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

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