A friend of mine had asked me to take some pictures of the countryside for her while I was in West Virginia with Jev. We didn't get out a whole lot, but we did make the trip to DC on the 11th through the 13th, and I took the digital camera and went snap-happy. I posted the pictures in a web page on my main site, for my friend to see, but I thought I would share them with you, too.
I didn't want to overload anyone with too many images on a page, so this will be a two-page entry, though only the first page will be linked into the calendar.
We crossed a lot of countryside, going from West Virginia into Virginia, and then up into Maryland. I wanted to get some good pictures of the mountains, but it seemed like I was never quite at the right angle... a few times I was able to get shots through the windshield, but it just never conveyed the size of the mountains that I was trying to capture.
I grew up in Southern California, and on clearer days, you could see the San Gabriels from where I lived. Actually, at one point I lived *in* San Gabriel, and then we could always see them, but that was only for about a year or two, when my mom married a guy who had a house there.
It was really a pretty day when we started out, and we had the CD player going, singing along to the songs, enjoying the view and our freedom from Jev's dad. (Who was being a royal pain, refusing to let Jev take any of the cars for the trip.)
There wasn't much snow left on the ground when we left West Virginia, but we saw more and more as we got deeper into Virginia. There was one shot with the sun sparkling on a snow-blanketed hillside that I really wanted, but the sun was facing me and poor little digital camera just couldn't cope with all the sunlight and reflected sunlight, so I couldn't get the shot.
I wasn't sure if this one would turn out very good, since I took it out my side window, and we were moving along pretty fast, but I've always liked seeing snow, and signs of the season. Growing up where I did, I don't think I ever saw snow on the ground until I was nine or ten, and didn't get to play in it until a couple years later, so it still kinda fascinates me.
Even though the view out my window from where I'm sitting right now is just of the neighbor's trucks, and the street corner, I still like looking out and seeing the snow. The view out my back window is nicer, but I have to lean back and away from the computer for that.
More hills, and snow... just looks so peaceful and quiet out there. There were a few farms dotted here and there, and I really wanted to get a picture of a farm like I think of it... big wooden barn and a silo... all surrounded by snow. Of course when I saw something I liked, it was usually on Jev's side of the car. And since we didn't pass back the same way, I didn't get any second chances.
Now that I know we'll be living in Roanoke, (it's official... Jev accepted the job offer on Friday), and probably driving down to Greensboro, NC, or Richmond, or another big city every now and then for computer stores and 'civilization' (Roanoke's not bad, they actually have a Target and several malls in the area), I'll probably get many more chances to get that picture I want. And since we won't be on such a limited schedule, we can stop and get out so I can get better pictures, too. Jev would have stopped for me whenever I asked, but we were both anxious to get to the hotel and get checked in, so we could do the town.
More of the countryside... and less snow. We'd had a good bit of snow the previous week, and I guess some places got more of it than others. Our timing on the trip was just about perfect though... the roads were clear both ways, and we got out of the DC area just before it got hit by a big ice storm. That would NOT have been fun!
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