Gettysburg Ghost Tour

Wednesday night the other members of the Granite Hill Campground staff and I went on a Ghost Tour. It started out at the parking lot across the street from the National Soldiers Museum at 777 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg. Gettysburg is called the most haunted city in the United States, because so many people lost their lives here during the Battle of Gettysburg. The tour we took focused on two places, The Gettysburg Orphanage and the Jenny Wade House. The photo above is of Bob, our tour guide.

Back in the days of the civil war, if your father died, you became an orphan. The story goes that Amos Humiston, a Union soldier from upstate New York, died of his wounds on York Street, clutching a photograph of his three children. Because he had no identification on his body, and his unit had already moved on before he died, no one knew his name. A reporter for a Philadelphia newpaper latched onto this story and turned it into a public interest story. He published the account, which was passed on to many newspapers, until it reached Humiston’s wife. She came forward to claim the photograph. The reporter then started a campaign to open an orphanage in Gettysburg to care for the children left behind by the many soldiers killed in the war. Shown above is a photo of Amos Humiston's three children.

Philinda Humiston was named the first Matron of the orphanage, and moved with her children to Gettysburg. She was kind and took good care of the children who lived there. When she remarried, she left Gettysburg.

The new Matron, Rosa Carmichael, was an evil woman.There is evidence that Rosa shackled children with chains to the walls of the cellar. She would also chain them to a rail fence in the hot sun, leaving them all day long to suffer sunburns, with no food or water. Children were locked in outhouses and sheds on the property in the winter, forced to stay out all night in the freezing cold. The two pictures above and below show chains used to shackle the children in the dark, damp cellar of the orphanage.

Many people have claimed to have seen the ghosts of children in the cellar and yards of the orphanage house. Others have felt something tug at their hair or at their clothing while they were walking through the cellar. There are many photographs showing orbs, ectoplasma, or ghostly outlines of children that were taken at this location. Although I did not see any ghosts while there, I did feel the sadness of the place. The chains and shackles are still there.

A short walk down the street brought us to the Jenny Wade House. Jenny was a twenty year old woman, who was the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg. She was staying with her sister, helping out because her sister had just had a baby. Jenny was in the kitchen of her sister’s house, making biscuits, when a stray bullet went the wall of the house and struck her in the back. She was found dead in the kitchen.

Because of the battle raging around them, the family laid Jenny’s body out on a slab in the cellar of the house for two days. There are many stories of Jenny’s ghost haunting this house. There was also a story told about her father, who was getting forgetful, and did not believe his daughter was dead. He would often walk into the cellar looking for her, thinking Jenny was just hiding from him. Years later, people say he still comes into the cellar looking for her.

There are also spirits of children from the orphanage across the street, who come to play in the house, because the occupants of the house during the time they were alive, were kind to them and often allowed them to come in and play there. Photographs on the walls in the Jenny Wade house show the ghostly images of children in the background and in mirrors in the house.

These last two photos were taken at the Jenny Wade House. The first one is of a depiction of Jenny's body laid out in the cellar. The second one is part of a painting showing Jenny's sister and other family members at her wake, while they waited for the battle to cease so they could bury her body.

I don't know if these ghosts exist or not. I know I didn't see any on this tour. If you are ever in Gettysburg, take the tour and decide for yourself.

A Short Tour Of The Battlefields Of Gettysburg

Yesterday I went on a bus tour of the battlefields around Gettysburg in preparation for my job at the campground where I am working. Since we sell tour tickets in the campground office, we need to know what the tour entails in order to tell our guests.

Like most Americans, I had heard about the Battle of Gettysburg since I was in grade school, but until yesterday, I really had no idea how bloody it was. What started out as a halfday fun trip for me ended with sobering thoughts of the thousands of young men who lost their lives there fighting for their beliefs. I found it hard to hold back tears at times.

The tour takes you on a drive through the areas closest to town where the battles occured during the three day battle. There are many buildings still standing that were in existence at the time of the civil war. Each of these buildings has a six by nine inch bronze plaque designating it as a Civil War Building. I was surprized at how many there are. This is a bank barn and farm house to the west of town.

The tour guide told us about the statues of men on horseback, monuments to the generals of the battle. If the horse has all four feet on the ground, that means the rider made it safely through the battle. If the horse has one foot raised, then that rider was wounded in battle. And, if the horse has both front feet off the ground, that means the rider was killed. What an interesting way to depict the outcome for an individual. The genral depicted in this monument was a lucky man.

The Lutheran Seminary was established in 1827. It sits at a high point with a long view to the mountains west of town. During the first day of battle, the Union generals used the cupola of the middle building as their observation tower.

This is the view from the top of Little Round Top. The hill was the object of the battle on the second, and bloodiest day, of the Battle of Gettysburg. This view is looking west towards the Applachian Mountains. The fields below were scattered with the bodies of more than 5400 men at the end of the day. The creek running through near the line of trees was known as Plum Run. After the battle, it was renamed Bloody Run, because so much blood was shed it caused the creek to run red.

The view from Little Round Top towards Devils Den to the east. The National Park Service is cutting down some of the trees, and replanting others, in order to restore the area to the way it actually looked at the time of the battle. In this area, in the middle of the area in view, the trees are being cut because this was a wheat field at that time.

The Gettysburg Train Station, where Abraham Lincoln arrived in November, 1863 to give his famous speech. The building has been restored to look exactly the way it did then. Mr. Lincoln got off the train and walked down the street to a house in town where he spent the night before the ceremony dedicating a national cemetery. That dedication speech is the now famous Gettysburg Address.

Note: most of these photos were taken out the window of the bus, so they may be blurred. KE

The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co.

