More Visiting

We did get Jackie and was back in a short time of 5 hours.  I drove the car mush faster than I do the motorhome.  We had a nice visit friday evening.  Saturday Callie and Jim came over from Princeton for the day. Don,Jim and I went to the flea market to walk and look around. Jim bought a dozen of leather gloves and I bought a Saber hunting knife that is made in the USA.  Nancy has been wanting me to get a knife for when we go walking in the woods She must think I'm Tarzan or a jungle man because she said if I needed to defend us in the woods at least the knife would be better than my hands.
Today Don and I traveled to Crum,West Virginia a 75 mile trip where he is the preacher.  After we came back home,Christine,Jackie's daught was there to take Jackie back home.   Peach,Don,Nancy and I went to Ginovanni's to eat. 
We had a very nice weekend.

Traveling Today

We will be on the road today,not in the motorhome but the car.  We will be going to get Nancy and Peach's sister Jackie and bringing her to visit for a few days.  We all get together like this when we are visiting Peach and Don.  Don's a/c is going but he had to call the a/c tech out to get it going.  It seems as though the transformer we put on may have been a bad one,because the tech said we had it connected up the right way.

Busy

Not a usual day for me yesterday.  Don and I were busy trying to get his air conditioner working. After trying a few things we thought we had found the problem when we checked the transformer and saw that it had shorted out. But after changing it out the a/c still would not start. So there is a few more things we will check and try.  We did get time to run to Pizza Hut and pick up a  tuscani pasta,which is the tuesday special.  I hope we can get the a/c working soon because the temps are going to be in the 90's for the next week.

Rough Road

 After several place of construction on I-64 which is a toll road in West Virginia and is called the West Virginia Turnpike.  I don't think the toll booths will ever come off of the road,a very rough road.  The thing that surprised me was when we passed a sign that said we were now at the end of the Turnpike the road became very smooth and not bumpy. Toll road bumpy,no toll smooth road,figure that one out? 

 

Soon we came to Charleston and passed the Capitol building of West Virginia.  From there it was 1/2 an hour to our destination.  We had a good trip today,as good as it good be with the rough road that did a good shaking of the motorhome. 

Moving Day

Saturday-----

Saturday was a day of just taking our time most of the day then we went to Kay and Gary Nelson's very nice home for a wonderful dinner.  The dinner was our first Thanksgiving dinner of the year.  Well thats what we called it anyway, We had turkey w/ dressing,green beans,mashed potatoes w/ gravy and a salad with more things in it then I could count.  Everything tasted so good,Kay is a great cook.  That was topped off with home made key lime pie. The only thing that out did that was our visit and conversation with Kay and Gary. The years without seeing our friends end up with nonstop talking.
Yesterday it was church day.  After church we found ourselves up in Mark and Sherry's house for dinner,which was breakfast.  We had eggs,ham,bacon,sausage,hash brown potatoes,gravy,biscuits and coffee it was all good.
Then yesterday evening it was church again and after church we went to Bob Evans for a snack.
It was a very nice and pleasant weekend.
Today is moving time,we will be going to visit Nancy's sister Peach and husband Don.

Matoaka,West Virginia

 Big catfish tournament in the hills.  I'm sure there will be a lot of catfish frying next week end.

 The town of Matoaka,West Virginia is like hundreds of coal towns in the state where coal was king and the towns were filled with shoppers,but now more the building are run down,broken windows in the upstairs where people used to live.

 The town had more than one dentist.

 Some of the stores have old things for sale,like this old surveyor tripod.

 Old gas stove that looked almost new.

 The town Hardware Store in the building on the right.

Do you remember when the family had one of these new washing machine and your mother would be in the kitchen or on the back porch washing the clothes?

     

 Then they had the newer ones.

 And newer yet.

 This is the front of an old church.  Notice the two sets of steps and the two doors on the front of the church.  The men would use one side and the women would use the other side.

A nice sky at the end of another nice day of sightseeing.

Good Cook-out

 Yesterday evening we went with Sherry and Mark to a cook-out where we had hot dogs,a very good salad and more then a few desserts. The cook-out was for the Calvary Baptist Church group of people that are just down right friendly. 

The cook-out was at the home of host Brenda and Ron.  I didn't ask but there was really no need to.  Who is your college team?  With all the WVU things around I would say that was the home team for Brenda and Ron. Nancy and I had a good time and felt very welcome

Old Friends

Sunday evening we had to move the motorhome from where we were parked because the trash dumpsters was behind us and the garbage truck was coming early monday.  So yesterday after the garbage truck ran we moved the motorhome back to were we have been parked all week.  The day was a usual day.

 Yesterday evening Mark,Sherry,Nancy and myself  met with Kay and Gary Nelson at Chico's Mexican Restaurant for dinner. We had a very good tasting meal and then spent the next couple of hours talking about old times and what has been happening in our lives for the last 20 years.  I wrote in the blog a couple of days ago that it had been 8 years since we had seen them. Boy,time does indeed fly by the older your get. We all left the restaurant and stood outside for almost another hour still talking away.  Thanks Gary and Kay for a very,very nice dinner and a better evening together. Nothing like good times with good friends.   

