I always write these in chronological order, but this time I've added a few stars 🌟 next to the must reads if you want to just skip through.
From Virginia, we headed to New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia -- quite crowded as Labor Day Weekend was imminent -- but we saw the gorge, the train route through it, and the beautiful bridge. One that Matt, Son #2, has repelled from... that's just Matt being Matt.
A glass blowing demonstration in Tamarak, West Virginia followed by a visit to the Blenko Factory store in Milton, WV. The authentic folk art work from West Virginia is astoundingly beautiful.
Next stop: Frankfort, Kentucky for our 36th capital city Volksmarch. A fine city-- a little bit of street art, some nice murals, and great capitol grounds.
The capitol itself was both closed for Labor Day weekend and under construction, so we didn't see much of it other than the grounds, but here's proof we were there:
On to a Nashville KOA where we've stayed before and then, glad that Labor Day and its crowds were behind us, on Tuesday we headed to Memphis. This is when our plans for Memphis, Little Rock, McDonald Observatory, Marfa, TX were all put on hold for another trip.
🌟We got the news that our 10 year old grandson had taken a spill from his bicycle and following an airlift to a Trauma I hospital in Tucson, was in surgery to repair his severely broken left femur. Just in case we might be of some use to William, we decided that our only stop between us and him would be in Austin. Nothing much seen after that decision except Interstate...and more Interstate. We try to stay off them, but they do provide the fastest route.
We pulled into McKinney Falls State Park in Austin on Wednesday afternoon. There's some trails there but we only had time for a short walk to the Upper Falls and to Smith Rock Indian Shelter. Presumably water levels are quite low this time of year because what you see in this picture is all the falls we saw in McKinney Falls. It does create a great swimming hole. Signage indicates that limestone overcrop that Bill is under has been used as a travel or winter shelter since ancient times and most recently by the Tonkawa tribe, who now live in Oklahoma. It is one really big rock.
We visited my brother, who seems to be doing a little better in his memory care unit in Austin. He perseverates a lot and is confused by how to do things, but is walking better and still likes his Diet Coke. (We brought the six pack that's on the table.)
Another couldn't-be-missed event in Austin was a lovely early dinner with Mark's (Son #3) intended, Amber, and her adorable little daughter.
Photo credit: AmberTwo more LOOONG Interstate driving days across the borderlands of West Texas
...to find our sweet boy in a wheel chair waiting for us:
We've been able to help him mostly by wheeling him to school and back. Good thing his school is only about 1/3 mile away from his front door. He's put in 1/2 days for this first week and hopes to start full days next week, and if so, our work here is done. He is now able to use his walker pretty well, and by the time we push the publish button on this post, we expect a LOT more mobility. He's getting better and happier every day.
One more thing to mention before we sign off on this post -- my birthday! Celebrated at Michael's home by Bill doing his best to make it festive with a spaghetti dinner. He is probably the only person on earth who knows how much I like to see Christmas lights, or the lights of a city at night, and so he gave me the most thoughtful gift ever: A glass full of twinkling lights!
We're off to explore southern Arizona. And hopefully back to Ft. Huachuca for Michael's 40th, next Friday.
Retirement Lesson Learned: We didn't need to learn this one: Family Always Comes First!
WOYAYA
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