On Wednesday, we had to do laundry again. The laundromats here at the campground are not open yet, so we had to go into town again. The laundromat we went to is in a little strip mall in town. After we got our clothes in to wash, we started looking around at the other establishments in the strip. The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is a neat little store. They sell organic fruits and vegetables, as well as a very good selection of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements.


Jim went in and bought some vitamins. I went in and asked if I could take some pictures, so the employee I spoke with went to the back and got Kitty, one of the owners of the store. She was a delightful woman. She told me she used to live in Woodstock, Georgia but moved from there years ago. She and her husband had come up to Pennslvania to visit some friends, and on the way home they decided to swing by to see Gettysburg. They loved it so much they decided to move here. They opened the Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. at the suggestion of their grandchildren 10 years ago. They have been at this location for about seven and half years.

The vegetables they sell here are organically grown so they have no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers used in their production. The selection available the day I was there looked very good. When I asked Kitty if they ever get swiss chard, she told me that she had just told her husband the night before she was going to order some. She took my telephone number and offered to call me when the order comes in! Now that is what I call GOOD SERVICE!

Ever since my husband's bout with cancer, we have tried to eat more nutritious food and those with fewer chemical additives. He takes a lot of vitamins, and we both use a lot of herbal supplements for various things. We are really happy that we stumbled upon this store. We will be going there a lot while we are here.

I also make my own homemade soaps. They have a very good selection of oils including coconut, almond, and grapeseed. I use all of


those in making my soaps, and they are very hard to find.

The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is located at 30 West Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They are open Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m.until 4:00 p.m. and on Saturday from9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. If you go in, ask for Kitty and tell her you read her at FabGrandma.

The Sound of Frogs

Yes, that is what I said. The field next to our campsite are alive with the sound of frogs. I thought at first it was crickets, but being a girl from Georgia, I knew that it is too cold for crickets. When I asked the locals, they said that they are called "Snow Frogs". I have never heard of snow frogs, but you never know, that might be what they are. When I wake up in the middle of the night, that is what I hear. They are very loud, so sometimes it keeps me from going back to sleep. I guess it could be worse, it could be jet planes like we experienced last year at Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach. I will take frogs over jets any day (or night).

Chirping Frogs

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Weikert's Egg Farm

While I was out yesterday, I also went by Weikert's Egg Farm. It is at 2559 Fairfield Road in Gettysburg, about 3 miles from Granite Hill Campground, where we are working. I have been seeing their sign every time we go somewhere since we got here and have been wanting to go see what they have for sale. So, while I was on the loose alone, I went in there.

They sell eggs and BEEF, which is surprising because I would have thought eggs and CHICKEN. The eggs they sell come from free walking chickens. That means the chickens are not in cages, they can walk around in the chicken barn, eat as much a they want, and lay their eggs in a nest. I didn't get any eggs while I was there because I didn't need any but I will be going there next time I need them.

They advertise their beef as "Naturally Fed Beef". To quote from their flyer, "Unlike most commercially produced beef, our cattle are fed an all natural diet of corn, hay, and wheat without any special feed additives to speed up the animals' growth. This means there are no hormones, implants, or any other artificial substances used to enhance growth.

In addition, the crops grown on the Weikert Farm to feed the cattle are also grown without the aid of chemicals such as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers." end of quote.

I was glad to see this advertisement because Jim's endoctrinologist, Dr. Singh, told us he should not eat beef because the beef on the market has too many hormones added to it for someone who has a thyroid problem. Ever since he told us that we have cut our beef consumption drastically. I MIGHT buy a pound of ground beef once a month, and only use about a half pound in a pot of chili. So, I bought one rib steak from them yesterday and we split it. It really did seem to taste better than what we are used to getting at the supermarket.

Weikert's eggs were priced from two dozen small eggs for $1.50 and up, depending on the size. They have both white and brown eggs. Their beef prices were comparable to what I would have to pay at the grocery stores in town. T-bone steaks were $8.89 per pound, Rib steaks were $7.99 per pound, and Chuck roast was $3.49 per pound. They also have beef by the quarter at $1.05 per pound live weight. For more information, click here for their website.

Four Seasons Bakery and Cafe in Gettysburg

Today was laundry day, so I went out by myself. Usually when I am out by myself, I go to the places I really shouldn’t go. The place that grabbed my attention last week when we were driving around town was the Four Seasons Bakery and Cafe. When I saw it I made a mental note to myself of its location. (I know those of you who know me well know that any note to myself is mental!) So, that is the first place I headed before going to the laundromat.

The Four Seasons Bakery and Café is located at 100 Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg. The menu includes soups, sandwiches, pastries, coffee and tea. There is a wide variety of cookies, pastries, pies, and cakes for sale as well as bread and foccacia of the day. It was hard for me to choose, but I finally settled on a cheese danish. I was not disappointed! The pastry was crisp and light, with a generous amount of a cream cheese filling. The price for the danish was $1.85. The service was quick and the staff friendly and they smiled a lot. I did not have time to stay for lunch, but based on the yummy treat I had today I know I will be back. I think I can get Jim to go in there too, because they have his favorite, Reuben Sandwiches. Oh, and I was going to take a picture of the danish, but I forgot to do it before I ate it!

Here are some examples of the menu offerings:

Scratch Reuben $8.50
Grilled Marinated Portobello Mushroom Sandwich $7.95
Cream of Leek and Potato Soup Bowl $4.75
Caramelized Local Pear Salad $5.25
Croissant $1.85

Scones $1.50
Cannoli $1.50
They had cannolis today, and I love them, but I just walked away! But don’t you know if they had had some cream puffs, I would still be there.

