5:17 am.  I need quiet.  I wanted to see what it would be like to actually take some time off, to not think of responsibilities.  To feel life without that driving need to meet a deadline or having to be somewhere at a certain time every day.  A month, maybe three.  I didn’t get quite that far.  I haven’t the means to afford that life as of yet.

Has it really been a month since my last post?  Doesn’t seem that long.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  Let me see, where were we?  Oh yea, sick in bed.  Now I remember.  I don’t know why she posted that picture.  Oh well.

So should I do a day by day?  Don’t think so.  Memory’s not that good.  So I will sum up.

Mostly our days have consisted of household chores, lots of TV watching, some reading, lots of games on the iPhone and iPad, (what did we do before those techno advances?  Oh yea, had conversations.) and going for drives in the evenings.  Let’s see, I think there are some pictures around here somewhere.

On the 16th of this month we headed for Harrisburg, PA to participate in our grandson Alex’s first birthday.  He was born on the 16th but the party was scheduled for the 17th due to travel time so everyone could be there.  Greg, Melissa and the kids flew up.  Annie, Precious and I drove.  It’s about a 7 hour drive from here.  Here are the pics.

Everything was shape oriented. 

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Party over we headed back towards Kentucky.  What’s this?  Along our route back we will be passing Gettysburg?  Gotta stop for that.  And we did.  For two days.

Met an author who was doing a book signing at the entrance to the gift shop.  Of course I had to buy a copy of his book.  Sounded interesting.  It’s about a man, a Kentuckian, who gave a speech, the day after Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at a rally in town urging the completion of the war.  I haven’t gotten that far yet, but what I have read has been very interesting and a part of history I was totally unaware of.

So after two days of driving and walking around the battlefield we head for home.  Driving through Maryland Precious let us know she wanted out and just then I saw what appeared to be a little picnic area off to the left so I literally whipped in there, safely of course, but quite quickly as we were already in a curve and I just happened to see this place as she started barking.  What a place it was.  Right by a stream and at the head of a walking trail.  The sign at the trail head said something about a rock 1 1/4 miles ahead and also that the park closed at sunset, which was rapidly approaching, so we knew we didn’t have enough time to walk the whole trail so we went a 100 yards or so and just became mesmerized by what we saw.  If there was ever a place for fairies and gnomes to live, this was it.  Rocks and fallen trees, moss, and quartz, big chunks of quartz.  A truly magical sight.
Due to our late start we stopped in Morgantown, WV, a college town, home of WVU.  Being a college town there were plenty of hotels.  We did learn one other very important thing on our trip.  Some time back during one of our hotel stays we signed up for Wyndham Rewards program which gives you points you can use for discounted room rates.  We’ve been able to use them a couple of times now.  This most recent stay however the night desk clerk told us we had earned a “free” night and although the bill we received on check in showed the room rate she told us the night audit would adjust this to zero.  Imagine our surprise the next morning when, upon checking out, we got a bill for our night’s stay. When Annie told the daytime clerk about the free room promised by the night clerk she was informed that “free is not free”.  What?  Call the 800 number.  We’ll talk to someone in the home office. “Hello, home office?  Yea, we were told, what?  Free is not free?  Okay, bye”. Apparently it is a company wide interpretation. 

 

 

 

Sorry for no posts lately.  Your favorite blogger has been in the bed or chair for three days.  The girls have strep but I don’t think this is what Greg has.  He has chest congestion, sinus draining and cough.    No fever but feels awful and with the sounds he’s making I think he feels pretty bad.    Hopefully he will be up and blogging before long.   

8:10; Awakened by a screaming child. Maddi had a sore throat and and trouble breathing so Greg gave her a breathing treatment. All better now but still not up for shopping. 

11:15: Target for temperature activated fingernail polish.  They only have it online. So disappointing.

Of course the guys are okay with that. 

Then there was the toy department.

Where we seem to be stuck. 

Well that was fun and relatively inexpensive.  It’s good they have them all out on the shelves like this so the kids can play with them. Smart parents never buy toys they just bring their kids to Target once or twice a week and give them thirty minutes in the toy isle. 

12:30: Time for lunch. As luck would have it there is a new Japanese restaurant on the other end of the parking lot. 

Apparently our order was a rarity as the staff took several pictures of it prior to bringing it to the table. And for good reason. Check out this work of art. 

