Journeys with Jackson

  Our trip is drawing to a close. The last must see on this adventure was a visit to New River Gorge National Park. We have made numerous trips to West Virginia’s “wild and wonderful” mountains but this was the first opportunity we’ve had to visit the river gorge area. We camped at Babcock State Park so we’d be close enough to do day trips into the national park. Since neither of us are kayakers, rafters or climbers we decided to concentrate on hikes in the Grandview section of the park. The view certainly didn’t disappoint. We loved the untouched beauty of this place.  This was Jackson’s first extended trip and he gets high marks for his “go with the flow” attitude. We feel blessed to have the little dude!

  Growing up, when summer came and school was out, there were two trips my family always made. We had a small pop up trailer we pulled to the lake to camp and later in the summer we traveled for a proper vacation at the ocean. The beaches we visited varied from Virginia Beach to Myrtle Beach and even Daytona. The camping trips were always to an Army Corps of Engineers Park near our home. I think my brother always preferred the trips to the ocean. The camping trips, at the lake, were my favorite. When Mark and I met in college and decided to get married I didn’t want a big wedding but I wanted a meaningful ceremony. I decided marrying on my parents 25th wedding anniversary, using the same pastor who married them and reserving a shelter at the lake, where we’d made so many memories, would be the best fit. My parents pulled the little pop up camper to the lake. I stepped out of it in my wedding dress and my dad walked me down the makeshift aisle. It was a happy day. That was forty yea...

  When Mark and I plan these trips we try to be considerate of each other’s likes and dislikes in regard to activities and events. We share so many common interests that’s not difficult to do. Over the years, one area of interest I might have missed, without the influence of my traveling partner, are National Battlefields. These preserved sites are educational, dog friendly and almost always lightly attended. And as absurd as it sounds they are so often tranquil and peaceful; the complete contradiction of what the area must have been like during battle. Today, in its natural but hallowed state, it is quite impactful. On this trip we managed to visit two major Civil War battlefields- Manassas and Petersburg. The battle at Manassas, or Bull Run, was the site where Union and Confederate troops clashed for the first time on July 21, 1861. The heavy fighting there swept away any notion of a quick war. Four years later, the battle at Petersburg- the longest siege in American warfare- ult...

  In 2009, all three of our children were in college and Mark and I became empty nesters. We decided the best course of action at the time was to abandon the nest. I was 47 and he was 49. We left Tennessee and bought half a row house in downtown Washington, DC, where we lived until the end of 2016, when Mark retired. We’ve often referred to those years as “the greatest years”. That’s not to say that the two decades we spent in the rural south raising a family weren’t great years….they were. But there was something magical about being a couple again, once the kids were on their own, and reinventing ourselves in a new place. We made some amazing memories. We haven’t been back to DC in eight years. We always hesitated to return knowing that as time goes by places and things change but mostly you change. We didn’t want to alter or diminish the memories we made there so many years ago.  But today we are camping outside the metro area, at Pohick Bay Regional Park, and decided to rev...

  I love my big brother. I really like him too. It was just the two of us growing up and if we ever got into trouble, it was usually because I talked him into doing something we weren’t supposed to do. He’s a good guy with very few bad habits. He’s never smoked, drank or even said a cuss word. It was wonderful growing up with him but also hard because of his “always do the right thing” ideology. He set a high standard for a younger sibling to try to follow. I’m not sure, in my 62 years of life, that I can think of a single time when I’ve ever outshone my brother in general overall goodness. My brother is funny too. He’s a great storyteller and uses social media weekly to share random thoughts that are often self deprecating and humorous. Last week he shared about the emergence of the cicada and how it has served as a catalyst to his coming close to saying his first bad word. This particular random thought went something like this: “As I’ve worked my mowing business these past 2-3 w...

  Many retirees have a list of things they want to do that were put off while they were working. Traveling seems to be a universal item, high on the list, whether it’s to see the world or visit relatives. Mark and I fit in that general category, and we’ve found that some of our favorite trips combine traveling with opportunities to interact with family. Mark’s older brother, Karl, and wife Nancy, live in Florida most of the time but a few years ago purchased a villa/condo in a resort community in the North Carolina mountains called Olde Beau Resort and Golf Club. Now that they’re retired, it’s a great place to escape from the summer heat in Florida and the perfect fit for their active lifestyle. We were pleased that our trip to North Carolina coincided with their being home at Olde Beau. Throughout our marriage, Mark has taken the opportunity, when it presented itself, to tell others about his older brother Karl and what a great golfer he is. What a perfect day we had seeing Karl a...

Sometimes good things take time. Mark and I journeyed to Mountain City, TN, today where my grandmother, Mary Blanche, was born. My grandmother was adopted from an orphanage in Nashville, TN, in 1918, and the only information she was ever made aware of, about her adoption, was where she was born (Mountain City) and her surname (Shepherd). Today, with the application of DNA matching and some good old fashioned sleuthing, our family finally knows a little bit more about her biological beginning. From what we can piece together, Blanche’s mother’s name was Biner Shepherd. I won’t pretend to know the narrative of Biner’s life but it appears she was poor, never married and struggled with her health. She lived out her life with two sisters, some nieces and nephews and a son named Jesse. She had two daughters, in addition to my grandmother, who both ended up being adopted. I won’t go into the details of each adoption but for Mary Blanche it seems probable that at 18 months of age my Nan was tr...