Four Seasons Bakery and Café is open Tuesday through Saturday 6:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 8:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. If you are ever in Gettysburg, this would be a good place to stop for lunch.

My Two Daughters

I have two daughters. For most of their lives I have been of the opinion that the two of them were as different as night and day. The older one, Rebecca, has dark, extremely curly hair. She is an artist. She was the kid no one liked in school because she could flip through a book and know everything in it. She never had to study but always made the all A Honor Roll. She went to college on a full four-year academic scholarship. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture. She is 33 years old and has never married.

Emily, the younger one, has brown wavy hair. She is a surgery scheduler for a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor. She made good grades, but she had to study hard and work for every A she got. She moved in with her boyfriend, who is now her husband of 15 years, the summer between her junior and senior years of high school. She worked her way through college, and paid for it with the Georgia Hope Scholarship and student loans. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

When you look at the facts, you would certainly think that the two of them are different. But, this past year, I have discovered that they really are more alike then they think. The things in life that are important to them are the same. They each want a family who loves them, to be respected by their co-workers and friends, and to be happy in their work. They both love me, even though they may show it different ways.

Another way in which they are alike is that they both have a love for books and reading. Both of them gave me books last month. Both of them were on subjects that I really needed to read.

“Making A Living Without A Job” by Barbara Winter was from Rebecca. It is a wonderful inspiration, with testimonials and illustrative stories of women and men who have pondered their talents, devised a plan, and gone into self-employment to change their lives for the better. It is about earning a living doing something you enjoy doing.

Emily’s gift was “Choosing Forgiveness” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Subtitled “Your Journey to Freedom”, it is a very good read and was very helpful to me in my life at the point I received it. The author writes about how when you hold on to your anger and hurts that others have piled on you, then you give that other person power over you to keep you imprisoned by those emotions. Only by letting go of the issues, forgiving others, and asking for forgiveness of the people you have wronged, can you let yourself out of that prison and truly be free. It opened my eyes and my heart so much.

Rebecca is job hunting at the moment. She was an art teacher at a private school but left there last spring to pursue promoting her own artwork. Emily is also job hunting. She has decided to change careers, and has taken the exam to become a middle school science teacher. So even in their sameness in being teachers, they are so very different in the subjects they teach. I wish them both good luck in their chosen paths, and hope we can get together very soon. I miss them both very much.

The Past Week

We had a week off before we had to start working, so we drove all around looking at all the scenery and trying out new places to eat. We found a neat little restaurant called The Book and Table Restaurant in Fairfield, about 6 miles west of the campground. They serve a good tasting, very filling breakfast. For $3.95 you can get two eggs, toast, and home fries, and juice. Coffee or tea is extra. The waitress there are nice and friendly and keep your coffee cup filled. There are a lot of locals there every time we go.

In the town of Gettysburg, we went to a place called The Pike. It is a pub. They sell Yuengling Beer, which is from America’s oldest brewery. They have a pretty good lunch menu We had crab quesadillas, homemade beef soup, and a hot roast beef sandwich. They were all very good. They have bands on Friday and Saturday nights, and karaoke on a weeknight. Jim said the ale was good.

Also in Gettysburg is Dunlap’s Restaurant & Bakery. They have an excellent breakfast served until 11:00 a.m. Order the number three, it includes two eggs, toast, home fries, and coffee or tea for the shockingly low price of $2.50. Jim and I can eat and leave a tip for less than $10.

Just for thrills I went to the KFC in town the other day. I told the little guy behind the counter “I want two legs and a biscuit”. He told me “If you order the number four, it would be cheaper”. I told him “I don’t want a number four, I want two legs and a biscuit”. He said “OK”. So I waited for my order, and when he gave it to me I went out to the truck to sit out there and eat my lunch. I opened the box and there were two legs and a corn muffin. The muffin was cold, I mean really cold, like it had been taken out of a refrigerator. So, I went back inside and showed him the contents of the box and asked him if that was a biscuit. I was thinking maybe since I was north of the Mason Dixon line for the first time in my life that what he had given me may well have been called a biscuit here in Pennsylvania. The guy looked at it and said, “No, that is a corn muffin”. I said, “Well, I ordered a biscuit.” He said, “Oh, you mean you really wanted a biscuit?” And I am thinking, YEAH, I thought that is what I said to begin with. I finally got my biscuit, but I do not think I will be going back to KFC any time soon.

On Sunday we drove down to Washington, DC to visit my son and his family. He is stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. I was dreading the drive down because I have heard the horror stories about the traffic on the beltway around DC. But, it was not as bad as driving on I-285 around Atlanta on the weekend.

When we arrived at the gate to the base they were not going to let us enter. Then Seth drove up and showed them his ID and told them we were his parents and they let us in. We had to stop at a check-point and give them our driver’s licenses, the truck registration, and proof of insurance. They inspected the truck too. Seth said it is because that is where Air Force One is hangared.

Seth has a four bedroom, two and half bathroom house on base. It is huge! The living room is big enough for a sectional sofa, a regular sofa, a love seat, a big screen TV and a wall unit type of bookcase, and it doesn’t look crowded. I was really surprised at how nice the base housing was.

We drove around the base a little bit. Seth showed us the hangar where they keep Air Force One. He said there are actually several planes of varying sizes that are called Air Force one, and it depends on where they are going and who is going which one they use. How interesting. I always thought there was only one plane.

Seth took us to the BX, which looked sort of like a small mall with a food court. We got some lunch from Captain D’s. After lunch, we went over to the park by the lake and the guys went fishing while Sarah and I sat and talked. Seth caught a huge fish. Jim said it was a pickerel. I have never seen one of those. I just know it was very big, because they were on the other side of the lake and it looked like a monster from where I was sitting. Michael caught mostly limbs and branches. We saw some sort of animal swimming in the lake. I don’t know what it was. We think it may have been a muskrat.

