Good News; a New Family Addition and Other Stuff

Great news: On Wednesday my mother went to see her new doctor in Morganton. He told her that her cancer is in remission. Yeah!!!! No more treatments, and he doesn't need to see her for two more months. Dorcas and I visited Mom on Tuesday and helped her hang pictures and did some other chores. Every time I look at all her stuff, I am amazed that we got her moved at all. Folks who know me know that I keep things and have a lot of stuff. Folks who know my mother will understand where I got it from.

We have a new family addition. Izaak has been gone a little over a year now, and it was time to fill that terrible void in our hearts. Last night we picked up Matilda, a six-week old Australian Shepherd. She is as cute as she can be. We took her to the vet this morning for her initial exam and vaccinations. We are leaving this afternoon for two and a half weeks in the motor home, so I guess she will get used to traveling and camping pretty quickly. At least that's the plan.

In about an hour we are leaving on a short (for us) motor home trip. Our first stop is Stony Fork Campground in Jefferson National Forest, about 5 miles northwest of Wytheville VA. We will be there six nights and then head southwest to a Country Coach rally in Sevierville TN. After 4 nights in Sevierville we will move again to either the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or to the Mt. Rogers National Recreation area, for about a week. Ain't retirement grand?

I am grossly behind updating this journal with past trips. I have been very busy and not a little lazy about posting reports. I will try to post something soon. In short, 1) we survived eight nights on the Buffalo National River, in spite of a deadly thunderstorm as we were taking out, 2) we experienced a very interesting and eventful bike ride from Fleetwood to Todd, a trip not usually known for being interesting and eventful and 3) we enjoyed the friendship of our Lumber River Canoe Club friends while camping at Hanging Rock State Park and paddling five straight days on the Dan River. Whew! Too many adventures, not enough time.