Can't Seem to Get Away from the East Coast

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Gettysburg was pretty sobering as we took the 'road tour' of the famous battlegrounds. Losing approximately 45,000 dedicated Americans in three days is hard to fathom. There were hundreds of monuments honoring those that gave their lives during this short period in our history. We stopped to photograph the North Carolina monument and the Virginia monument. Both were very impressive. An amazing and eye-opening day!!!

Sterling, Virginia

From Gettysburg we drove to Sterling to be with the Lossings during Jonathan's heart surgery scheduled for August 31. However the surgery was postponed until September 4 and so we made a quick weekend trip to Waverly to see Barb's dad who is in rehab after he broke his hip. It worked out well as we were able to travel to Columbus to see Matt's last OSU band performance. Had a nice visit with Dad and Ruth. Dad is working hard to walk again and go home. Back to Sterling on Monday to watch the girls as John and Beth were at the hospital the majority of the time. The operation went better than expected but he still was hospitalized for eight days. His recovery has been amazing and he is one strong, special kid - beating all the odds of having half a heart. One visual result has been the coloring of the tips of his fingers (blue to pink) as oxygen is now reaching all parts of his body. As tough as the operation was, Jonathan's disposition did not change much with smiles for everyone. Coming home had the energy of Christmas morning and the emotion was a bit overwhelming. (pictures below) He has bonded so strongly with his sisters and parents. Tears were very abundant. His English is coming along great and he can't wait to start school (he will be tutored for about six weeks at home). The girls started preschool and ballet during this time and love it.

Asheville, North Carolina

Our next stop was Asheville to attend the wedding of Audrey Wilkinson and Brad Loder. Audrey is the daughter of Barb's cousin, Mildred. This brought together all of the North Carolina cousins - and there are quite a few of them. Barb's sister, Patsy flew in on Friday and stayed on the RV. The weather was awful (pouring down rain) and there was some concern for the outdoor wedding on Saturday but the day was perfect - sunny and 75 degrees. The wedding was beautiful and fun, held on a ranch with horses coming over the hill across the lake during the reading of the Apache prayer -- long horned steer in the fields as you entered the ranch. However any time with our cousins is always a good time and we look forward to the next get-together, maybe the pig-pickin in November.

We stayed in Asheville until Thursday because there was so much to do and we will give you all the details in the next blog, hopefully within the week.

Life continues to be good as we travel down the road!!! I think the board of directors below agrees!!! (Bill; cousin, Gil Vick; cousin-in-law, Bill Roberts)