Jordon Lake Adventure, part 2

On Friday night of our week at Jordon Lake, I managed to gather 14 of us for dinner at Piccola Italia, a favorite, family owned restaurant in Cameron Village, Raleigh.  LaVerne and I went there often, as did she and her sister, Marianne.   On this night there was me and Lynn, sisters Barbara and Nancy, Jennifer and her husband, Mike; daughter Barbara, Trey, Houston and Patrick; Derick and his girls, Lauren and Leah and their Nana, Diane.  The food was terrific, the atmosphere warm and homey and it was so good to be with so much family, as always.  I toasted the absent guest of honor, Jason, because it was his skill and hard work as a baseball player that brought us all together.   Thank you Jason! 

Before leaving Jordon Lake, I went to Chatham County to talk with the DA about my parking citation.  Unfortunately, he wouldn't talk to me because it wasn't yet "in the system".  I'm thinking, "well it's in MY system and I'm having to deal with it!"  But I didn't say it.  I plan to have my day in court May 3 and will take my photos with me.  More later.

It was synchronicity that had me in the area on the Sunday of Bil and Cher Holton's Ordination celebration at their Unity church in Durham.  It was a wonderful ceremony and they were surprised to see me.  I was surprised when they reminded me that I had been the person to introduce them to Unity back in the 80's.  I surprised again when they recognized me during the service that morning.  It was a very uplifting experience to say the least and I'm very glad I went.

The photos of Bil and Cher didn't turn out well, but this one of me and Cher did.  Bil looks great after his heart surgery several weeks ago and is almost back to 100%.  It was so good to see these old friends and be present for their big occasion. 

And finally their was the great family bowling match involving me, Derick and the 4 grand kids.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good pic of all of us, but this one captures the mood of that morning.  I trailed for most of the match and couldn't remember the last time I'd bowled.  We had a small gallery consisting of Barbara, Barbara, Trey, Diane, Nancy and Lynn cheering us on.  The thought of being beaten by my 8 year old grand daughter really bugged me, so in the 10th frame I relaxed and recalled by game of old.  Finishing with a spare and a strike put me ahead of them all and my honor was preserved one more time.  After all, I couldn't let them think that I let them win, could I? 

Overall it was a wonderful week with family in spite of the parking incident.  It was just too short.

Next time, life at Lake Powhatan.  It is grand!

Jordon Lake Adventure

Barbara, Nancy and Lynn at Top of the Hill, Chapel Hill

We arrived at Jordon Lake campground on March 27 and after setting up, went to find sisters Barbara and Nancy.  We had a nice Italian dinner, did a lot of catching up and got back to the campground around 10.  The gate was locked, no parking signs everywhere and our home on wheels was a hundred or so yards away with Tinkerbell locked inside ready for a pee break, I'm sure.  There was a traffic island in the entry way, not marked "No Parking", so I pulled up on it and we walked in.  I left a note on the dash board with our site number, saying we'd return at 8 the next morning to get the car when the gate opened.

Next morning we got to the car at 7:50 and I dropped Lynn off the scooter to bring it back to our site.  There was a parking citation under the wiper and on top of the note, stating a $25 fine and $190 in court costs for illegal parking!  I was furious!  But since we had a baseball game to go to that morning, so I just put the ticket on a back burner until after the game.

Our main reason for leaving Florida a little early and coming to the area was to watch grand nephew Jason play in the first National High School Invitational Baseball Tournament in Cary, NC.  Only 16 teams were invited and many were ranked, although Sarasota High wasn't ranked at the time.  As soon as I heard about the tournament back in December, I invited all of my family and some friends as well.  Above you see my first wife, Diane, companion Lynn, me and grand daughters Lauren and Leah at the first game.  Later in the week Derick came to some games and daughter Barbara and her family made it down for dinner Friday night and bowling Saturday. 

Sarasota won their first game 14-2 and Jason did very well.  How exciting!  In their next game
Sarasota was leading 5-2 going into the last of the 7th inning (they only play 7) and the other team loaded the bases!  With one out, the batter hit a grounder to the 3rd baseman who tagged the base, threw it to first base (in the dirt!) and Jason scooped it for the 3rd out to end the game.  Whew.  It was great baseball!  Unfortunately they lost the next game and their final game was cancelled due to rain.  Overall they ended up in the top 4 and we were all very proud!

Barbara, Jason and Jennifer

This slow Internet connection is driving me batty so, to be continued...

RV With a Penthouse

We left Florida on March 26, headed back to NC for the spring, summer and fall seasons.  We stopped in Yewassee, SC for the night and this was our neighbor.  It was a home-made penthouse on wheels!  A very clever design, well done and it looked pretty good.  I never figured how they got up to the penthouse and didn't get a chance to ask them. 

Hope to blog more tomorrow or the next day, our days off this week.  We love living and working at Lake Powhatan and have already had a few interesting experiences.  Words can't describe how glad we are to be home.  This morning I caught 2 nice rainbows out of the lake and cooked them on the grill for lunch.  Oh yeah!

Next time: the first invitational high school baseball tournament in Cary, NC; a gathering of my family there; my $215 parking citation at Jordan Lake; 2 old friends become Unity ministers; first days at Lake Powhatan.  See you later...