We finally had to head back home to Gettysburg. It was a nice day trip, only 108 miles from our house to theirs. We were hoping they could come up here this weekend, but the temperature went down and it started snowing this morning. By dark, there was 8 inches of snow and still snowing. Hmmmm, did someone tell me it snows in Pennsylvania in March?

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

We have arrived in Pennsylvania for our job here at Granite Hill Campground. The trip up was very nice. We stopped in Concord, North Carolina the first night at Fleetwood Speedway RV Resort at the Nascar track. It is a good place to stop for the night, but I have no idea why they call it a resort. It just looks like a campground to me.

The next day we headed out to Williamsburg, Virginia. We stopped there for 3 nights at Anvil Campground. If you click on the link, you will see that they don't have any pictures of their campground on their website. I think there is a reason for that. The place is one step away from being classified as a dump (in my opinion). It is right next to a railroad track, and trains roar by throughout the night. It sounded like those trains were going right through our bedroom. We wondered what those folks thought who were camping in tents right next to the tracks.

We met our friends Charlie and Lynn for dinner on Friday night at Outback Steakhouse. We had fun with them, they are really nice people. They said they were going to come up to Gettysburg sometime this summer. I sure do hope so. Then, on Saturday, we met Linda and Ron and Liz and Russ for breakfast at IHOP. Again, we were glad to see all of them. It was over way too soon. Linda and Ron are leaving Virginia soon for a new job in Florida. Maybe we'll see them this winter.

After breakfast we drove down to Norfolk to visit Rebecca and see her new apartment. We went to lunch with her and Joe at a Mexican place. Then we drove out to Virginia Beach for ice cream. It seems like all we did in Virginia was eat, eat, eat. We hung out with Rebecca for the rest of the day. We got back home to the train yard about 9:30 pm, just in time for the Amtrack train.

Sunday morning when we checked the map for directions to Prince William Travel Trailer Village in Dumfries, Virginia, we realized that it was only about 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., so we called Seth and told him where we were going to be. They decided to drive down and visit with us. We have not seen them in more than 3 years. They arrived about an hour after we got to the campground. It was sooo good to see them. Michael jumped out of the car as soon as they drove up and gave Jim a big hug. I got one next, and Michael told me he missed me a lot. I met Seth's new wife, Sarah for the first time. She is so nice! We really enjoyed seeing them. We went out to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, then went back to the trailer to visit for a while.

On Monday, we only had about 106 miles to go, so we slept late and still got here about 2 pm. The countryside in Maryland and Pennsylvania is beautiful. There are lots of farms with silos and red barns. Even with everything still being brown from winter it is still pretty here. The lakes and ponds are all frozen over, which surprised me. I knew it would be cold, but I guess I just didn't think about it being THAT cold.

Last night it was 10 degrees! It is supposed to snow 2-4 inches tomorrow. We went out today and filled our propane tanks. Oh, and I had sticker shock at the grocery store in town—celery was $2.89! carrots were $1.99! and 5 lbs red potatoes $3.99! Yikes!

We also had to drive over to Hanover, about 14 miles away, to go to the mall. We got lost on the way, and wound up going into an industrial area, where we saw the Snyder's of Hanover pretzel plant. It smelled like pretzels in the air around there.

Here in Gettysburg, we have already found a farm market and an egg farm to buy fresh food. There was a nice butcher shop in Hanover near the pretzel place. (I had to go in there to ask directions after we got lost, so of course I looked around to see what they had. The meat prices in there looked pretty good.)

There is a shetland pony farm about 3 miles from here, I want to take Michael and Sarah there, and Spencer too if he gets up here this summer. And of course, there is the National Battlefield Park, and I saw a Civil War Hospital on the way to Hanover. I'm sure there are lots more things to do that I haven't discovered yet. So, that's it for today.

Yay ME! I sold a photo!

I am so happy! I sold another photo that I took. I am "FabGrandma, the Famous Photographer", hahaha! Now if I could just sell one more often than every 8 months or so...

I will let you all see the fab photo that I sold, here it is:

Now, does anyone out there know where this is? I will tell you if you get it right.

And for those of you who want to know, I get $30 for it. I am so not going to get rich but I love knowing that someone actually bought one of my photos.

Fab Grandma Times 4

I am proud to announce that I am going to be a Fab Grandma again. My son and his lovely new wife, Seth and Sarah, are expecting a new baby probably in September. We are all so excited about this good news. Michael, the big brother, said to me “I told my parents I want to help with the baby when it gets here.” I told him it would be his job to teach his new brother or sister what not to do so he or she won’t get into trouble. He liked that. I have started a crocheted afghan for the cute little him or her. When I was in the store buying the yarn, it looked pale lavender, but at home it looks more pink. Oh well, so much for trying to remain neutral! He will just have to deal with it.

I also have started a baby quilt for the new little person. All I have accomplished on that so far is to sketch it out and decide that I want to make it in yellows and purples. It will be in the pinwheels pattern, with a striped border. I am planning to go to Douglasville next weekend and Emily and I can go to the fabric store and pick out some fabrics to go with the ones I already have. So far, I have some yellow that was used in Aunt Becky’s quilt (which I have not finished yet but plan to this summer) and Spencer’s big boy quilt; some yellow scraps that were left over from a dress I made for my granddaughter Sarah when she was little; some purple from Becca’s quilt (also not finished yet but I promise it will be this year!); and two purples left over from Sarah’s big girl quilt that I made for her sixth birthday. So, as you can see, this project already has some family history. I am eager to begin working on this but I can’t start cutting the fabric until I have all of it, so it will have to wait another week or so. But I can show you the sketch of it, hope you like it.

