Saturday, Sunday and Monday

Well we are busy with loving up on grand babies and of course Amy and Tyler. Its been cool both Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning of course all of that is about to change starting with Tuesday morning and for the rest of the week as high hot temps will possibly break records for the area. We got a hike in on Friday and got to watch the downtown parade in Sparta Saturday afternoon. Ava loved the parade as she was given lots of candy that was passed out. We had some great suppers along with a fresh black raspberry cobbler for dessert. We had neighbors Gerald, Jodi and Gabe up for games after supper and had much fun until late.

Sunday we headed out to Winchester, that's the area where I grew up, actually I grew up in a small community of Mountain Falls with a small store that had a post office and a gas pump. The store has long closed but is being refurbished. We visited with friend Adeline(Paw Paw's widow female friend) for just a few minutes as she was under the weather, then we headed to Mountain Falls. I showed the kids where I lived with my grand mother before being being taken in by Paw Paw. He and Joanne gave me a stable home life along with 3 sister's Josie, Pat and Dee. My grand mother's house is in shambles and in need of repair even though its occupied. It was sad to see its present condition. Afterwards we headed over to the home place where I lived until after graduating from high school. The place had lots of changes but the land was the pretty much the same except for a huge power line that transected the middle of the property. The people who live ther now were really cordial to me when they found out that I grew up there in the 50's and 60's. They invited me in to see the insides which were unrecognizable except for the stair bannister and the stain glass in the front door which was part of the original house. There had been 3 previous owners of the place prior to the existing owners and were they ever interested in what the original house looked like. All of the original out building were gone as well as most of the landscaping. We spent about an hour there before heading out to make an impromptu stop at my Aunt Nancy's.

I hadn't visited with her for many years and she remembered me instantly although she is suffering from the usual age related health issues. Her husband passed several years ago and while she has a daughter that lives close by she is alone. It was great to see her and introduce her to Ava and Samuel. After leaving her place we traveled down the road which I rode a school bus for years before getting my license. My old high school is still an architectural masterpiece for a county high school and has now been turned into a middle school. We then headed in to the town of Winchester to meet up with Paw Paw at his house.

We visited for about an hour before we headed to Cracker Barrel to meet up with oldest sister Josie and her son BJ, middle sister Pat made a quick appearance but did not eat and youngest sister Dee. We had a sumptuous meal as we had skipped lunch. After eating we visited in the parking lot and took a few pics before heading out to Dee's house. I must comment about the high temps and heat as we saw the near 100 degree mark. It was really hard on the Ava and Samuel and thankfully Dee's house was fully air conditioned.

We had a good restful night there and awakened to a beautiful sunrise in the Shenandoah Valley. Dee prepared a beautiful and very tasty breakfast casserole as well as a tasty fresh fruit salad. Ava and Bonnie( Dee's dog) has a good time playing outside until Pat and her gang showed up. After viusiting with them we packed up and headed over to Pizza Hut for lunch. After a tasty lunch, lots of laughter and visiting we headed out for the cabin with the temps close to the triple digits. It was a busy highway south on I-81 and we finally made the Walmart in Galax around 5 PM. After a quick stop for supplies and gas we headed home. Everything looked fine as we saw both the flower and veggie gardens had survived any deer damage. I must mention we saw at a dozen deer carcasses along I-81 on our way up and back.

Well last night after a fresh garden salad for supper be put the kids to bed and cranked up the attic fan and opened a couple windows in the cool basement which drew the cool air up an into the upstairs bedroom. I think today we are talking about installing a window a/c unit in the upstairs to make it a little more comfortable for sleeping up there. Samuel and Tyler has a restless night, while downstairs was comfortable as we slept with a sheet and blanket. This morning (Tuesday) it was 60 degrees when we rolled out at 7:30. Later