Nov

13

Weekend visit to Richmond

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We seem to be at least a week late in posting about our lives.

We went to Richmond to visit my aunt and uncle for the last weekend in October. My cousin Jessica is living with them, and we’ve been wanting to visit for awhile. Friday was her birthday, so we went down to surprise her. Tricia had her open the door thinking it was trick-or-treaters (it was Oct 31). We yelled “trick or treat” when she opened the door. It took a few seconds for her to realize just who was on the door step. It was a great surprise.

We relaxed Friday night. Saturday we went to Maymont park for half the day. It was a beautiful day in the upper 60s. The park is quite large with various paths. Throughout the park are various animals (goats, bears, elk, deer, birds), a Japanese Garden, and a mansion. Since it was so warm most of the animals were out. The mansion has several buildings around it. You can take a tour of the mansion. We visited the basement since it was free.

We celebrated Jessica’s birthday Saturday night. On Sunday we went to church and visited until it was time to head back to Radford late afternoon. We enjoyed the visit and are glad we were able to suprise Jessica for her birthday.

Oct

31

GOP Rally

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Last Monday, Oct. 27, Mel and I went to a GOP rally in Salem, VA where Governor Sarah Palin was scheduled to speak as part of her one-day barnstorming of Virginia. It was cold, the lines were long, and we ended up standing for over 4 hours. Nonetheless, it was fun. If nothing else, it was a privilege to see someone who may well be the next vice president.

I have some pictures from the event. Hopefully they turned out ok. We were just behind the media section (a good spot), but it was still pretty far away, and my camera isn’t nearly as nice as the ones the media use.

Oct

21

Highlander Festival

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My family came to visit during the second week of October. That weekend was also the annual Highlander Festival at Radford University. There are annual “highlander games,” which seem to center around throwing heavy,  unwieldy objects as far as possible. See the picture below for a guy trying to throw a 20′ pole.

There are dozens of vendors and exhibitors. The best two, in my opinion, were the falconer and the sheepherder. The sheep dogs were amazing. With slight commands they could manuver sheep through obstacles and control them, even with a crowd of people around.

Aug

30

Melanie’s Birthday

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My parents and brothers came up last weekend to celebrate my birthday. This was the first time the boys have come and the longest my family stayed (Friday night through Sunday afternoon). We had a full house. My parents slept in our bedroom, Andrew and I slept on an air mattress in the extra bedroom, and the boys slept on air mattresses in the living room.

On Saturday we kept busy. In the morning we went over to school and looked around. My family kept wanting to go inside buildings, and I was surprised at how many of them were unlocked. We even went in several that I had never been in before! We were able to look inside one of the dorm rooms. All I have to say is that students at BJU have no right to complain. BJU’s dorm rooms are SO much nicer than this one that we saw. After lunch we took a long walk down to the river and went to some stores. I think most of us ended up taking a nap later in the day.

We celebrated my birthday Saturday night with ribs, salad, baked potatoes, green beans, and sourdough bread. I opened my presents and then we had cake that my mom made. It was yummy.

My family left soon after lunch on Sunday. I think we were all tired out, but we had a nice time together. I’m so thankful they were able to come visit.

Aug

13

Boone Family Vacation

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We had a wonderful time with my dad’s side of the family this past week in Green Mountain, NC, which is just north of Burnsville. We have a wonderful family. There are no fights; everyone willingly pitches in; and we can have fun without alcohol.

I’ll give the highlights of each day below, but there were some regular activites each day. A different crew cooked or cleaned up for every meal. Andrew and I cooked two meals and cleaned up three. It was great to not be in the kitchen for every meal. I know everyone else felt the same way. Another regular event was family devotions in the evening, just as we have done on every family vacation. This summer we sang some songs, had testimonies, and the “young” guys (Michael, Andrew, Nathan, and Brandon) gave a challenge. Each night was such a blessing.

Saturday
Uncle Dave and family took I-81 down from New Jersey, so we invited them to our apartment for lunch. After lunch Stephanie rode with us. We ended up taking NC-197 instead of the interstate. The road still got us there, but it took MUCH longer. We went up and down a mountain and ended up in a valley with several houses and a church or two. Then went up and down another mountain past some more houses and a church or two. This continued for several hours. We finally made it to the house. The driveway was almost worse than the road we had been on. It was steep and narrow, and the last section was all gravel. Brandon got his family’s van stuck on the first attempt. They had to unload some people to shift the weight to the front wheels. We were the last ones to arrive. One of the first things said to us was, “Don’t drink the water. It smells like sulfur!” Sure enough, the water had a strong stench of sulfur.

