A birthday party....In Virginia!

Well, It's a lot of driving from Florida to Iowa with the route we took. Friday we drove from the top of Florida to A place called South of the Border, South Carolina. It is a couple of miles south of the North Carolina border.

Ready for bed

After a good nights sleep we packed up and got ready for the final drive to Sherry and Mikes

Almost ready to go...

south of the border, It had lots of touristy stuff



We left the campground around 10 am and started driving north to Virginia. After what seemed like an eternity, and with some help from our GPS we pulled into their house.

Sherry!!!!! She looks happy!

Drinking wine on the patio

They made us an excellent dinner consisting of steak, fried potatoes and broccoli with cheese. And of course a few beers. I think Sherry and I overdid the beers, but it was the eve of our birthdays. We all sat up till well into the night, chatting and just enjoying each others company. We finally hit the sack at 1:30 in the morning. The next morning we got up early, well early, considering it was a late night, and found Mike making breakfast. He put me to work on the hard part....making toast. Don't laugh, it is hard getting the right consistency of color and proper butter portions.  We sang Happy Birthday to Sherry and gave her a card. Around noon Richard, Dana, their Friend Jesse and the kids showed up.

The kids getting some dogs

Little Sherry... I mean little Shonna.... I mean little Nora

Mike slaving away

Chit chatting on the patio

time for some games..

By the way, we were undefeated in my and Mike's 2 games

It was really nice seeing them, and they are so thoughtful, they brought Sherry and Bonnie motherday flowers. It really made Sherry and  Bonnie's day. All the kids called or texted happy mothers day to the girls. Mike grilled out hot dogs and hamburgers (he is really good on the grill) and we played bags and shot targets and chatted the afternoon away. Around 6 or so the kids all left and we sat around chatting some more until 11, then we had to sleep as Mike had to work in the early AM. We thanked him for the great hospitality, as he was going to work at 4:30 in the morning and we would not be up to see him off.

mug shot of the crew

Bonnie's flowers from Richard and Dana (Thanks you guys!)

Sherry with her plunder

These made her very happy. From her daughter.

Monday morning we got up at 8:30 and sat around drinking coffee with Sherry for a couple of hours. We figured we better push off , as we had to head for Pittsburgh for the vehicle swap. We are trading our van to Bonnie's daughter and her boyfriend for a Honda civic. We hugged Sherry and told her we loved her, and headed out the door. It was a great birthday, I couldn't have asked for more.

We drove for a couple of hours, until we hit Fredrichsburg and I saw a sign for the Battle of Fredrichsbug historical site, and I had to go. I am a huge Civil War buff and I figured I wouldn't have another chance to see it.

The stone wall the rebs used for cover

15000 men were buried here

This battle was the bloodiest battle in the civil war with appx 15,000 killed. 12,000 of them union soldiers. It ended after 2 days of the Union trying to overrun the well entrenched and with a superior
position. It was really cool seeing the locations and walking the battlefield.

After my birthday wish granted, we continued driving until we got to northern West Virginia and found a campground.....and it had Internet.....

I am tired and Bonnie has been sleeping for an hour, so I better get catching up.....