It was a lovely Virginia morning, cool enough for us to go on open windows until about ten. The mist was hung over the hills in the distance, showing clearly why they are called the Blue Ridge. If I didn't love New England so much, I would love to live right there in that valley.

If nothing else, we would love to spend some weeks vacation just working our way up the attractions off I-81. There are at least a half dozen different caverns (I've been to Luray, but would love to go again; for someone who is claustrophobic, I still like caves—at least caves with the lights on!), a natural bridge, the Skyline Drive, several birthplaces, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library (think of the wonderful old photos!), and other things.

As we drove north, Wil and Pidgie added two more states to their tally: a little sliver of West Virginia and then Pennsylvania. We wanted to avoid DC, Baltimore, the Jersey Turnpike, and NYC, so we took I-81 north. We had a choice between continuing and catching I-84 eastbound in Scranton or taking what looked like a shorter route west on I-78 to Allentown and then on through New Jersey, to take I-287 up to the Tappan Zee Bridge and then catch I-84 or the Connecticut Turnpike on the other side of the Hudson. We took the I-78 route and got caught in patchy traffic, were held up on the way to the bridge, and then ran into a backup on I-84 just east of Danbury. The latter could have been the worst: as we rounded a curve the traffic backed up and there was a big pillar of black smoke ahead. Luckily we were near an exit, the car in the next lane let us over, and we could proceed east on US6 for a few miles until we skirted the problem and got back on the freeway. We could see the westbound traffic all backed up as it headed for the problem. Perhaps it was a truck fire; the plume of smoke was quite tall and big.

We reached my mom's house about six thirty and decamped. I had let my cousins know we were coming, so all the windows were open and the house wasn't so stuffy. We immediately set all the ceiling fans to "afterburner" and started the big floor fan and the little window fan. My cousins had also left juice, milk, eggs, and bread, but we still needed to make a grocery run, so we went to Shaw's (with a stop for some cold Del's frozen lemonade first), then went to my cousin Anna's house where they were holding their annual party for the church feast, and had some supper and exchanged hugs with everyone. This is St. Mary's Church's one hundredth anniversary and they were having a bigger "do" than usual. We had to make our way through the crowds assembling for the fireworks as early as six p.m. as we arrived.

They had a spectacular fireworks display, judging from the flashes we could see from the house, but the fireworks themselves weren't visible because of the trees. When I was very small we could see the fireworks from the front steps.

Lord, it's hot, and going to be horrible on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:23:00 PM

Comments:

Our thoughts are with both of you. I called James Friday morning when I found out to let you know you were in our thoughts and prayers. We were in Huntsville, taking Jessie and her cousin Kimberly to the Space & Rocketry Center.

Reading over your blog for the previous several days brought back so many tough memories. I'm so sorry you had to go through that as well. Being a care giver of a terminally ill loved one isn't an easy job, but you did it with grace and compassion. I do know how very hard it can be, but also how very important it was for you as well as to your Mom. Hugs to you and James. Drive carefully and be good to yourselves.

# posted by  Anonymous : 8:58:00 AM

 

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