I have to say it was as good as it looks. 

The devastation was complete. 

Alex had a little fun with his sister on the way home. 

At Target Kaiden got a robotic fish. Here he is preparing it for a test run. 

And here’s the thing itself. 

It has half a propeller so that the fish itself spins as it goes through the water in anything but a straight line. It’s very interesting to watch in a pool and you can play games with it such as searching for it after someone tosses it across the water. At one point we lost track of it and after several minutes of searching and not finding it, very puzzled as to how it may have gotten out of the pool, accusations began to be bantied about claiming someone had hidden it and was playing a prank on the rest of us.  Kaiden and Sadie had gotten out of the pool, I was still looking for the fish very puzzled as to where it could’ve gotten to. Then Mammie surprisingly shouted, “Sadie, it’s in your hair”.  And sure enough, unbeknownst to Sadie the fish had gotten caught in her hair. Well, that was weird. 

After the swim the girls are headed for a bath. Supper for the adults will follow. 

After dinner I feel as stuffed as this snake. 

Just hanging out. 

Better get some rest.  Headed back to KY in the morning. 

Good night and God bless. 

Here’s the storm that came by yesterday.  Didn’t last long and didn’t hit us directly.  Lots of lightning in the distance. 

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More swimming today. Some of it in the rain, a first for me. 

Below a three at once cannonball. 

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Fascination with a very tiny frog. 

He was released back into the wild unharmed. 

Then came the rain. 

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More fun after the swim. 

Lots of playing with the grandkids today. What a joy. 

Well, now I’m tired and off to bed. The kids fell asleep hours ago. Guess they were tired from playing hard all day. 

God bless everyone.  

6:30:  Time to get up and get kids ready for school.  Sadie and Maddi woke us up right on time. 

Second day in paradise and all is good, hot and humid. Took Sadie and Maddi to school today. New principal and new traffic pattern. Why is it positions of authority cause people to believe they need to change things and that the changes they make are good?  Someone should figure that out. 

8:30: Back home and back to bed. Mammie and papaw were tired. 

Didn’t sleep long. Annie had some work to do and Gregory and I spent the morning entertaining and being entertained by “The Nugget” better known as Alex. He’s a really sweet boy and very funny.  

The snake got fed, four rats, and boy is she happy. And fat. Nugget got some icing and loved it. And wanted more as he eyed papaw’s cupcake. 

The day went by fairly quickly. Sadie and Maddi got home first. 

Nugget chillin in the strollermobile.  

Kaiden came in and went back out so fast there is no photo record of the event. He had a scout thing right after school so there was no time to visit. However while he and Greg were off to the meeting we took advantage of the pool. 

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​Couple of hours later the rains came and we turned it back over to Mother Nature.  

Good night and God bless.   

7:30: On the road again.  Going to see the grand kids. Greg didn’t tell them we were coming so it is going to be a surprise. 

Didn’t get any pictures on this leg of the trip. Concentrating on getting there. There was traffic, a 10 gallon gas tank and a cranky dog.  

Traffic was as expected. Construction still going on in a lot of places. The ten gallon tank on this car makes it necessary to fill up at least three times to make this trip. Gas mileage is good, around 30 mpg, but the small tank doesn’t carry you very far. 

Then there was the cranky dog. Don’t know what got into Precious but we have never seen her like this. Usually she travels very well lying down and sleeping nearly the whole trip. Today it seemed like she couldn’t get into the flow. She was either thirsty, hungry, hungry and thirsty, needing a walk or held. Very unusual for her. 

7:10; The family was all out to dinner and we parked a block over till they got back. We almost arrived at the same time. It wasn’t five minutes after we got here that they pulled in and we pulled in right behind them. Maddi was first out of the car but didn’t see us until I said something and she turned around, saw Mammie and made a bee line for her as fast as she could go, jumped and head butted Mammie right in the nose. They both quickly recovered and while Mammie laughed, Maddi cried with joy over having her Mammie close at hand once again. Sadie got out of the car and ran crying to me shouting “papaw”, jumping into my arms telling me how much she missed us. Wow, that was well worth the drive. 

8:27; A call from Gregory. He’s wondering when we are getting on the road.  Shortly we tell him. First another trip to the acupuncturist.  Ah, sweet relief. 

