We Made It!

Well, it has been a crazy month. We started off on June 6, 2006, and spent 8 days traveling across the mid section of our Country on I-40. It has been a trip we have made several times, so not much to report that is new. We decided to add an additional day, so Jim found a campground in Emporia (a Jellystone Park). This allowed us to break the Nashville to The Eastern Shore up into 3 days instead of two. We stayed at Ashville East at a KOA right near the entrance to The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. It was certainly beautiful to behold – even though we had rain that night.

As we progressed East, the days got cooler. You might recall that the West had a heat wave, and it was 107 when we reached our first stop at Black Canyon North of Phoenix. By the time we climed to 7,000 feet at Flagstaff, the heat was off, and we only had to endure 90s until Nashville. When finally reached the Eastern Shore, the days were cool, and we had a good breeze. This lasted for more than 10 days.

Dean, Steve and Carol came down to Lebanon Farm from Rochester on Sunday the 18th. We had a good visit, and the rural nature of the Eastern Shore did not seem to dampen their spirits. We lunched at the Historic Eastville Inn, and conducted a tour of the surrounding area. The got to see the goings on in Cape Charles, and otherwise, we were able to dine alfresco for the duration. Sadly their visit was short, and on Tuesday, they were back up the pike to the great frozen North.

A quick note from Dean:

Like I indicate. a long trip home.. Arrived here in about 13
hours. first, we thought we were on a wrong highway about 90 minutes or
so after we left your place, but finally saw a business (Janoski
Furniture) we recognized as seeing on our way down.. Continued on,
after stopping for coffee and donuts at a Dunkin Donuts. The fun really
began when we came to a major construction site near those huge bridges
south of Wilmington. There was a very strange "merge" at the end of this
where we may have made a big and wrong choice, eventually ending up on
the EAST side of Philly.. along the harbor. We were LOST. We traveled
north, then north west for miles, eventually seeing a sign Thruway..
for miles, traveling thru the Pocono’s. Eventually meeting up with 81.
From there, of course, we were okay. Carol insisted on driving most of
the way... and she is no slow driver. Steve drove from near Scranton to
the first rest stop on the N.Y. Thruway west of Syracuse.

That same day, our Cousins Dee Dee and Mary Lou arrived from the south shore of Boston. We had a wonderful visit with Christopher Pickwick and his wife arriving Saturday. They only stayed one day only to return to Washington, DC in time for all the flooding.
After all the visiting, we set about a long list of chores that we need to get through before we return to California. We go to Michigan next week for Jim’s family reunion. I will write more about that later.