MAY 3, FRIDAY

INTERSTATE 81

On Friday we drove from Asheville to Palmyra outside of Charlottesville, Virginia to attend the memorial service for Craigs Chippendale‘s mother, Joyce, who died at 94 in February.

Interstate 81 goes north along the western side of the Appalachians up the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. It is crowded with big trucks and but beautiful with wooded hills on both sides.

We stopped in Roanoke for lunch at the City Market which is at the Center on the Square. There is a farmer‘s market outside the City Market, inside is a food court with a variety of esoteric restaurants. I have a plate of Jamaican oxtails, great big bony chunks with little meat, with boiled buttered cabbage and rice and gravy.

We walked around downtown Roanoke we saw a wierd especially equipped car with cameras in front and behind. We wondered if it was a Google Maps car. But no, it was an ingenious car for catching people who overstayed their hour in a one hour parking zone. When the uniformed driver stepped out, a genial man with a wide smile, we learned that his camera loaded car automatically checked the one hour parking area for license plates and the position of the air valves on tires as he slowly drove down the street. If the air valve connected with a license plate was in the same position after an hour then the car was written a citation. It seemed a little insidious to us, but his smile was a sign that he loved his job and that each citation gave him joy. Then we drove on to Charlottesville.