Two days ago, I learned from the father of my son’s college roommate that they had a concert planned for tonight! (They’re both violinists in the university’s Chamber Orchestra.) My son never mentioned it because he couldn’t imagine we would want to drive 2.5 hours just to attend an hour-long concert. Oh, he of little faith. Of course we would!
My husband would have liked to come, too. But by the time we found out about it, Bob had a roofing guy coming this afternoon. It had already been rescheduled once, and he didn’t want to reschedule again. So I decided to take a last-minute trip by myself. I also decided to treat myself to a room here for the night, so I wouldn’t be driving home late.
My first choice of where to stay was the on-campus hotel. It’s so close to his dorm and the music complex that I could have parked at the hotel and walked over, and not had to deal with parking on campus. Unfortunately, there were no rooms at the inn. So I booked instead at a quaint old inn I’d stayed at once last year. It’s only a mile or so from the concert, but I didn’t want to walk back alone in the dark, so I got a visitor parking pass (it didn’t turn out to be too much of a hassle).
The last time I stayed here, it was the Stonewall Jackson Inn, with a Civil War theme throughout. Jackson freed the Shenandoah Valley from those dastardly Northern Aggressors, so he’s quite the local hero. Last year, I balanced out that lack of political correctness by choosing the William T. Sherman room.
This year, like so many other Confederate-named places, the place has been revamped and the name changed. And, frankly, it’s much, much better decorated! No more Civil War artwork and portraits of generals (from both sides) on the walls. And the inn is full of fascinating nooks, carved fireplaces, stained glass windows, lovely old woodwork, and so forth, but with a vibe that’s pretty casual.
As I sit here at an antique desk, rubbing my toes against the wood-pegged floors and admiring the pretty quilts on the beds, I’m liking it so much that I’m sorry it’s only one night — and much of that time spent going to the concert and taking my violinist to dinner. I was seriously toying with the idea of staying another night, so I’d have time to relax a bit, but the place is totally booked tomorrow, so I guess I’ll have to brave Friday traffic and go home as planned.
The Chamber Orchestra concert, by the way, was excellent, in its first in-person concert since February 2020. (And I was pleased to see that masks were required, and that I was able to stay distanced from other audience members.) The orchestra played works by Hayden, Abel, and Mozart. And my son is second chair in the first violin section! He says he’s actually the only violinist in the group who isn’t studying violin as his primary instrument. He and his roommate are both Music Composition majors and violinists, but every music major has to pick a primary instrument (or voice). His is piano.
The roofing guy, by the way, turned out to have no experience with cedar-shake roofs, so he couldn’t do the job. So Bob paid him to use his pressure washer to do a quick job on the front stoop, but now we still need a roofing guy. That’s the last time we use Angi’s list! Bob might have come with me to campus, if he’d known he wouldn’t be supervising roof maintenance all afternoon.
I think the concert will be posted online; he’ll have to see it there.
The Petrini Page 