But here goes...
Cleaned a house on Wednesday.
Day 1 of our Adventure: On Thursday the girls and I got up bright and early, 4:00 a.m. and started loading up the truck. We pulled out around 5:30 and headed for Greensboro, NC. It's about a nine hour trip that took us ten (10) hours to complete. Everything went well until we got to Atlanta, where we sat in traffic for about 20 minutes. Over all not to bad for down town Atlanta. Although I will say at that point the GPS was not my friend! When we finally got passed the traffic the GPS got us back on track and we were headed for South Carolina. So far so good. I liked my GPS again. :)
As we were driving out of SC, I asked the girls what they wanted to eat. Sonic was the unanimous choice. So we consulted our wonderful GPS and it told us that there was one two exits up from where we were. I drove to the exit, pulled off of the interstate and began following the voice commands of the woman in the GPS. DON'T TRUST HER! Ten miles down the road I still didn't see a Sonic. We turned around only to discover that the exit we got off of the Interstate at didn't have a re-entry! So now I had to travel through the other half of the town we were in to find the entrance. Guess what! The GPS was not my friend again!
We finally got back on the Interstate and traveled a little further down the road. I saw food signs on the road and I told the girls that if we couldn't see it from the exit we were getting right back on. Fortunately for all our tummies we found an Arby's within two tenths of a mile. It was good, but later that night Jessica didn't feel so well and her roast beef came back up.
So four hours later we finally arrived at my Sister's home and she had a wonderful home made pizza for us. I love my Veronica!
Day 2: We woke up early again and loaded our luggage into my sisters truck. Programmed the sometimes dreaded GPS with our next destination. We stopped at Tamarack at Beckley, WV. and spent about two hours there. We could have spent more time exploring but we had to get back on the road and head to Fairmont. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful since we really knew the way without the GPS. We arrived and our sister Tammye was there with our niece - Mariah and nephew - Bill.
Day 3: Saturday, Family Reunion Day! Everyone up and ready to go. Well almost... We were all ready by about 11 a.m. We headed for the Italian Heritage Festival first that was being held downtown Wheeling. We arrived 1 1/2 hours later and walked several blocks to get there. Wheeling is a neat little city but I'm telling you they don't know anything about Italian Heritage! The festival was about 4 or 5 blocks and I think they only had about 2 booths that were actually Italian in the midst of Hispanic, Asian, American, and Greek. We had a great time but didn't stay very long. Even the music was 70's rock and roll or something. We laughed about it and then left for the reunion.
Once at the reunion, I grabbed my girls and walked into the middle of all of my cousins, Aunts and Uncles that I hadn't seen in a long time. The first family member that remembered me was my Uncle Victor. I have told the girls so many stories about him from when I was a kid.
When he was young he was injured in an accident at a butcher shop and lost his four fingers on his right hand. When we were kids he'd chase us with the hand that only had a thumb. We had the best time and loved when he would do that. We would scream and run and laugh so hard.
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| Uncle Victor and Me |
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| the bridge at Wheeling |
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| the Italian Festival that wasn't |
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| The Ohio River |
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| My Cousins Donne and John Ray |
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| Veronica and myself playing Peek |
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| Veronica & cousin Sam |
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| Tammye (sister) and my Mom (Anna Marie) |
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| Uncle Ray & Aunt Madaline |
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| Antonio, Giovanni, Aimee, Jessica |
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| Gloria, Giovanni |
The first thing he did as I introduced him to Aimee and Jessica was hold that hand up and stick his thumb in the air and said "I'm number ONE!" Aimee, laughed and looked at me and said "He's for real!"
I love my family.
The rest of the time was spent eating and playing games while visiting with everyone. The day ended around 8 p.m. and we were home by 9:30 p.m.
Later that evening a storm moved in and while the storm was a way off we were outside watching the lightning show. Jessica got some really awesome shots. At one point Tammye and her daughter Mariah were outside trying to get shots on their cell phones. The lightning hit and thunder cracked so loud that Tammye almost ran Mariah down trying to get into the house. Aimee was standing on the porch taking video and explaining to the viewer that this was her crazy family standing out in the yard taking pictures of lightning. (See previous post) All in all it was a fun time. We made some great memories.
Climbing back up the hill was a little different. Aimee has allergies and as we climbed upward in the heat and humidity she had a hard time breathing. (We went to the Dr. when we got back home and found that she has exercise induced asthma) We walked very slowly going back to my Mom's. But that was OK too. We just enjoyed the walk and the exercise.
After we got home we went to visit our cousin Angie who had been in the hospital due to a fall. It was great visiting her.Day 5- Monday - Back on the road again heading to NC. Along the way we stopped at a cute little quilt shop in Va.
Tuesday- Day 6: was spent resting at my Sisters home and getting ready to leave on Wed. Pretty uneventful.
Day 7: Homeward Bound. It took us nine hours and I was so ready to be home. I love going and visiting people and places. But, it sure is good to come home and to have a home to come too. I missed my Hubby and my Kelly, and from the way things looked when I got home, they sort of missed me too. :)
Blessings to everyone ~S~ The Quilted YaYa