Last night while I was trying to draw this out, I was having a hard time doing it because the squares are on point. So, I drew them all out in a large square, colored them, cut them out, then taped them all back together in the pattern I wanted them to be in. Now, the reason I have to do all that is because I don’t have a pattern for this quilt to go by, and I cannot visualize it unless I am looking at it. Now that I have my drawing, all I have to do is count the squares so I will know how many to cut of each one. Sometimes even if I have a pattern I do this because I can’t imagine the pattern in MY colors when I look at it in the pattern makers colors. It helps me to see the squares in the quilt in the colors I am using.

But Jim was sitting across the table from me laughing at me. He couldn’t believe I would cut up all those little pieces of paper just to tape them all back together again. “Well,” I said, “isn’t that what you do when you make a quilt? Don’t you cut up pieces of fabric just to sew them back together again?” Men! They just don’t get it.

Snow Day Pictures

The roadside in Smithgall Woods

Stopping by the wood on a snowy day.The lodge at Smithgall Woods
Smith Lake at Unicoi State Park
Our trailer from the top of the hill. It is hard to see it in all that white.Duke's Creek where it crosses the road at Smithgall Woods.

Caution! Cross At Your Own Risk

The bridge over Duke's Creek

The checkin office for the campground at Unicoi State Park

We woke up on Thursday to 8 inches of snow! The weather guys on the Atlanta TV stations had all talked around it like the worst of the weather would be down to the south of us in Gainesville and Atlanta, but no, here is was up here in the mountains. Jim did not think we would get snow, if anything we were thinking it would be a cold drizzling rain. We were very surprised to have this much of the white stuff! The first picture here of our picnic table is to illustrate just how much of it we got.
This picture is of Jim standing under the awning, which is full of snow. It took him most of the afternoon to get it all off of the awning. Next time they start talking about snow, he will roll it up before we go to bed.




Here is a picture of the road into our section of the campground here at Unicoi State Park on Thursday morning. The park ranger made his rounds early, about as soon as the sun came up, to make sure there were no trees down in any of the roads. The next day, on Friday, they came by with a snowplow and scraped the road, because it did not melt off.



We had to go to Cleveland to get propane on Friday, so we drove around to see if we could find some "scenic" sights. We have driven past Smithgall Woods for years, never turning in to see it. Smithgall Woods is a Georgia State park site that was donated by the Smithgall family to preserve the natural forest area and Duke's Creek. It is absolutely beautiful. I got several beautiful shots there, but this one is, well, unique. I think it would be too cold to use this outhouse, but isn't it cute?

Cherokee, North Carolina

Yesterday, Gary and Faye came and knocked on our door. The first thing Gary said was “I’m bored, let’s go do something.” Since we were just about to walk out the door to get breakfast anyway, we said, “ok, let’s go eat.” We left home about eleven o’clock headed to Cleveland to return some rental movies to Ingles, and after a couple more errands we wound up eating at Huddle House there in Cleveland. While we were sitting there, we decided to drive up to Cherokee, North Carolina, to go to the casino there. After a quick trip to the bank, we started out about 2 pm.

We arrived at the casino around 4 pm. We each had about $40 to contribute to the indian reservation. A couple hours later, Jim, Faye, and I had each lot all of our money. We found Gary playing a penny slot machine and winning big time. He had about $30 racked up on that machine. We all sat and watched him until he lost all but about $20. He went and cashed out his winnings and we started out the door to go home.

Whiled we were waiting for the shuttle bus to come, we were talking about how much fun we had had so far, and Gary said he would loan us each $5 so we could go back in and play some more. So, we turned around and went back in.

I sat down at a penny slot machine, and put my borrowed $5 in. I did pretty good on that machine, so I sat there for quite some time. When my balance got up to around $60, Jim and Gary came over to tell me they had lost all of their money. So, when I got the balance up to $73 and change, I cashed out and paid Gary back his $5, and gave Jim $5 so he could play some more. I went to another machine, and started winning again. When all of the others came over to where I was playing and reported that they had lost all their money again, I decided to cash out and go home. I still had $23 in my purse, so I was the big winner for the day. By the time we got back to Gary’s truck, it was 9:30 pm. Although we didn’t bring home much money, we all had a very good time.

We stopped at a Huddle House somewhere in North Carolina on the way home for dinner. By the time we got back to camp, it was almost midnight. I can not remember having so much fun at a casino before. Oh, and I have to say that EVERY time Lucky Faye sat down next to me, I won BIG. So, if she ever wants to go to a casino with you, make sure she sits next to you.

Christmases Past

As most good Fab Grandma’s do, I have stories that I tell my children and grandchildren, over and over, at certain times of the year, ad nauseum…It is like a tradition to tell them even if no one wants to hear them again. So, with that in mind, here are a few of my Christmas memories, some good, some bad, but memories just the same.

The first Christmas I can remember was when I was about 5 years old. I had asked Santa for an electric train for my gift. Wouldn’t you know it—he did leave one at our house, but he mistakenly put “To Preston” (my younger brother) on the tag. How depressing is that? You ask for a train, a vehicle with power to let you escape into all the imaginary far away places a little girl could think of to travel, only to receive a stupid baby doll that hollers “Mama” at you, all the while peeing sweetly into her little panties. Now I suppose that in 1957 no respectable little girl would even ask for, much less actually receive, an electric train. No, we were relegated to practising to become little mothers, staying home spooning gruel into one end and wiping poop from the other, of our darling little babies, whilst our HUSBANDS, the MEN, traveled the work in their trucks, trains, and planes. I wish someone would invent the toddler doll that would wake up during the night with an asthmatic wheeze and rattle in their chest, crying “Mama” in agony while it throws up on the bed and squirts diarrhea out it’s little hiney. They could name it “Reality Check Carla” or something like that. Of course, there may not be much of a market for it, maybe young women whose husbands are pushing them to have a baby could get one for their spouse…Or, it could be part of that child care course taught to high school kids instead of using eggs.

