When we arrived at the Country Inn and Suites (our home for the weekend), it started raining - bottom falling out raining. Plus, the refrigerator in the room wasn't working, so we couldn't put the wine we had taken with us in there. It just meant that we were going to have to take the wine with us over to the house Friday night. Anyway, once the rain stopped, we headed to Yorktown for the beginning of the party. It was being held at Mary Gibson, Jim Knight and Doreen McGibbon's home. Gerald (Jimmy's brother) had flown in on Thursday and was staying at the house. Mary's daughter Lisa and her friend Jason Guthrie had arrived from California. Doug Gibson and his wife Ann got stuck in massive traffic on 664. After about an hour or so, they had only covered about 1 mile. So they turned around and went back home. Jimmy's cousin Judi Vreeland and her husband Vic were staying out towards Williamsburg, so they were also at dinner. Mary had cooked a 25 pound turkey with all the trimmings - so it was a super evening before the party on Saturday.
Back to the hotel we went for the night. The only major nightmare was the hotel. They had not gotten the refrigerator fixed. Plus, when we went to breakfast the next morning - there was no place to sit, the hot items were cold because the electricity kept going on and off, etc. etc. etc. It would look like a place which offered a breakfast would at least have room for more than about 15-20 people at a time! Anyway, we scarfed down some breakfast and headed back to Doreen's for the party. The local corner store had put up a sign celebrating her birthday - the only problem was that they congratulated Olive. I later found out that Olive is Doreen's first name!!!
Saturday was a busy day - preparing for the party, partying, and cleaning up from the party. About 50 people joined together to celebrate Doreen's 90th birthday. We ate barbeque (sorry everyone, but it just wasn't Memphis Q - but it was really, really good). There was a ginormous birthday cake which was made by a bakery which employs people with disabilities - yummy good almond flavored cake! No one got pushed in the pool nor did anyone voluntarily dive in. It was a great party. I'm game for her 100th birthday. She says it is really going to be a big party when she is 90.
Sunday breakfast at the hotel was another disaster. Luckily, Mary, Lisa and Ann had put out a really great brunch for the relatives who were still in town. I particularly enjoyed the French toast casserole dish, but the guys seemed to like the egg casserole better (it had meat in it). Later, Jimmy and I rode out to Fort Monroe. It is a historic military base (back to the Civil War) which was recently closed by the government. We can only hope that there is a way found to keep it as a historic site. The architecture alone is enough to make it worthwhile - but there is a big history attached to the Fort and the area surrounding it. Jimmy said that the last time he and Garrie Colhoun were there, it was an active military base. He didn't say that it was deteriorating, but it just had an empty feeling. We also drove through the tunnel to Newport News and back. Going out was a piece of cake. Coming back was really quite slow - and there was no reason for it - no wreck, no leaks in the tunnel - nothing. Just slow.
Back in Yorktown, we dug all of the leftovers out of the refrigerator, heated them up, and offered them to the remaining relatives for dinner! We certainly made a dent in them.
All together, this was a delightful trip. I'm including below the pictures which Doug took on Saturday.
Monday morning, we got up and crept down the stairs to see if we were going to get to have breakfast!! There was almost no one there. It was wonderful. We actually got to make waffles. When we left, we decided to make a couple of stops. The first was in Roanoke. Jimmy wanted to look at a motorhome that he had read about. Expensive - but it was nice. Then we got off I81 and drove over to Virginia Tech. In a short month, we have been on campus at two really huge universities (Texas A&M and VA Tech). The football stadium at VA Tech was really neat. I kind of hope they decide to be in the SEC some day!
As we drove down I81, Jimmy got stopped by a highway patrolman. He had passed a bus in a construction zone! Going a little bit faster than the 55 MPH speed limit. I will give him the point that neither of us could have seen the signs due to the bus in the right lane blocking our view of the signage - it was a very short construction zone. Anyway, the patrolman walked up on the passenger side of the car. I handed him Jimmy's driver's license as I was getting out all of the paperwork on the car that I thought he might need to see. He looked at the front of the car, then he went around back to check that our tags were current. He got back to my window, leaned down and asked me if I would be responsible for chastising him for speeding, I said I certainly would, and he handed back the license. He was really nice. Jimmy thought he was great too. Especially since we had the cruise control set at 70!!!
Our last night on the road was spent at a Holiday Inn Express just off the interstate at the exit to Sevierville and Gatlinburg. We found out that Jimmy has bunches of points that he can use for free hotel rooms. The hotel is on one side of the Bass Pro. On the other side of the Bass Pro is a great steak restaurant at which we always eat when we are in that area. Of course, neither of us had steak. Jimmy had broiled shrimp and I had seafood fettuccine!!! Breakfast Tuesday morning was a dream. They even had a pancake machine. I have no idea how it worked, but it was cool. I made one even though I didn't want one just to see what it did. Of course, the main attraction was the HI Express cinnamon rolls. The best.
We didn't even stop for lunch. We pushed and pushed to get to the Dairy Queen just west of Jackson, TN. Again - we stop there every time we are in the area. Normally we are in the motorhome, but they have enough room in the back to park and plenty of room to get out of the lot. Yes, we have Blizzards!!! Nothing else - just Blizzards. Then - on to Holly Springs to see The Bear and Peaches. Jimmy got in the house first, so neither one of them was around for me. Once they got their first water out of the tub, they kind of didn't let us out of their sight. In fact, The Bear spent most of Wednesday in my lap - just purring and sleeping!
Thus ends our latest travel. I'll try to catch up on the baseball trip which preceded this trip in the near future. I wanted to make sure I got this one in because of the pictures!