Sunday
My dad spoke for family devotions in the morning. He spoke longer than the rest of the guys (more like a church service). There was nothing planned for the rest of the day, but in the afternoon some people were going to the town of Green Mountain. I wanted to go along. Green Mountain was not very big. It consisted of a general store (which was closed), a post office, and a Presbyterian church. A few people drove by, but no one was around. My car then went into Burnsville to get more bottled water.

We celebrated Grandpa and Grandma’s 60th wedding anniversary after supper (the reason we all got together in the first place). Grandpa and Grandma, Sharon and Nathan, and Andrew and I played the newlywed game. Uncle Dave had collected questions from everyone to ask Grandpa and Grandma about their marriage. Then we watched a picture slide show and ate pound cake with mashed strawberries.

Monday Read more

Jun

18

Saturday Fun

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Two Saturdays ago we went to a celebration at Claytor Lake State Park. When we first got there, there was an antique car show. I was quite impressed with the number of classic cars in the area. The festival also included an antique firetruck show. The oldest fire truck was a chief’s car from the 1930s.

We got to the show around 3, and we wanted to stay for the fireworks later in the evening. Unfortunately, we didn’t know when they would start. We ended up sitting around on the grass near a gazebo until quite late in the evening. As the day progressed, however, we realized that we might have some great seat for the fireworks. We did. At 6pm when we got there, only a dozen or so other people were there. By 9:15, there were hundreds of people scattered about on our little spit of land. And we were right on the end with an unobstructed view.

Last Saturday, we went to a celebration at Ingles Farm, a working farm built at the original location of a farm from the 1740s. Mary Draper Ingles, wife of the original owner, is famous for having been captured by the Shawnee Indians during the French and Indian War, then escaping from her captivity south of Cincinnati, and walking all the way back to the New River Valley. The celebration today included several people to explain the local history, including the current owner of the farm, a descendant of the Ingles of the 1700s. There were also quite a few people around in period dress, demonstrating various farm implements and military weapons of the 18th century.

The Ingles family also operated a ferry from the farm. The Wilderness Road (of Daniel Boone fame) went right past the farm and crossed the New River at one corner of the Ingles’ land. The original owner, William, got permission to operate a ferry. It was in continuous operation until 1948, except for a brief period before the Civil War when a bridge replaced it.

1920s Ford
1950s Corvette
Ford Galaxy

A 1930s Ford Fire Chief Car
A butterfly on Mel's toe
A pirate sailboat?

Fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks

Fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks

Fireworks
Mel and the goat
Spinning Yarn

18th century doctor's tools
Me and the sycamore tree
The Wilderness Road


Jun

4

Memorial Day picnic

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Both Mel and I had Memorial Day off, so we decided to have a picnic somewhere in the Jefferson National Forest. The forest is actually huge, stretching from Tennessee to somewhere north of Roanoke. But there are several nice places within an hour or so of our apartment.

We first went to Pandapas Pond, a day use area just north of Blacksburg. It appears to be a prime fishing location. It’s a man-made lake that has a beaver dam and lodge on one end and a fairly deep pool at the other. The Forest Service stocks the pond with various types of fish, and there are plenty of nice places along the shore to try to catch them. The area is also a starting point for several trails through that section of the forest.

Unfortunately, there was only one grill at Pandapas Pond, and it was occupied. So we drove up to the Cascades, about which we have written before. The parking lot was packed, but it appeared that most of the people there were actually up the trail at the waterfall, presumably to swim in the 40-something-degree water. We easily found a nice picnic table with a grill. After reading next to the stream for a while, we made our dinner and enjoyed it just as the clouds started to gather. It didn’t really rain us out, but there were a few drops as we were leaving.

It was nice for both of us to have the day off and to be able to relax (and eat good food).

Supper
A fish at Pandapas Pond
The beaver lodge

The beaver dam and wetland
A flowering tree
Goslings

Obviously used to people...and geese
Our picnic equipment

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