Heading South

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
 The October chill was in the air this morning with a prediction of freezing weather in Butler by the weekend.  It was truly time to go South.   So we finished packing up and spent a few minutes in the house saying goodbye to the whole family including Dan and Jen who were heading out to Virginia Beach for a weekend conference and Jen's folks who were taking over the care of the girls.  Then we waved goodbye and set off stopping at the local mall to attach the car before hitting the highway south.

It was drizzly and cold but the further we went the drier it got till we finally hit sunshine and blue skies in West Virginia.  The windshield had smears on it from the windshield wipers but I still enjoyed shooting pictures of the gorgeous views we were experiencing in the mountains of West Virginia.  Many had to be tossed because of the smears I was shooting through but these two sure give at least an idea of just how gorgeous it was.

We stopped at the Flying J in Wytheville to fill up our gas and DEF tanks - a favorite spot as we head down I 77 because of its low prices.  Wish we'd been putting in gas rather than diesel but even so this was not a bad price considering what we were paying the last couple of years.

We then drove a couple of miles further down the road to the Fort Chiswell RV park to rest for the night before continuing on to Concord and our visit with our daughter Sue and her family.  This campground is just a couple of hours from there so has always proved to be a good stopping point where we could get views of the hills and some of the farm animals who enjoy the pastureland we were surrounded by.  This was a view out our side window.

On the other side were the cows and a reminder of an experience a couple of years ago when we were here and a baby bull had broken through and wandered over by our RV.  Soon after a farmer came asking around if we'd seen it since we'd contacted the office about the wayward animal.

As I was fixing dinner, there was a knock at our door.  What a surprise to discover Bill and Jan Maas standing there!  They had finished the Upstate New York Caravan, spent a few days at Ives Run, visited Falling Water and were headed to their son's place in eastern Virginia but stopping here for the night also.  They went for a walk while we quickly ate our dinner then came back and we spent the evening together chatting up a storm.  It was so very good to see them.  We got to know each other back in 2008 on the River Road Caravan and have connected as often as possible ever since then.  They've visited us at Hillcrest, we've done other caravans with them, and we keep in touch via email.  Their son died suddenly last February just a couple of days before he was to come down for a week visit with them and they spent a very sad spring in Wisconsin handling all of his affairs as well as selling his house and then moving stuff into storage when they could no longer face more decision making.  So it was good to be able to give them a hug and share.  We've already got plans to see them this winter down in Florida.