Needles and pins. Needles and pins.  Is that a song?  Anyway, this is helping and since the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky has taken it upon itself to punish law abiding citizens who need a very benign pain medication that some yahoos have abused in the past, this is our option. 

1:30, heading for paradise. Here’s a picture 

That be the caretaker of said paradise.  Hot day.  

5:30, dinner from Bojangles!!!!  Woohoo!  

Almost worth leaving Kentucky for. But you gotta so if you’re heading south you gotta stop at the Bojangles.  

I think there is a dog, dragon and banana headed alien in these clouds followed by a picture of the temple of DOT in Pikeville, KY.  

Virginia 

Tennessee then the “Blue Smoke” mountains of North Carolina as they were called by the Cherokee.  

It was a lovely day for travel. We got as far as Columbia, SC stopping at an Econolodge for the night. Still have a few miles to go tomorrow.  

Good night and God bless. 

6:45 up and at ’em. Annie has to be at the imaging center by 7:45 for her MRI.  

Foggy in Ashkand this morning.  Passing the bridge, I know what you’re thinking if we were going to King’s Daughters why are we going by the bridge?  Well, I missed my turn but I believe it was so we could show you this portal that people are blindly driving into not knowing what dimension they will end up in on the other side.  Is there another side?  

Kind of spooky right?  Ooooooo!!!!

7:35 ten minutes early, we arrive. 

8:10 they call her back. Be with her Lord. She has a hard time with these things but I believe this one will go well. 

One perc, Imaging Center has free coffee.  Not the best tasting so good thing it’s free.  I was puzzled by one of the selections on the coffee machine, “decaf espresso”. Really?  

8:48, she’s finished.  She had very little trouble and the test was not as long as last time and the machine was quieter she says. They either upgraded or King’s Daughters has better equipment than Belfont.  I say it was the prayer before hand and God’s intervention.  

9:00: As neither of us had had breakfast we stopped by Bob Evans for a little something before starting our day.  No need for pictures here we all know what Bob Evans’ food looks like.  Tasty, filling and full of artificial flavoring and lots of high fructose corn syrup I am sure.  

9:48: Let’s go for a drive. There was a couple of properties we wanted to look at out Daniel’s Fork and East Fork. 

On our way we saw what we thought was a very unique site, every member of a road crew working at the same time. That is, Not One man was shovel leaning. Not one. 

Then we realized this was not a road crew but employees of a private contractor finishing a driveway.  Wow, I thought we had really captured something there. 

The flexeril Annie took to calm her prior to her appointment didn’t start working until about an hour after the procedure so when we got home she went to bed and I did some paperwork I had been putting off.  Don’t like paperwork. 

So the rest of the afternoon kind of got away from us and dinner ended up being take out from Tres Hermanos. Mexican. Very good. No pictures. Wolfed it down. 

10:30 bedtime. God bless all. 

 

8:15 off to the chiropractor/acupuncturists.  The river festival is over and all the bikes are gone and the town is once again the quiet little deserted hamlet it has been for the past 20-30 years.  We stopped at The Pedler restaurant for breakfast and the country fried steak was plain, the gravy was from a can or package, coffee was okay, eggs were eggs, and the pancake we split was rubbery. We hadn’t eaten there is several years and it appears the quality has diminished. 

11:20 off to do some errands. On our way back we noticed this rock formation.  Don’t know what you see but there are more faces in there than I can count. 

1:30, the sun has been out all morning and no rain in sight so I took the occasion to cut some grass. 

After working up a hearty appetite it was time for dinner.  And what a dinner it was. Fresh pasta, seasoned sauce with grass fed beef, home baked garlic bread. This was probably the best spaghetti I have ever had. 

And the quilt is finished. 

Our little nugget was not feeling well the other day but looks like he is back to normal.  

Going to see them all very soon. 

That’s it for this Monday.  God bless all. 

Sunday, more rain, good for sleeping.  Didn’t do much today.  Got hooked on house renovation shows so that has taken most of our time today.

Now on to vacation homes in Mexico.

Annie is trying to finish Maddi’s quilt before we head back to Florida in a week or so.  It’s looking very good.

She’s doing this free hand which takes some practice.  By the time she finishes with this she will be an expert.

We went to Hall of Fame Cafe again for dinner. She had the chicken and dumplings and I had the roasted chicken.  Both were very tasty. And we brought home a couple pieces of cheesecake which is made in house and taste like it.  Very tasty.