Home from the hills

I'm back from a wonderful vacation traveling in the Appalachians of Virginia and West Virginia. I was internet-free and mostly TV-free as well. I took about 250 photographs and made numerous drawings and color sketches, which I will be posting here in the next days. This is the first sketch I did on the trip, on the evening of the first day. I visited Strasburg, Virginia, a historic town at the foothills of the mountains. There is plenty of old architecture and an antiques mall too. This log house was near the center of town. It had been occupied until recently, by an ambitious architect who hoped to upgrade it and renovate it. Now it is vacant, for rent or for whatever its owner might get for it. If I had loads of money I would buy it and have it retrofitted as a secretly modern, outwardly rustic small-town home. But I don't have that kind of money, so I just drew it. Strasburg has the potential to be an excellent tourist town, but right now it's still shabby and slow. Some people who live there actually commute into the Washington area, a journey of two hours each way. I would never do that, I think that's insane. I really liked Strasburg and hope to return soon.