had light brown hair with shiny highlights, neatly pulled back into a glistening ponytail. She looked like she was about 11 yrs. old. I thought "how sweet, she is outside, enjoying the cool, fresh air, before she will have to seek shelter in her air conditioned house for the remainder of the day. I wonder what she is working on? Needlework? Knitting? If she is knitting, I will forgive her the tacky plastic deer". As I got closer, I saw that in another rocking chair on the porch, sat her mom. Also tan and slender, hair all pouffed and coiffed, wearing orange tennis type shorts and an orange (and I'm not lying here)tube top, reading a magazine. I thought, this is such a sweet scene. Mother/Daughter outside enjoying the morning on the porch. It was like me and the boys reading in the hammock on the weekends (minus the tube top). Then, as we got almost to the top of the hill, where their house sat, I saw the girl lift up what she had been working on and point it at the plastic deer. It turns out she was fixing one of those plastic machine guns that you pull the trigger on and it simulates the firing off of about 10 rounds of ammunition. As we passed she was still taking careful aim at the deer from the comfort of her rocking chair and firing off rounds! It was so bizarre I just started laughing.
OK, I gotta send this because I only have a few min. left.
I'll try to get some more time and finish the other bullet points later.
Love,
Djina