Since I never finished our trip south, I'll continue. We spent the weekend in chattanooga going to Brainerd Baptist church and visiting friends..We left on Monday to go to Mississippi and found the Flint Creek Water Park a quiet place to stay while we visited friends. This included a trip to the Gulf Coast for a fish dinner.

ON September 20, I suffered a light stroke at the campsite. By the time paramedics got there, I was back to normal and we saw no need to go to the hospital. A mistake said my doctor when I got home. So after several weeks of therapy and new drugs, I 'm back to normal.
we continued on our trip stopping at Natural Bridge and going over the Skyline Drive. /Users/marystandard/Desktop/Oretty Valley.jpg

Virginia

We drove 430 miles today in about 8 hours and the day was beautiful. PA and Virginia are both beautiful states with far off mountains, and farmland.
I will post some photos if I can. I took pictures this morning matamoras along the Delaware. We walked to the river from our campsite and on one picture you can see the high water mark of debris behind Tom from the recent flooding.
Tonight we are at Natural Bridge, VA at a lovely KOA campground.

Matamoras, PA

Photos will come tomorrow because by the time we had supper and walked around our campsite, the good light was gone. However, what we found when we walked around was that we are on the banks of the Delaware River. A lovely park with groomed flower gardens, benches, etc overlook the river which is teeming with hundreds of geese at the moment and Linda from the office assures me you can catch any fish you want to in the river.
We saw where the floodwaters from tropical storm Lee had covered the road right along the river and dumped large trees on the banks of the gardens.
We hope to visit a few historic sites tomorrow if we have time. The Columns is right near here and is the official museum of Pike county. The blood stained flag which was under President Lincoln's head as he lay dying is among the historic exhibits.
There are so many wonderful places to visit in the USA that we could never see them all, but this is an area I would love to revisit.

Back again

Here I am back on the blog. I will be posting along our trip south as we take off in the camper for a few weeks. Hopefully I will be able to put in photos as we stop for a few days in Chattanoog,TN, Wiggins, MS, Enfield,CT and Longmeadow, MA.
Look for updates when we have internet.

Orchids in winter

With the April first snowfall, I spent much of the day checking out my orchid blooms. There's nothing like a little color in the house when there are 8 inches of snow in the yard.
Notice that the lovely purple phalenopsis under the white one, is the same plant that was nothing more than a keiki in October. I am very pleased with this plant especially since it arrived in a suitcase with my brother in law from Dallas with nothing more than a piece of the stem it was growing on.

April 1

This is not an April fool's joke. This is my yard at 9:30 this morning. We have lots more of the heavy stuff coming down and the wind is blowing. I never saw this down south on April one, that's for sure.

We don't have anywhere to go, so will take advantage of a slow day. The income tax is mailed, we have all the groceries we need and the house is warm. What more could one ask?

Last week I searched in places where the snow had melted around the house and saw some tulips coming up, but no other sleepers were showing up.

However, I saw several robins yesterday where the grass was showing in some patches that were clear of snow . I wonder where they are today. Poor things.

Family leaving

Here is a family picture minus Charles who was of course, taking the picture. Everyone is ready to leave for the airport, but as you can see, the eyes of Grandmom and Granddad look sad.
What a wonderful time we had with our Chilian family last week. We look forward to keeping in touch through skype. What a wonderful invention that lets us see each other over the miles.