Nancy and I got ready to head out to Star Tannery for the annual Gravel Springs Church picnic. I have missed this event for the past couple of years and find this occasion great to visit with different family members as well as long lost friends and acquaintances. I found an old friend who was at one time a relative by marriage who I hadn't seen in 50 plus years, yeow does that tell you I'm becoming vintage. We hung around for 3-4 hours visiting with folks and eating a lite lunch before we decided to head back to Woodstock. The drive up to the picnic on Back Road with the mountains in the back drop is awesome with many old farm houses and beautiful crops of corn, soybeans and alfalfa hay. The cattle looked fat and content as the pasture land was lush and green.
Mike our brother-in-law was having his folks Ken and Rose Dillon spent Saturday night as they too were attending a family reunion in the area of Mike and Dee's residence. Ken entertained us with his guitar and harmonic playing before supper. Dee once again out did herself with lots of food preparations. She made a delicious chicken salad along with some of the salads left over from the night before on Friday. Mike had prepared a plate load of jalapeno poppers( peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon) as a starter and then he made a batch of fresh homemade peach ice cream for dessert. Talk about some fine eatin' as there was none finer to be found. We got into a game of dominoes afterward and even had his folks playing for awhile until it was their bedtime. We stayed up until after midnight once again.
Nancy and I got up early on Sunday and headed out once again up Back Road to pick up Paw Paw and his friend Adeline. We drove them to church at St. Johns Church where I attended as a child and teenager before leaving for college at Gardner-Webb in June of '64. I saw another old friend who I hadn't seen in over 50 years and some other folks who I went to school with that long ago as well. It was a nice service and we hugged lots of necks afterwards. We decided to head to Winchester for a late lunch at a local restaurant where the food was good and plentiful before heading back to Star Tannery. We got back to Adeline's home and visited an hour or so before heading back down to Woodstock where Dee and Mike live and where we were staying for the week-end.
Once again we indulged in good eatin' which mostly came from leftovers and afterwards we became involved in another game of dominoes. I had won the night before after only a few rounds as the hour was late when we started to play. This night, Sunday Nancy was the big winner after playing 15 rounds of double 15. I was the loser and Mike opted out after the hour of 9:30 was reached. He gets up at 4:30 in the morning to reach his job by 7 AM in Winchester. It was close to midnight before we decided to call it a night and head for bed after our showers.
Well we decided to head out on Monday morning for our return trip back to the cabin. We dined on a hot cereal after a walk through the hood with Bonnie their Jack Russell terrier. The morning was glorious after the light rain from last night with bright sunshine and blue skies. Speaking of last evening we saw 3 hot air balloons on the horizon just before dark. It seems the travel route for these majestic modes of transport go right over or near their house. I loaded up the truck with some home grown tomatoes, peppers and onions before we headed out at 9:30 AM this morning. The trip was uneventful except for getting somewhat lost while trying to find our designated road through the mountains after we made a stop at Sam's Club in Roanoke for some goodies and fuel. Yikes it was $3.02 per gallon which is considerably less than we have paid for gas in quite some time.
We made a stop at Wal-Mart in Galax for some additional goodies before heading back to the cabin. It was close to 4 PM before we headed up the driveway and everything looked good except for the bean plants which were covered with Japanese beetles. After getting the cool items into the fridge and freezer I went on safari capturing a bowl of the voracious eaters. Yikes they can decimate healthy plants in no time. The rain gauge showed about a .1 tenth of an inch of rain while we were gone but after dark this evening the skies opened up and we are having a steady rain with a few heavy down pours. There isn't much lightning or thunder which is good but the rain has been steady for the past hour or more.
