Those 'In-Law' Jokes....

Little Known Facts:

1.    Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

2.    Cranberry is the only Jell-O flavor that contains real fruit flavoring.

3.    American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class.

A present for the Grandson:

Even with a thousand games, dolls and crafts to choose from, the grandmother at the toy store still couldn’t find a thing for her grandson.
"Maybe a video or something educational?"
"No, that’s not it," she said.
We wandered the aisles until something caught her eye, a laser gun with flashing lights and 15 different high-pitched sounds.
"This is perfect," she said, beaming. "My daughter-in-law will hate it." 
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The above is a joke of course, but some things said jokingly have some truth behind them.  I was a very young and ignorant son-in-law at 17.  I cracked some mother-in-law jokes back then, and I loved my MIL to death. Susie was one of the sweetest ladies that ever lived. That lady was one of the wisest, frugal and most loving ladies I have ever known.  She was always very tolerant of me.

I smile in wonder at that lady's ability to ‘stretch a dollar’ without advertising it or hurting her family.  She worked all her life (from 10 yrs old) in the cotton mills of Belmont, NC.  She nursed several of her 7 children at break-time from the 'spinning room.' When the older kids could bring the baby to the mill.

I have said it before, but as I get older and look back I am always amazed. Susie managed the family income for over nearly 50 years (She died at 61 years of age) she had 3 houses built. and paid for them.   Her starting pay was around a nickel an hour, most she earned was $1.25 an hour(est). Average hours worked was 59 a week.  Her husband Wiley earned about 2 cents more an hour to start.

Those houses cost about $250 a piece, but that was a fortune. Susie was what I refer to as a Christian Lady. I cannot remember a negative word she said.  That sweet lady was no gossip, she had better things to do.  Her life was not easy from birth.

She was born to a family that ‘worked on kin-folk's farms’ in eastern North Carolina. Susie’s dad left her mother and several children to fend for themselves in the early 1900’s. They lived in a makeshift tobacco barn and worked in the fields until her mama heard of work in the cotton mills in Belmont.  We have no idea how they traveled the 200 miles, Sherry figures by bus, because that is how they traveled. Sherry’s family never really owned a car, her mom and dad never were licensed to drive. They walked or ‘caught the bus’.

Sorry for the length of the post that grew from a joke.  I am amazed how little Sherry and I, know of details of our family histories.

     Featuring Susie Geneva Hawes Harris 1904-1965

Nite Shipslog

 year?  Must been late 20-early 30's.
(judging by the wheels)

 This must be a 32 or 34

Oh yes, Virginia, you are beautiful

Little Known Facts:

1.    Coca-cola was originally green.

2.    The only food that does not spoil is honey.

3. The Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.

Virginia......

WE do not travel as much as we used to, but still get around.  We talk about this often, we cannot remember a bad trip as far as the beauty of the earth is concerned. Comparing Yuma to Hawaii or the Yukon is like the saying: 'Apples, Oranges and Bananas'.  Everywhere we have traveled is beautiful in my opinion.

Before leaving Belmont I put the address of this park near Lynchburg in the GPS.  I knew Lynchburg was near Roanoke I figured the GPS did too! HA! As we entered the Charlotte area on I-85 I checked to see which way we would go. The GPS said, Hey, take I-85 to US-29 turn north.

Hey look GPS, I have been to Roanoke more times than you have. We will go North on I-77.  So I did. The GPS said: NO NO NO, go my way you will arrive at 1:06 PM.  I said NO NO NO you will recalculate and realize your mistake.

Short story (I know,,,, too late), The trip was at least an hour longer MY WAY! But I did not care, neither did my girl. The sites are absolutely breath taking as you reach and enter Virginia. Our first view of the Appalachians on I-77:

Then on North.  Just South of Roanoke to our left, we both smiled remembering a familiar mountain.

We hiked this area North to South. We had a tough climb  up the north (right) end and found ourselves near the antennas at the right were noisy, electrical humming. 

 Then walked the ridge down and thru the power lines cut away and on south past MacAfee knob (?) supposed to be the most beautiful view on the trail, as you can see we were in the clouds and missed the view.

 (Back to this trip. It is hard to pass up an old barn, especially one with character)

 We passed Liberty University, I had no idea it was so huge. Then we were in the country again.

  The roads got narrower and thru a lot of beautiful farm land until we reached our destination, a Thousand Trails Camp site on a lake.
We had a great trip, even if I did take the long way here. I was reminded of Ma's post lately  centered on MISTAKES!

Nite Shipslog

 1956 Chevy Delivery Truck, Customized.

Virginia is for Lovers, so natuarlly we are going!

little Known Facts:

1.    There is a bar in London that sells vaporized vodka, which is inhaled instead of sipped.

2.    In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks, and spoons.

3.    Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

Today was my ‘Getting Ready’ day. My next post should be from somewhere in Virginia.

Virginia is a beautiful state. We hiked 544 miles through Virginia. Some of our worst days and some of the most beautiful views.  Hiking the Shenandoah’s was an easy and beautiful hike. Not much mountain climbing. Once we were high we stayed high. It was what we called Ridge running.

We had two examples close encounters with deer.  They still make us smile. Once Sherry pointed to the side of the trail and we laughed as a big Doe, just lay there and watched the humans walk by, like it was her entertainment.  Then once on a very narrow trail Sherry met a HUGE Buck. He was walking toward her. She asked what she should do?  I bravely said (from behind her), “Just keep on walking we cannot get off the trail!” The underbrush was very thick.

He kept walking nonchalantly toward us and at about 20 feet seemed to have springs in his legs. He appeared to jump straight up (Like we have seen mountain goats do in the northwest.) and to his right into the brush and was gone. It looked like he jumped at least eight feet straight up in the air. It was really a graceful leap.

The bad time was the day after we forded a creek about four times and I dried Sherry boots over a camp fire.  They shrunk (or something) and ruined her heels the next day. She got so she could not walk. We stopped at a nice place and made camp. The next day she was no better. Two hikers ‘Tin Man and Godiva’ we had met earlier in Damascus passed.  Tin Man gave Sherry some 800mg Vitamin I.  That is when we learned that on the trail Vitamin I is ‘Ibuprofen’.  ;-)

We stayed at that site about 4-5 days until we were about to run out of food and made it down the mountain and called for a shuttle to pick us up.  The shuttle driver and his wife were nice folk but like to have never found us. But all ended well and Sherry got some rest and recuperated.

Nite Shipslog

                                  1964 T-Bird