#?? Virginia is for Lovers!!

Okay, so the slogan goes "Virginia is for Lovers"! Heck, I must be a lover because I loved Virginia!!! Mom and I had the time of our lives. What a fun adventure.

I flew to Seattle after work on Thursday, no problems all the way. Then Friday at 2:45 AM, Mom and I got taken to SeaTac Airport. What an unnatural hour to be taken anywhere!! Nothing was open to even get tea or coffee to keep us awake. Mom stopped the luggage when they discovered "LIQUID" in her suitcase. They took her mousse and her cold cream away from her. She argued a bit that they weren't liquid but the guy told her he had to take them. She said, "Okay, you can have them, take them home if you want." (Like he was going to use her cold cream!) But neither of us took our shoes off or our jackets off so we were not the hit of the crowd by the time we got past the checkpoint.

We flew into Atlanta, GA then caught a plane to Greensboro, NC where we rented a car to drive to VA. Four states in one day still blows my old mind. We were a bit early at the car rental and they didn't have a small car for us so they upgraded us to a Dodge Voyager (I think) that sat up off the ground very nicely and got just over 30 mpg! Luckily for us, gas is cheap in the south!

This is the kudzu that is taking over like crazy down south.

Our first view of tobacco growing.

I think I may have driven in circles in Greensboro because it took is WAY too long to get to our B&B. I should have gotten the GPS but I figured it would take the adventuring out of the adventure if we had a machine telling us which way to turn. We had to pay attention to signs this way and stay awake! So what if we got a good look at Greensboro?! We pulled into the B&B just after 9pm and they were very gracious. (Orchard House B&B http://www.orchardhousebb.com/index.html )

Here's Mom exploring the grounds...naming all the flora and fauna!
We had the pleasure of meeting some of our distant cousins, Natalie and Molly from California. They stayed at the same B&B. We got plenty of family connections and past history of other reunions from them and even followed them to the reunion site the next day.

Driving towards Skippy and Faye's home, I spotted Amy's house on the left then we saw a big crowd gathered and I spotted John first then Amy.

I felt like I had come home, it was so cool! After hugging everyone and getting introduced to folks we may never understand how we are connected to, we settled in to eat and laugh and share stories. Mom didn't want to leave without speaking to everyone. She is such a hoot. She just plows right in...but then, come to think of it, I'm not too bashful myself. Like mother; like daughter maybe? The food was incredible. I heaped my plate to the sky and still made room for dessert! Mom had carried her datenut bread across the country with her so she could add to the table.

Linda, Amy and Kathy

Charlotte and Mom

This is Amy's family - those at the picnic anyway.
CousinsAshley and her crazy tongue!A cake walk for the kids...notice the LIVE music!

City gal, Sarah, with her feet actually touching the red earth of a country road.

A watercolor waiting to happen...
Artist, Allie. The next day, we met Amy and followed her to church. She drives a long way to go to church, I couldn't believe it. It wasn't like we didn't pass churches along the way either, because there was a church tucked away just about everywhere we looked throughout our trip. After church, we went to Kathy's aka: Maw, to celebrate Ashley's 16th birthday. We spent the whole day with Amy's sweet family minus Allie as she wasn't feeling well. We toured the Liberty University campus where Chris attends/lives. It was a huge campus and very nice.

Then back to our B&B to say our goodbyes. The visit was too short but at least we can put personalities to all our pictures now.

This was a very sad viewpoint: Amy and kids driving away, (sniff, sniff!)

Anyway, headed back to NC was another story. You know I said Mom talks to every stranger she meets, well we stopped at the rest area between NC and VA and she befriended the janitor. We chatted a bit and he showed us a way to the airport that was longer in miles but without traffic. We decided we were so early, we would try it. We went through new countryside on a 2-lane road and were delighted that we had taken his advice. Then we boarded the plane only to have to park along the runway for over an hour because Atlanta was backed up. We had a 2 hour layover in GA so we still figured we had time to make the connection. Then in GA, they wouldn't let us at a gate because there weren't any! We had to wait again....yup, we missed our connecting flight.

Now mind you, we had our rolling suitcases plus our big bags stuffed with goodies (which is another story in itself when it comes to what Mom packs in her bags!) Anyway, up stairs, then down escalators, onto underground trains, back up stairs, escalators and into the gauntlet of people only to find they weren't ready for us to check in on our new flight. I looked at mom going up the escalators and she looked like she was about to melt away. She said, "I need to eat." So we grabbed a seat and some food and she was revived again. She used the restroom and came out saying, "I just talked to a woman..." I interrupted her to say, "Surprise! Surprise!, you finding someone to talk to!" Then I heard the woman's life story, etc. Before we got on the plane, she befriended another woman who had an ear infection so Mom gave her the new earplugs we had just purchased!

Mom slept on the plane until I started crawling over her to take pictures of REAL mountains to show Amy what they look like. I think I took 100 photos out of the window and Mom asked me if I wanted to change seats with her. I told her no, I just wanted to sit on her lap and I did. We smooched and giggled. She is so much fun to travel with. I can't wait for our next trip!

Somewhere over the Rockies...

Mt. Rainier, WA

Mt. St. Helens, WA