Oh, I’m sorry, I was supposed to be telling a story here. Well, that little electric train was really cool. It puffed smoke out of its fake smokestack as it chugged around the track. We thought that was pretty amazing. And as for Betsy Wetsy was concerned, my older brother cut her head off to find out how she worked.

Several years later, when I was 9 and my sister was 18 months old, I asked for a jewelry box. In my little girl brain, I could see the little ballerina dancing around and around to the music from the music box. So, on Christmas Eve, all of us kids went to bed, too excited to sleep. After a while, we could actually hear Santa in the living room. He was playing with our toys, and from the sound of it, he seemed to be talking to Mama and Daddy. Suddenly, I could hear the music box playing—I think Santa must have enjoyed hearing it because he wound it up and let it play about 15 times. So, in the morning when we finally got out of bed and went into the living room, I saw to my horror that the jewelry box Santa brought was a satin covered, velvet lined pink box that was obviously meant for a much older girl. It had no music box, and no ballerina. The music I had been hearing was a wind up Fischer Price clock for my baby sister. I was too stunned to say anything. I tried really hard not to cry. I cannot think of a single other time in my life when I have been more disappointed.

The jewelry box I received that Christmas stayed in my possession until I was almost 50 years old. My older brother had taken a magic marker at some point and written “DUMB GIRL” inside the lid. I saw that every time I opened that box. Maybe that is why I don’t wear much jewelry.

So, fast-forward about 30 years. When my oldest daughter was 14, she could hardly wait for me to open her gift to me that year. For weeks before Christmas I had jiggled and wiggled it, shook it and held it, trying to figure out what was inside. It was not the shape or size of anything I had asked for. On that Christmas morning, Rebecca, Emily and Seth insisted that I open that gift first. Because of that, I think maybe I expected it to be a camera. Imagine my surprise, when the wrapping paper came off, to find a little jewelry box, with a ballerina and a music box! I cried like a baby! Those were uncontrollable sobs and a flood of tears. My children sat there, the looks on their faces telling me that they thought they had done something terribly wrong. How could they even begin to understand what that jewelry box meant to me? How could they know they had given me my childhood? That there was so much more than just a little jewelry box inside that gift? Yeah, a stupid as it sounds, that one moment is THE moment in my life that I cherish most. I still have that little music box, and the little ballerina presides over my most precious jewelry. All the rest of it goes into an empty baby wipes plastic box.

A year or so after I received the ballerina music box, my children surprised me again. This time, it was Emily’s gift. That year, my son and I went together on a Saturday morning to take the test for a GED. I had never finished high school and Seth had quit as soon as he turned 16. So, to get him to go take the test, I volunteered to go with him. We both passed with flying colors, and received our GED certificates in the mail. That year, Emily gave me a high school class ring for Christmas. It has the year I took the GED test, the name of the high school I attended when I was a teenager, my first name, and a tiger on the outside of it. There is an emerald green stone, because my birthstone is an emerald. My initials are engraved on the inside. I didn’t cry like I did when I received the jewelry box, but just knowing how proud my children must have been of me was a wonderful feeling. I keep that ring in my ballerina music box.

And so, here we are at Christmas time again. I hope you have enjoyed my stories, and may you all have a memorable Christmas this year.

Blah Blah Blah

The View from my Window.

It is hard to believe that we have been here at Unicoi for a month now. When we left Virginia, I was looking forward to having some time to get some things done. I wanted to finish Becky’s quilt and start quilting Rebecca’s, but I have not had time to put even one stitch in either one of them. I wanted to go to Jim’s mothers and have her give me some more lessons on wire-wrap jewelry making. I wanted to be able to take some photos every day. So far, I haven’t accomplished any of that. I’m beginning to think that we need to go back to Virginia so we can rest a bit.

Let’s see, in the last month there was Thanksgiving, Jim’s Dad in the hospital, the trip to Douglasville to get haircuts and visit my Mom and our daughters, buying the new trailer, moving from the old one to the new one, going to Gainesville for eyeglasses, working our volunteer hours, and on and on. I hope the next month will be a little calmer. My plan now is to be able to have some time to sort through all the junk I “found” when we moved, and get rid of some of it. I was truly embarrassed at how much stuff I have accumulated in the six years we lived in that little trailer.

In other news, I heard from my granddaughter Sarah’s mother, my ex-daughter-in-law (EDIL). She gave birth to a new baby girl (with her new husband) in Tacoma, Washington. She says Sarah is tickled to have a baby sister. She is making all A’s in school (I’m not surprised at that) and has made some new friends since they moved up there. They are going to Tennessee for a few days to have the baby dedicated at their church there and to have Sarah baptized. I am glad that my EDIL is happy.

I also heard from my new daughter-in-law, Sarah. We call her Sarah England, because it is so confusing to have Sarah the granddaughter and Sarah the new daughter-in-law. Sarah England and Seth, my son, are coming to the states in January. Well, at least Seth and Michael are coming, and Sarah is in the process of getting her visa. She may have to stay in England a month or six until it comes through, but they are working on it and have a “B” plan, in case have to be apart for a few months. Seth will be stationed in Maryland at Andrews AFB, just a little hop from Urbanna. Jim and I are looking forward to spending some time with them this coming summer.

