​(A placid farm on the way down to the Shenandoah. Image Steven Christie).

It is unusual to be down at the farm during the week, but there was a ceremony marking the 5th Anniversary of the company’s presence out in Page County at ten this morning, and I took the opportunity to beat rush hour out of the Imperial City and situated in a place where there would not be gridlocked while attempting to break out.

It was a great decision- the weather was magnificent on the drive down and the evening splendid as happy hour washed over me. The trip to Luray this morning was a piece of cake- though driving over the mountain is always a little exciting while assaulting the summit of the pass.

I was listening to the satellite radio on the way, tuned into the testimony o FBI Director James Comey as I did the disorienting hair-pin turns near the top. I actually was getting a little bilious as I drove. I could not tell if it was the blather being spewed on the radio, or the impact of the twisting forward motion on my inner ear.

As I cam down the slope into the Shenandoah Valley, I was taken by the pastoral beauty of what had been the ‘readbasket of the Confederacy,” and the privations visited against the American people who lived there. They say Winchester changed hands more than fifty times over the course of the war. It was a sobering consideration, considering what is going on all over.

Down in the country, though, It is feeling almost like summer. The grass and foliage are roaring with life, and it is all as green as can be. Life is spectacular- though it will be even better when this accursed proposal is done and submitted to the government!

Meanwhile, the Director of the Navy History and Heritage Center has agreed to come and ‘talk-story’ with us for Third Thursday on 18 May at the historic Sonoma Cellars in Old Town.

This will be one not to be missed- no one but Sam Cox has the kind of visceral appreciation for how we all arrived at this place in time and history!

Hope to see you there!

Vic