As the plane landed in Charlottesville, Va I had zero expectations. I’m not sure if it was because I had only booked my ticket a few days earlier, or because I had been working up to the very last second before I left for my trip and had never actually taken the time to process the absurdity of just how crazy flying from Washington State to Virginia to attend a party with a group of complete strangers (minus Jane & JJ) was. I had simply read one of JJ’s posts announcing she was having a party… and spontaneously accepted an invitation.
As I had stepped off the plane and retrieved my carry on luggage all I knew was that I was going to rent a car, and drive to Jane’s house and then the next day attend JJ’s pie party. That’s it. That’s as far as I have gotten in my mind.
I had met Jane & JJ online about 2 1/2 years ago thru blogging. We all shared an interest in gardening, our children and PANERA. And now I was going to meet the two of them… in real life. In person. Face to face. I had talked to Jane a few times on the phone but never to JJ. And if it were not for the map app on my (stupid) smart phone I would have never made it out of the parking lot. I estimated the drive time to be about 1 hour. And as I drove past the old houses, farms and wide open spaces, I suddenly felt as if I was on a movie set.
All I could think about was The Waltons. Walton’s Mountain. The Blue Ridge Mountains… and how odd it was, I was there.
After driving for about an hour, I finally reached Jane’s road. I pulled over. I stopped the car. Looked in the rear view mirror and said “Mavis… you.are.crazy”. Then I started the car and drove past Jane’s house. Not once, not twice, but three times until I finally found it.
Jane, Jamey, and her 3 children turned out to be just as I imagined them. Kind. Sweet. Humble and Real.
They showed me around their garden, feed me dinner and helped me look up some Virgina State trivia for a little project I was working on.
After the kids went to bed… Jane and I made our pies, cut out fabric (for party hats) and stayed up late talking about life, kids, blogs and anything else that came to mine. It felt like I had been there before. And I had been… just not in a physical sense. At times I felt as if I was stepping into one of her daily blog posts. I guess “surreal” would be the correct word. It felt surreal. I was comfortable and I felt at home and by the time my head hit the pillow it was about 3am.
Mir & Mavis in footed pajamas
Breakfast came and went and soon we were all out the door. Jane and her family were headed off to church, and I decided to take a little road trip out to Luray caverns. The plan was to meet up later at JJ’s house for the Pie Party.
To be continued.
Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 1
Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 2
Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 3
And let’s not forget these three related stories too:
Mavis Goes To Virginia… Part 1 Getting There Is Half The Fun… Or So They Say
Mavis Goes to Virginia Part 3 … The Pie Party
mamasminutia says
You didn’t wear the footed pajamas at my house!!!!
You Can Call Me Jane says
You are welcome back any time, my dear:-).