Church and Dessert

Yesterday was church day.  We went to church at Calvary Baptist Church where we are parked and our son-in-law Mark Wood is the Pastor.  We heard a very good message from Mark and also met some very nice and friendly people that attend the church.  After church we had a good dinner consisting of roast beff the Sherry had prepared using the crock pot,ummm it tasted gooood.
Then in the evening it was back to church then afterwards we went out for dessert to Bob Evans,it was a very good day.

Hanging Around

We haven't been doing anything the last couple of days. Sherry hasn't felt good so we have just been visiting with her which is a good enough for us.  We can't be out exploring everyday,we have to rest up some ourselves.

Just a Day

Yesterday was a pretty much normal day for us.  We went Lowes to see a friend of ours we haven't seen Gary Nelson in maybe 8 years so we had a short talk since he was still on the job.  From there we went to Bob Evans for our dinner.  Then is was to Walmart for a very few things.  I was looking for a 50' 12/3 extension cord but Walmart was sold out of them.  We are parked beside the Calvary Baptist Church where Mark is the Pastor.  The plugin is125' from where we are parked and when we pluged in I had to use 50' foot of smaller cords.  So walmart being sold out I had to go back to Lowes to buy the extension cord.
The rest of the day was just messin' around.

New River Gorge Bridge

Yesterday we were site seeing the area of Thurmond,West Virginia a small coal mining town that was over crowded with tourist in the 20's through the 40's.  

 One lane bridge with the rail along side.

 It is hard to believe that twenty passenger trains a day would stop here in Thurmond and the population at its highest was only 500 people.  Maybe people would come for the scenery(which is still the beautiful mountains)or they wanted to see what a small coal mining community looked like.

 The bank that housed the money made from the coal.

Glenn Jean the next town over had a bank also.  The old bank building now is the headquarters for the National Park Service here in the New River Gorge.

 Arching gracefully across the New River, the bridge has the world's longest single arch steel span. At 876 feet above the New River, it is the second highest bridge in this country. Only the Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River in Colorado is higher. Yesterday we went over,under and around the bridge and got a very good look at the the bridge from every angle. 

 Rafters floating down New River.  All around the area we saw people(mostly young) enjoying the many activities the is offered to them.

Farther North

Our time here in Princeton,West Virginia with sister Callie has come to an end all to soon.
It is time to move once again.  We had a better than good time visiting as we usually do,but as we get older the time spent with family is more precious then before.  We were glad to see Callie and Jim. We will be leaving today and heading still farther north to visit with our daughter Sherry and husband Mark at their house in Oak Hill,West Virginia. 

Busy Day

Yesterday I made a trip to Sams Club in Bluefield to take my Garmin 1350 LMT gps back to trade it. I had a little problem with it and after some emails back and forth with Garmin support the said I should take it in and exchange it. From there I went to Jennings RV Parts department to buy a double light for over the table. Our original being 10 years old just wore plum out.  From there it was to Kroger to get orange juice. After getting back to the motorhome Nancy and Callie were waiting on me and said the were ready for an early dinner.  So off we went to The Texas Steak Roadhouse.  Callie wanted to buy us dinner and the kind guy that I am I said ok.  On the outside of the restaurant they had a nice looking picture of a  steak dinner and it was 2 for $20.00 so Nancy and I ordered that one. Now when that steak came it didn't look like the 3/4" steak that was one the picture,it was more like what I call a breakfast steak in that it was 1/4". We were dissapointed with it.  I guess it is the times that we are in now where everyone has to cut back.
From the steak house Callie needed to do some grocery shopping so we went to the local store where she likes to shop,Which is Grants Grocery.
After getting back to the motorhome I installed the new light that I bought earlier in the day and the remainder of the evening was relaxing and visiting.     

In West Virginia

 We moved out of Stony Fork Campground yesterday and after empting our tanks and filling the fresh water tank we drove through Big Walker Mountain.

 We drove up and down the mountains. Some were so steep that they had the runaway ramps for trucks.  I have never seen a truck on one of these runaway ramps.  The truckers sure like to go down mountain roads much faster than I do. 

After a very short trip we arrived in West Virginia and soon we were in the driveway of Callie's.  She has a 30 amp outlet for me to plug into,which her boyfriend(Jim) fixed for us.  We  were very glad to see Callie and Jim,they make us feel really welcome.  We will be here until monday.   

Time to Move

Yesterday we did our laundry in Wythville. From there we went to a large restaurant,"The Original Troys".  We saw the sign "Lunch Buffet $4.99" so we thought we would check it out. It was 2:30 pm and wouldn't you know it the luch buffet ended 2:00.  Oh well we had the spaghetti with meat balls which was good.  From there it was to Walmart for a few things.
Today we will be traveling the short distance to Princeton,West Virginia to visit Nancy's sister Callie for the weekend.

Just a Little

Just hanging around and doing little things getting readed to leave out on friday.  Still doing the walking around the campground.  Sorry to be so boring but sometimes our life is just not exciting.  Let me change that life is not boring it is very exciting just living and enjoying what you have.

Hanging Around

Yesterday was another slow day.  We did get out and walk a little more than we have been.  Then we did our thing of watching a good western on the Direct TV Western Channel.  Then late in the evening time I did a little polishing on the motorhome.