Tuesday Morning in Chilly North Carolina

Well Monday morning found us in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in the quaint town of Woodstock, Va. at my sister Dee and husband Mike's house. Brr when we headed outside to see the morning sunrise as it rose over the Blue Ridge Mountains. We were up and getting ready to go for a 9 AM departure back to our cabin after a whirlwind trip that started Friday afternoon. Wow did we ever see some folks we hadn't seen in quite awhile as well as our yearly worship at my old home church. We ate, ate and ate some more as we of course visited with family and friends along with the hugs and handshakes

We made a quick stop at the Wholesome Foods processing plant just off I-81 as we wanted to pick up some terrific bacon to take back with us to Florida. Sister Dee brought a large package of the meat on her last visit and it was the best ever.  We picked up a couple 4 pound packages and the clerk even gave us a 10% discount as we told him we were taking it back to N.C. as it was the best tasting ever. This plant was huge with 18 wheelers parked outside to take their product where ever, anyhow we were back on the road in just a few minutes. We made a walk around stop after an hour and a half in southern Virginia before continuing onto Galax, Va. for a Wal-Mart stop before continuing to the cabin.

The grass had finally grown after all the rain so I will mow it today before we head out tomorrow for Florida. We will be gone roughly 9-10 days before coming back to the cabin for about a month or so depending on who all are coming for a visit and of course if the snow gets to deep we will leave earlier. It was 44 this morning and Nancy has the oven on to take off the chill, at least it's supposed to be sunshine and blue skies for the day. I picked lots of tomato's that had fallen off onto the ground so I will have plenty to take to our Florida family along with a dozen or so slicing tomato's from sister Dee's garden.

We headed out to Sparta for what was a final get together with Patrick and Kathryn before they leave for Florida on Saturday and to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We met at the Pines Eatery along with our new found friends from Elk Creek,

Sam and Marcia for a tasty meal. Once again Patrick surprised us all with picking up the tab and then surprising us with a beautiful gift as well when we headed back to their cabin for a dessert of homemade French Silk Pie, yeow was that ever delicious. Sam and Marcia had prior commitments so were able to join us for dessert. We will have another month of their friendship before we eventually leave for the winter. We then taught the Tracy's how to play Euchre and they are hooked as well and it was nearly ten when we headed out. We decided since we have a rubber game to play we would have them for an early supper and to play Euchre as we get ready for our trip during the day, LATER