Well we left this morning at 10:30 from Ashburn. It was a quick signing at the title company and then we had to go back to the house and pack some stuff. The car was literally loaded with stuff and so we decided to pack some stuff in boxes and take it to UPS to send home to lighten the load in the car. I am not sure it helped but we felt better about it. So we got on the road rolling the dice that all would be well when the buyers signed at 3:00. Our realtor represented us there and sent word that all was well. Phew!
I think our thought was if we could just get out of Virginia it would be real that we were going back to California. The state of Virginia is actually quite long from where we were in Northern Virginia to the tip. It took us about 5 hours. We stopped in Wytheville so that I could go to the St. John's Lutheran Church Cemetery.The Yonce family was from Wytheville, Rural Retreat and Black Lick and some from Pepper's Ferry. I had always wanted to see the place where they lived. It took us awhile to find the cemetery and we ended up driving all over the city, which is not big, and when we finally found it we could have just pulled off the freeway to the right further up and there it is on the right. It is an awesome old cemetery with headstones that are being worn away by the weather. We searched for some time for John and Catherine Yonce, our direct relative, and finally found them in the middle of the cemetery. Had we gone to the little chapel doors first we would have seen that Sally Kegley had identified all the headstones and where each is and the names of those buried there. But I have to say it was great to walk among the graves and find them for myself.

The gravestone was falling over and so they had put a fence around it to hold it up. There were smaller gravestones around it that I assume were children. No names or dates. I will try to upload other pictures later but here in the hotel they don't allow me to upload lots of stuff so I have to wait.

I asked a lady in Rural Retreat how to say Wytheville. Some say Wy...like long I. But the news said Withville. She said Withville. 

We crossed the border into Tennesse at Bristol and it began to get dark. So I was not able to take alot of pictures.

We got into Knoxville at 6:15. We started seeing signs for Dollywood and Pigeon Forge. If it had been light we probably would have taken a drive up there.

We got into Nashville about 10:00. But they are an hour earlier than us so it was really about 9:00. We came on up to the hotel. We are pretty tired having been on the road for almost 11 hours. Tomorrow I am hoping to go see a bit of Nashville. More later.....

DC in the Spring time

We took a little jaunt into the district today to see the Cherry Trees. They bloomed a few weeks early this year due to the warm weather and so we were excited to finally be able to see them. At first we were kind of disappointed. We were told to go to the Lincoln Memorial and look down the tidal pool and we could see the trees. Well we got there and...what? We saw trees alright but they were not cherry trees, AND they were bare.

But hey, the Tidal Pool was looking better. At least they had the concrete poured. It looks like it could be ready for water soon.

But no cherry trees..at least not there. I said darn it, this was a wasted trip. But we decided since we were already there that we should go see the Martin Luther King Memorial since it was closed last time we were there. We thought we knew where that was too and so we took a walk down by the tidal pool toward the World War II Memorial and..what? It wasn't there either.

But we were not discouraged, we added more steps. Another story...but we got a pedometer from Northrop and Virgina that counts our steps and then we track it online...long story for another day... A little more exercise...

We finally asked the Parks guy and he said..take that sidewalk right there and then go down about 100 yards and its right there. So we crossed the street and what was ahead of us? The most beautiful row of cherry trees we have seen. They were not by the Lincoln Memorial but around the Jefferson Memorial. So we took a stroll down the sidewalk and just drank in the beauty. As we rounded the corner there was the Martin Luther King Memorial.

So this is what we saw in DC. Unfortunately these pictures don't even begin to show how beautiful it really was.

The MLK Memorial was quite large and imposing and serenely looks out over the water. I am not sure if they meant for it to over look the water and if that has any meaning, but it is in a beautiful place. They have put a lot of his quotes on the wall. This was my favorite.

Luckily we got there early in the morning before the crowds. They had just started to arrive, lots of tour buses and school groups AND they were running the St Patricks Day Marathon just east of us. The whole lot of them were just preparing to come down the street as we were going home. The next few weeks in DC will be packed since the cherry blossoms will reach their peak beginning next weekend and go for only about 2 weeks, unless there is rain and then the blossoms will fall to the ground and be gone. We missed the cherry blossoms last year because we got here in May, but I am glad we got to see it this year. It was something not to miss.

Keeping busy!!

I have been trying to keep busy getting some projects done. I have them stacked up in the craft room. I am doing my best to finish them but I have picked up an old favorite and that is -- crocheting. I never ever thought I would be crocheting again in my life. I did it when I was younger but all of a sudden it has become popular again. I suppose with the advent of the knitting generation, crocheting has also become popular.

So I have made hats and shoes so far.

I made the first hat for Ryder, just to see if I still had the crochet gene, it was a doggy hat that is the same as the gray one at the end except the it was beige with brown ears.

Then I made Luke a newsboy hat similar to the first one but without the pink bow..:) I will find those pictures later.

Then I made Avery some shoes, which is the first picture. Megan has sent me a few patterns to make and so I still have the crocodile boots to make but I have to order the yarn because it is speciality yarn. I wanted to wait until I had the crochet thing working good again, cause it looks fairly hard, and it HAS been years.

So Ashley wanted a newsboy hat like Luke's and then Brayden wanted a hat like Ryder's and then Matt wanted one like the boys WITHOUT the ears. Can't understand why he would not want the ears!!!

I have two more projects started. A hat for Avery and the other night Gavin saw the hats and wants one. So his is going to be blue and Ashley wants a couple more so..... I have a whole lot of crochet projects to finish....never imagined I would be doing this again. Actually kind of like it....:)

My Soap Box

So here is my soap box for the day:

I am outraged by the seemingly casual way we feel about the immorality we see every day. Especially among our government and the people who are asking us to vote for them to run the government.

Yesterday on the Today show they were asking the question of the panel who were discussing the headlines of the day, how they felt about Herman Cain reassessing his campaign and if the affair would hurt his chances for running for President. The answer from all of them was the affair should not matter. One of them said they felt that his getting up and not being honest by denying it was more important. WHAT??? He is being dishonest with his wife and family by having the affair to begin with!!! One of them said, look one of the most revered Presidents of our time had an affair and we still revere him. Yes I think that is true, we have just accepted that this behavior is ok for government officials and that we have ignored the fact that a moral issue is also an issue of integrity. We are essentially saying that it is not important to us what they do in their private life. Well it IS important to me!! It is an honesty issue and it is an integrity issue and if we no longer care whether or not our President is an honest, upright individual and has integrity, then something is really wrong with us. How can you expect that a President can run our country with integrity if he cannot even run his own life with said integrity?

They also pointed to Newt Gingrich as an example and said that he has had two affairs and is moving up in the polls now. Yikes!!! I am concerned about this country and what they perceive as ok. When are we going to remove those from office who have sullied the reputation of that office and not allow them to make a mockery of what we sent them there to do? I did not send them there to spend their days and nights cheating on their wives being a player. I sent them there to govern this country. That is their job, that is what they were sent to do.

Part of me thinks that in this age of technology that they should all be sent back to their districts to govern from there. Make them answerable to their constituents by being in their districts and telecommuting to Washington. I think they forget what it is like to be among the people who sent them there. I think they forget what it is like to live in their district and see the people who are suffering because of this economy and how the stand off that happens between the two parties is affecting their people. They have forgotten what it is like to live and work in the real world. Go home to your district and call it in every day. That would surely make you more aware of your people back home and make you more interested in working for their good and not your own.

There - soap box done.