Our weekend of fire and ice......

Actually, more like hot water and snow


Deciding to be around for the 3 day weekend meant we were looking for local things to do to staid our ennui.  We purchased a backgammon game for each other for Valentine's Day, so we've been practicing that daily.  We still need the cheat sheet to even set up the board correctly.  We used to play in Peace Corps but that was 38 years ago and we're rusty on the strategy. I'm über conservative and it works for me about a third of the time. Our board-that-turns-into-a-suitcase fits perfectly on our camping coffee table so we can go outside and play in the sun which comes out in between snow flurries.

It snowed for an hour, great big fluffy flakes that melt when they hit the ground.  But the weather made things cold and gloomy enough that we wanted to get out of the house. This old historic house comes with modern heating but when you set it to automatically turn off when you're gone to work (or to be away,) the indoor temperature drops pretty rapidly despite all Judd's "weather proofing."  We keep telling each other, "It's an old house." An 1850 house to be precise.

So to warm up the weekend, we researched hot tubs.  Not to own, just to sit in--day use. Jackson Wellsprings natural hot springs is 25 minutes away in Ashland. We read about it on line, comparing it to the Chozu Japanese Soaking baths and gardens. Chozu was fancy and classy and expensive and even with our yoga discount, we opted for Wellsprings. They claimed a $10 day-use pass would get us in the hot mineral springs, sauna, steam room and cold splash.  We went to find out.  Driving in we were skeptical. It looked like a low grade RV park where there was hardly spitting distance between RVs. But there was a nice office building with a yoga studio, healthy snack bar and common meeting room under a huge tent called the casbah. The $10-each got us a code to enter the baths: Clean showers, well kept, cubbies for your shoes, clientele from 12 to seemingly 112 years old. A group of women friends, chatting too loudly. A couple young couples . A family, alternating from the hot tub (which holds about 40) to the "mini-Olympic" sized cold splash pool. We were there around 4pm and spent a couple luxurious hours. The pool content is a natural alkaline water heavy with sodium, chloride, calcium and slight hydrogen sulfide, redolent of hard boiled eggs but good for your skin and aches and pains. On the way out, the manager reminded us our pass was good until midnight and after 6pm the baths become clothing optional so we could come back after dinner. We were home by then, relaxed and/or dehydrated to the point of sleepy. Maybe next time. 

Sunday was National Drink Wine Day, so we did.  2Hawks Vineyard is just 20 minutes from Jacksonville and one we'd not yet visited.  It purported to have views of Mt. Ashland but we arrived in a torrent of windy snow and could barely see the vines. By the time we left, 2 flights, 2 glasses and a flatbread pizza later, it had nearly cleared up and we could see the ski runs in the distance on Mt. Ashland.  The vines had recently been trimmed. We can't wait to come back in the spring and sit outside. If Louis Pasteur says it's hygienic we should definitely drink more.

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