Oh, and Rebecca called to tell me she is going to move in with “Not My Boyfriend, Joe”. He has been her “friend” for several years, and has just bought a new condo. She is going to be his room-mate. She will be paying the same rent she pays now for her tiny walk-up apartment in Ghent, and will have a lot more room. She also said that he will buy the groceries and she will do the cooking for them. She is a pretty good cook, and she has been cooking for him for several years, but at least now he will be paying for the groceries.

Becky, our other daughter, has almost the same arrangement with her room-mate, Scott. He has been her friend since high school. When she bought her condo in Atlanta, he moved in with her as her roomie.

Emily told me that she moved Spencer from the Lutheran kindergarten she had in because the pastor there washed his mouth out with soap. Can you believe that? She said while Spencer was going there, he stayed in trouble all the time. The teachers and the principal of that school said he started fights with other children, pinched them, bit them, tried to take toys away from them, and said bad words. Then, when Emily was there as the “room Mom” for the Halloween party, she observed that Spencer was laying on the floor playing with a truck when another child came up and tried to take it away from him. When Spencer said, “No, I was playing with it first”, the teacher said, “Spencer, stop that!” Emily said it was like the teacher automatically assumed that Spencer was the bad child, even though she was sitting right there and saw the other child come and start the little dispute. Spencer has been at the new school for two weeks and has not been in trouble one time. The teachers there say they don’t see any of the problems Emily told them about at the other school. Hmmm...

I guess that is all the news I have for the moment. What’s up with “all y’all”? Feel free to post comments…

Ga 400, I-285, and I-85, OH MY!!!

Jim had an appointment with his endoctrinologist in Decatur yesterday. It is 75 miles from our camp host spot to the doctor's office, and the Dekalb Farmer's Market is just a couple miles from the doctor, so we took Gary and Faye with us and set out for our journey. Georgia 400 is a road that is very busy with traffic MOST of the time, but yesterday was a horrible mess. In addition to the normal traffic and construction going on , there was a SUV overturned on the southbound side, which backed up traffic for miles. It took us a half hour to go about 5 miles! OK, so we get through the jam on 400, and get on 285 eastbound, and find the traffic crawling there, too. There had been some kind of bad accident on I-85 north, and the state patrol had closed the ramp from I-285 east to I-85 north. Jim's appointment was for 1:30 p.m., and we left home at about 11:15 a.m., and we were still late getting there. Does anyone wonder why we like working in Urbanna, Virginia???

Dr. Singh was as pleasant as ever, and seemed happy to see us. He remembered that we were the couple who lives in an RV, and told us about his parents going in their motorhome to Tempe, Arizona to visit the Cubs training camp. He also told us about his children, who are 3 years old and 6 months old. He is just a very personable guy. He gave s a 20% discount on our office visit bill and the bloodwork, so that was a good thing. He also wrote Jim's prescription for 100 pills instead of 30 AND gave us some coupons from the manufacturer for $10 off a prescription of 100 pills. What a guy! Since he did not have the bloodwork results, he actually gave us 2 prescriptions and told us to wait until he calls us to tell us which one to get filled.

Finally, after many hours of traveling (it seemed), we got to the farmer's market. They have a cafeteria there, where they cook the items that are for sale that day at the market. Has anyone ever eaten braised fennel? Or goat stew? Well, I passed on the goat stew, but we all tried a fab soup called Corn and Poblano Pepper Soup. Wow!, that stuff wa great! Oh, if you ever go there, keep in mind that they sell the food BY THE POUND, so make your selections carefully.

After we ate, I got the ingredients for bruschetta; Mexican Seafood Soup; and Basil Pesto. Jim got a bottle of Portugese wine, some beef pastrami from the deli, and some delish Red Raspberry Jam. Oh, and we got some blueberry muffins and some rye bread. I just love that store.

After we got all our shopping done, we drove down Ponce De Leon to Peachtree Street, sort of a littel driving tour of downtown Atlanta. We passed by Becky's condo at 923 Peachtree, and drove all the way down to Phipps Plaza. Got on I-85 north, and you guessed it, sat in traffic, again. We were so glad to get back home to the mountains. I hope we don't have to go down there again any time soon.

13.3!

It was only 13.3 degrees on Thursday night, the coldest I have known it to be in Georgia before Christmas. The wind was howling outside, but we were snug and warm in our new trailer. I could notice the difference right away, because whenever the wind would blow when we lived in our Starcraft, it was LOUD and there was usually a breeze or draft going through the trailer. In this one, though, I could barely hear the wind outside, and there was no draft inside.

Before I forget, I have to let everyone know how much help Gary and Faye were to us on the day we moved. After we signed all the paperwork and did the walk-through, they arrived ready to work. Faye and I were in the old trailer, handing stuff out the door to the guys until most of the things that were boxed up were moved. Then I went over to the new one and started putting things away. Faye stayed over in the old one and packed things up to be moved. You know, I thought I had gotten rid of a lot of stuff! But, the truth is, I still have too much. I have been throwing stuff away for three days now, and making a pile for selling on ebay too. I was truly embarrased at how much was packed away in that little starcraft! It only took half the day to get things signed and moved.


After we got back to Unicoi, I spent the rest of the day trying to find things. At about 6 pm, Gary knocked on the door with a pan of burritos. They were absolutely delish, so good that Jim said he was going to ask Gary to marry him!!

Ok, the top pic is a closeup of one of the window treatments in the kitchen. The next one is the bedroom, or at least part of it. That is me with the camera, and Big Jim in the mirror.



