I drove up to Charlottesville on Friday (for a strategy meeting with a House of Delegates candidate and to see some friends) and came back to Blacksburg late Sunday afternoon. The weather on Sunday was quite pleasant, so Amber and I were pleased to spend much of the day outside, at a horse race.
I quite like driving on interstate 81, the highway that runs most of the way between my two homes. (My exit for both towns is 118-B, oddly enough.) I start by taking 64 west over the Blue Ridge, and then turn south onto 81 for the bulk of the journey. The road takes me along the Shenandoah Valley for quite some time before taking me past Roanoke and up over the mountains into the New River Valley. The view throughout much of the trip is quite nice. I must confess that I have a soft spot for 81 because it parallels the Appalachian Trail throughout a good chunk of Virginia, even intersecting at one point on my drive.
It rained just a little bit about an hour before dark, and a double rainbow (only one is evident in this photograph) emerged to the east.
I got back to Blacksburg just as dusk turned to dark, driving southwest towards the setting sun.
When I got out of the car in Blacksburg, it was very cold.