Well Tuesday was a special day as we took an adventure with our "mountain mom" Helen to new territory and then out to lunch to a place she had never been to to. More on that later. I started the day with a before 6 roll out to my usual routines that start with some quiet moments after posting this ramble to honor my LORD, give thanks for another day and to lift several up by name for comfort and healing. All are holding as of now.
I headed out to check on the gardens for deer damage and thus far it been very little this summer but last evening in broad daylight a huge doe walked into the backwoods yard and began eating so I scared her off with a single pistol shot as she jumped into the brush, I'm hoping that will keep her and others away, oh well. I had a breakfast of oatmeal with fresh picked blue berries from my bushes along with a banana, pecans, cinnamon and honey while Nancy had cherrios with a banana. That held us on our morning adventure until lunch time at the Crave eatery in Sparta.
We headed west after picking up Helen towards Grassy Creek where Nancy saw on line this old store which has been around for over a hundred years or more and while the picture showed it to be a lot larger in real life it is nestled in a very picturesque setting but much smaller. We travelled into an area where the 2 lane road would not bring much traffic but it seemed to be thriving, although we were the only customers on the drizzly damp morning. The prices of things were unreasonably high with a sweat shirt at 60 bucks as was most everything, but the gal who was running the place was from our area in Florida and moved up here to this beautiful peaceful setting. It carried some food items but mainly a curio touristy shop. I would not go back despite the friendliness of the clerk who she and I graduated the same year. It was a beautiful ride out to that area which was about 50 miles away on some curvy roads towards Damascus.
There was no place in that area to eat lunch but there was a place for dinner only, that was just down the road called the River House which cantered to high end cuisine according to the clerk at the store. I can only imagine the prices at the eatery if she thought they were high end, oh well. We decided since Helen had never eaten at the Crave eatery in Sparta to give it a whirl as the Muddy Creek place was closed for lunch. We had a delightful waitress and while the place was jumping with a large lunch crowd, she was it for the day, but she served us quickly. The food was delicious and plentiful and we all had the banana pudding for dessert which was tasty. Nancy and Helen had sandwiches and I had the fettuccine alfredo which was very tasty. It's always one of my fav's at the Olive Garden and this was just as tasty.
We took a couple of never travelled roads which Helen loves to do and then by our place to see the flowers in bloom before taking her home and seeing her safely inside. She is getting around very well with a cane for being 95, but the steps entering and existing buildings is her biggest obstacle to getting out. We had a grand time and I could tell she was worn out by the time we got back to her place around 2'ish.
Well it was a bit chilly for this day with the overcast skies and a stiff breeze. I did set on the back porch and finished up another read until close to 6 when we decided to have a lite supper of a rollup with some leftover chicken. I had my glass of red wine to accompany and then we played cards until dark. I had the Ray's game on the laptop and they finally came to life in the 8th inning and beat the Cardinals 4-2. It was shower time for me after the game and then to start a new read which we picked up at the library on our way out of town to Grassy Creek. It seems we are entertaining Kimberly and Ms Betty Sutton on Thursday for lunch. Betty has never been here so I 'll manicure the yards today if the weather holds and then we have our small group at church this evening at 6, LATER