Next is the sofa in the living area, I hope you can see the window treatments and the cabinets over the sofa. Jayco calls this color scheme "Spring Willow", which sounds like it should be green, but is more brown and beige, very little green in it. The next pic is a closeup of the sofa fabric, so that you can see more of the colors. If you click on the pictures they will enlarge so you can see them better.

Yesterday we went down to Gainesville to
Target so we could get some throw rugs. The rugs I got are mostly orange, brown and beige, with a little bit of dark green in them. They all look pretty good in this new place.

We also went to Lenscrafters and got new glasses. Well, we ordered them, they will be in next week. I will post of pic of me in new glasses when I get them. It is still cold, with a forecast of high teens for tonight, and relative humidity of 15-20%! BRRRR. I want to go to Mexico!!!

Our New Home!

We found out this morning that our financing was approved for our new trailer. It is a 2007 Jayco Eagle 32FKS, which means that it is a 32 foot travel trailer with two slide out rooms. It has a bigger refrigerator than the one we have now, more storage areas, a king size bed, and a huge wardrobe closet!! We are very excited about this new purchase. The pictures above don't really show how pretty it is, but I wanted to show the colors of the interior. It has the flat, level slides, so we won't be bumping our heads on the slide ceiling now, hehehe.

The floor in the living area is congoleum that looks like slate tiles. I like it better than having carpet in the living room, because it is so hard to keep the dirt out of the carpet. There is a booth dinette also, so we have a place now to sit and eat dinner. I can't wait to get back up to Virginia and invite our friends over. Oh, and it has a gas barbecue grill that fits on the side of the trailer, so we can cook out. Yay!

After we get moved in later this week, I will put up some more pictures. Can you tell I am very excited about this?

Get a cup of coffe and a donut, this could take a while...

This past week has been really busy for us. It started with Thankgiving. I cooked
Thanksgiving Dinner for Jim's family. Well, most of it. I made Sunday Best Roaster chickens, dressing, gravy, butter peas, creamed corn and sweet potato casserole using Linda's recipe. It was all good, and the other family women brought things too. Let's just say it was "challenging" to pull this thing off.

Then, on Friday, we worked again for a half day. On Sunday, we went for a long drive around the mountains with Gary and Faye. They had never been to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia, so we drove up there. We were all excited about being able to take the shuttle to the top and being able to see 4 or 5 states from up there, but, no, the place was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday so we did not get to do it. But, the drive was nice and had a nice long afternoon to visit with our friends.

On Monday, we went down to Gainesville to file an unemployment claim. They said we would hear something from them in 14 business days, but to go ahead and file for the week until we heard from them one way or the other.

We worked a half day again in the morning on Tueday, then we decided we needed to go to the grocery store. We did that and spent a ton of $$, but now we have everything we need to eat like pigs for at least three weeks, maybe four. On the way home from the grocery store, Jim's mother called to tell us that his Dad was admitted to the hospital. They were at the doctor's office and they sent him to the hospital in an ambulance. One of their friends took Nana to the hospital since she does not drive, so we headed down there to see what we could do for her and to wait with her until she was ready to go home. She decided to stay, so we went home.

On Wednesday morning, she called us and told us they had not found out what was wrong with Poppa yet, and would be doing more tests, so there was no need for us to come to the hospital, so we went ahead with our plans to go to Douglasville.

We went to Becky's shop to get haircuts, which we both desparately needed. After the haircuts, I went to my mother's and Jim and Becky went to the mall to hang out and go to a movie.

I had a very good visit with my Mom. She was nice and sweet and we had a nice conversation. She gave me a ham sandwich and one of Linda's mince meat cookie bars and didn't say anything about me being fat or anything. She gave me some home made pound cake with chocolate fudge frosting and some apple butter to take home with me. It was a very nice afternoon. Dick and Donna came by and I got to finally meet her. She is very nice and I am glad he has found someone to love and to
make him happy. He deserves that in his life. When I got ready to leave to go and meet Emily and Spencer, Mama hugged me tight. It felt good.

I met Emily and Spencer at a place called Monkey Joe's. It is an indoor playground-party place. It is full of things to jump on, slide on, run around on, crawl through, etc... for kids. Spencer was running at top speed, like short cute little bullet. He is very fast and seemed to never run out of energy. I felt a little bad for Emily, because every few minutes she had to run like a mad woman to catch Spencer jut before he snatched an ice cream or candy bar from the counter and ran away with it. I brought him two little turtles (toys) and a glow in the dark t-shirt from Unicoi State Park. He took an instant attachment to the turtles. He named them Ned and Ted.

From there, we went to Jim's favorite barbecue restaurant, Hudson's Hickory House, for dinner. There was me and Jim, Becky, Emily, Tommy, and Spencer. It was nice to sit down as a family together and eat dinner. (It was also nice to have my favorite bbq ribs! Yum!)

We left Douglasville about 6:30 pm and drove to Gainesville. We stopped at the hospital to pick Nana up and take her home. She announced that she was going to stay another night, and Poppa said if she did then he was going to sign himself out of the hospital. He said it very loudly and with a lot of expletive deleteds. She got
her feelings hurt, but I do understand that he did not want any company. He was still in pain, and they had filled him up with laxatives in preparation for a barium enema on Thursday, so he was not in the mood for company from anyone. We took her home and stayed with her a while, and finally got home around 11pm.

Thursday, we worked a half day again, then went to Nana's house and stayed with her until Mike got there to spend the night with her. He is taking her to a doctor appointment today, then down to the hopsital in Gainesville to visit Poppa for a few minutes, before he brings home. He is supposed to call us if he decided not to spend the night again so one of us can go over there.

So, that has been our week, very hectic and busy, some fun, some not,
but life is like that. I hope all of you are doing well, and having
some fun along the way. I am waiting to hear from you all.