Monday

Well we awakened in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance at youngest sister Dee and Mike's home. After recouping from the D.C. trip on Sunday we spent the day in the Valley. After our quiet times, oatmeal with fruit and a walk with Dee and Bonnie in the 'hood we got ready to head up to Winchester.

Paw Paw's yard needed mowing so we loaded Mike's mower in the back of the truck and headed out while Dee headed off to work. It's about 25 miles or so to Winchester. Wow was it ever starting to heat up. The yards weren't large but by the time I finished both front and back I was starting to sweat. We cooled off inside before walking downtown which was just a couple blocks as parking is a premium there. We visited main street which has been closed off and no traffic is allowed for about a 1/2 mile or so. The neat old buildings many built out of limestone were constructed in the 1700's. We visited inside the old courthouse which was built in 1840 and was still in use up to 1988, was that ever interesting as its still in its original form. There were lots of Civil War memorabilia with musket shells and cannon balls. We missed seeing the building with the unexploded cannon ball in its wall. We walked around the downtown area until it became miserably too HOT; as we left Paw Paw's house the thermometer read 105 degrees, Yikes that's a bit warm even for sunny hot Florida.

We came back and cooled off at Dee's and had some lunch still waiting for sisters Josie(Sharon) and Pat's report on how the surgery went. We finally got some word around 5 PM and we had good and bad news. The good news was the surgery went well but the bad news was there was some blood clotting around the esophagus and that he was being kept sedated until they could control the excessive bleeding and clotting. Anyhow we were overjoyed that he made it through the operation but of course disappointed with this setback as he was scheduled to be transferred back nearer to his home at the Martinsburg Hospital in about 5 days if everything went well. This DC trip is really an adventure and not one we are looking forward to as its about a 5hour plus trip when you use the metro.

Well for supper Nancy cooked 1/2 runners, new potatoes and sliced cukes from my garden and tomatoes from Dee's garden and grilled marinated in soy sauce chicken breasts. After supper we took a long walk in the hood and by 9:30 it was showers and shortly after bed time. Nightie night, LATER enclosed are a few pics from DC and mainly from downtown Winchester. The picture of Nancy in front of the large red apple is where as a child she got car sick many years ago as she and her family traveled through Winchester.