Best Day Ever ...

   Day 2 of my mental health staycation was really much better than Day 1.

  Although to be fair, chatting with one of the Raiders football team's staff was kind of a highlight of yesterday.  I told him that "back in the day" when the Raiders were still in Los Angeles, I watched them beat the Denver Broncos at the LA Coliseum and greatly appreciated how much it upset my now ex-husband.  Even if it did "age" me considerably.

Click images
to enlarge them.

  I found yet another motorcycle ride-worthy road.  I might eventually have to get serious about finding a male friend with a motorcycle.

  Highway 219 North from Lewisburg up towards Yew Mountain has got to be the most beautiful and relaxing highway of winding roads, mountains, farms, and just beauty everywhere.  If you go, be sure to take the drive on a Friday or Saturday when the [link>] Good Roads Bakehouse in Frankford might be open.

  I had heard nothing but good things about them, and when I passed them going up, I immediately turned around and went back for one of their pretzel dogs and two loaves of sourdough bread.  I'm told their cinnamon rolls and brownies are amazing, so I suppose I will just be forced (if I must, I must) to make the drive again.

  Renick is a beautiful farm community just north of Frankford.  I think in the next year or two I may be in a better position to buy a forever home, and Renick has topped my list of places where I want to spend the rest of my days (my upcoming one out of this current situation will be the 40th move of life, and unfortunately, not the last one).

  Especially if I can get a view like this one.

  My trip north today was to see my friends, Erica & Will, and to meet their new baby girl, Hazel Mae.  This is the view out their kitchen window.  I don't know if I would ever get any dishes washed.  I'd just be too mesmerized with the view every day.

 

  The road to their house was surrounded by beautiful woods, and this lovely lady casually crossed the road in front of me when I slowed to a stop for her.  No fear, tail relaxed and down, like she didn't have a care in the world.  She stopped just at the edge of the road and when I asked if I could take her picture, she waited for me.  It was just incredibly peaceful there.  (My reputation from the Michigan Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin for stopping to yell at the deer near the road and warn them to watch out for cars apparently hasn't traveled this far south yet.)

 

  Erica claims I must be some kind of baby-whisperer but I don't know about all that.  Hazel was the first time I've actually met and held a one-month-old baby.  (I did, however, whisper to her to go to the dark side when she was fighting her nap.  I doubt that was the kind of whispering Erica was hoping for.)

  I think it was because we share the same middle name, which was unplanned when Will & Erica picked her name.

  She knows I'm a kindred soul who will fill her head with magical stories of wood fairy girls riding on the backs of goldfinches and wrens as they watch their brothers race on the backs of chipmunks and voles to see who can get to the raspberry brambles first. The loser has to ride a toad home, so best to use the fastest shortcut through the garden, and not to get caught by the rooster!

  It was a day that was much better than expected, and just what yesterday's doctor ordered.