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Monday, 05/19/03; Lake Anna, Virginia Day One
Sunshine on my Shoulder!
The day dawned brightly. Since we had less than 50 miles to drive to day to reach Connie and Jim Baker’s lakeside home, we elected to depart about 0830 to arrive mid-morning. It was a pleasure to “tool” along I-64 in sunny weather and we soon turned off onto US 522, a two-lane “Model A road.” What an enjoyable drive this was. Jim had given us explicit instructions on how to get there, but we were not too surprised, near the end of the trek, to find ourselves somewhat confused, but not lost, mind you! We turned into a little country store to discuss the situation.
A car drove up behind us and we thought that the driver wanted out, so we waved to her to come on by. But she didn’t budge, but got out of the car to see what we were about. Then Dennis thought, “I know this lady – who is she?”
Flashback to the MAFCA Annual Meeting and Banquet in December in Phoenix this past year: Jim and Connie Baker introduced us to Olivia and Richard who had joined them at the meet. Olivia and Richard are friends of the Bakers from Virginia. We had just run into Olivia, of all coincidences! We had a joyous reunion with Olivia and she quickly pointed out the route to the Bakers. While we drove following her instructions, she called Jim and Jim met us at the entrance to his lakeside community to lead us to his remarkable location on Lake Anna.
Left to right: Bakers' home, lakeside; Boat house; Bakers' home, drive side
Lake Anna is a rather large artificial lake constructed as a part of the cooling system of a nuclear power plant. It is quite scenic with lots of wooded inlets and many banks sloping up into pasture lands. Some of the latter have cows grazing to the water’s edge. When we walked onto Connie’s porch overlooking the nearby lake, we were greeted with the sight and sounds of three adult geese and a flock of goslings paddling across the water.
After we had unloaded our overnight bags, we were treated to a tour of the property, had lunch and then Jim took us on an interesting and refreshing ride in the Baker’s motor boat. Since the lake’s purpose is to cool the nuclear plant, it is physically divided into two sections: the intake and the discharge sections. The Bakers are situated on the discharge half of the lake which is much warmer than the other half. We motored up near the plant’s discharge area and Jim measured the temperature of the water. It was about 85 degrees! Of course, it is considerably cooler near the Baker house. Depending on the season and the type of water activity planned, they have various options in selecting water temperatures.
Left to right: Captain Jim; Cool water
That evening, the Bakers invited some neighbors over for refreshments and then we had dinner with Olivia and Richard at the Baker’s. It was a very nice ending for a perfect day.
That’s all for today from,
The refreshed and happy Four
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