Greetings From West Virginia!

Here we are in West Virginia.

We drove up here Wednesday, and stayed the night at Dad’s house.

Thursday morning the three of us headed over to Cambridge, Ohio, as we planned to stay at Salt Fork State Park Lodge that night. It’s a much bigger place than I expected. Jess said he read it’s the largest state park in Ohio, and considering Ohio is a good sized state, guess that explains it! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a huge swimming pool or so many lounge chairs in one place.

We drove around the park and saw the old Stone House there, and went to nearby Winterset to drive around so Dad could look for where one set of his grandparents used to live. We looked and looked, and drove down a lot of side roads, but were unsuccessful. It was just too long ago, and the place had changed too much.

We also went for an hour’s ride on the lake on a pontoon boat. It’s a huge lake, but no more than 32-feet deep anywhere according to our guide. It’s all manmade, so that’s part of the reason. It was a nice excursion, and about the only way to see the lake.

When we got back to our rooms, there were four deer ambling around the back of the lodge. They were obviously used to being fed, and they weren’t disappointed this time either. Several people threw down bread, chips, and who knows what all. I took several pictures. One of the does was obviously pregnant, and a couple of them looked young, like maybe yearlings.

The lodge had high speed internet, so I didn’t miss my usual Thursday night class. It was a long one, and wasn’t over until about 12:30am eastern time. I was pretty tired, so a little sluggish the next day.

It’s been raining too, so that doesn’t help my pain levels or energy. I’m looking forward to getting back to the fibro clinic and hopefully getting some help to improve my energy levels.

Yesterday we drove back to West Virginia, but we stopped at a Hop Along Cassidy museum in Cambridge, Ohio first. That place was PACKED with stuff. A lot of it was cowboy memorabilia, especially Hop Along Cassidy and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans stuff… but there was just a lot of old time stuff. Glassware, books, old toys, clothes, kitchenware. . . it was like a huge flea market in one place.

Today we’re going down to visit Maria, Scott and Caleb, then tomorrow it’s back to the hot, hot south. It’s been in the high 90’s down there while we’re gone. I’m sure our air conditioner is having to work hard to keep the temps down to the mid-70’s inside the house.

That’s it for now . . . pictures will come later. I’m having to use dial-up at Dad’s house, so can’t put a bunch of pictures online.

Cuteness Overload

Richard posted a couple of really cute videos of Ellie on Facebook. Since they are soooooooo good, I asked him if he'd fix it so I could put them on my blog. Being the good son that he is, he fixed them right up for me. :-)



He assures me that Ellie had no prompting and came up with her destination all on her own! Go Ellie! Drive that car right on down to Southern Mamaw's house!

She's also going to see Southern Papa!



And of course, she also tells Southern Papa she loves him!

Yep, cuteness overload. I love it!

I LOVE To Get Goodies In The Mail!

Saturday there was an unexpected surprise in our mailbox.

It came in one of those big padded envelopes. Inside, there was some rather ingenious packaging.

Considering how brutally the USPS has treated some previous packages from the Canadian contingent, it was probably a wise precaution.

At any rate, this time the contents arrived in pristine condition.

What fun! You can't beat a surprise package with pictures! (Well, maybe a surprise package with a check for a whole lot of money would trump the pictures. . . )

At any rate, this Grandma loves pictures! (And so does Grandpa! And Uncle Geek!)