We made it to Tennessee with the Super Ks and were joined by Kris, Amy, David and April for the Lawrence family reunion in Franklin Tennessee (which is a little south of Nashville). Pat's sister, Linda's family hosted the reunion and did a great job...we all felt the reunion was a little overdue. Some of the younger members of the Lawrence family couldn't get away from work but those who made it down to Tennessee had a great time reconnecting. Pat's brothers joined us at Montgomery Bell State Park campground for some great fireside nights, eating and drinking a few beers while catching up on the past couple of years. It was a chance for our boys, Kris and David, to reconnect with their aunts, uncles, cousins and the cousins' families. The Super Ks fit in very nicely with the newest members of the family and were hits with all the older members.
After the reunion we drove north to Ohio to see George's family, accompanied by Kris, Amy and the Super Ks. David and his new fiancée, April, had to fly back to Denver and work. Yes, you read it correctly, David announced his engagement to a wonderful young lady that he has know since their days together in high school. We are so happy that he has moved on in his life, that April and David have reconnected, and that they decided to get married.
On the way north we had a 4-6 hour delay when we blew the left outside dual on the motorhome. The blowout also took out the propane manifold system, a compartment door, the heater door, plus we lost everything out of the storage compartment when it blew a 12-18 inch hole in the compartment floor. While we waited on AAA to respond to take off the tire that had been installed with a high pressure air hammer, Amy and Pat walked down the road picking up a lounge chair, 5 bench pads, various truck parts that did not belong to us, and the pieces of two plastic tables. What they could not find was the over sized sockets that were in a plastic bag that had also had the socket that fit the lug nuts on the motorhome. So after repeated phone calls to AAA (we will be cancelling their RV coverage) a truck finally arrived with a compressor and impact wrench to get the blown tire off and we resumed our trip north arriving in Kenton at 1230 in the morning. The good news is we contacted M&W body shop in Kenton and they worked miracles restoring not only the storage compartment, but made repairs to the whole under carriage of the motorhome in basically one day. They are the BEST!
The highlight of the Kenton trip was George's sister, Patsy, had a get together with the Cannode family, and a couple of cousins. Kris, Amy and the Super Ks met some relatives that they had never seen. We parked our motorhome at Dick and Karen's house and George promptly drove it into his lawn and sank the motorhome in about 8 inches of mud. Dick, the ever helpful brother, left his golf game, pulled George out and returned to the golf course.....Thank you Dick for being there for George --- Again! We will be attending a get together on Wednesday with some members of George's 1965 class and that is always a night to remember. It is amazing that there are so many friends from the '65 class that stay in contact. We will also squeeze in a few golf outings and one more night with the Cannode siblings for dinner. Then it is off to NY, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Boston, Groton, Harpers Ferry, and the eastern seaboard to visit friends, family and take in the historical east coast.
The Lawrence family's old people - 2nd row l to r..Chas, Linda, Clyde, George
1st row Sharon, Rose and Pat
George showing the Super Ks how to split wood at the campground
Clyde and Chas trying to help George read a campground map (he needs a lot of help)
The Next generation...2nd row l to r...Adam, David, Kris
1st row... Tami with Connor, and Jake, Kendra with Rory, April, Amy with Karsten and Kasey (the Super Ks)
A Friday night at Tami's house with Josh, Tami, Kendra and Rose. Plenty of food and drink for all before the reunion
Even during the tire blowout disaster Kasey found something to smile about ... a butterfly stayed in his hand and brought smiles to us all.
The newest Cannode, Shawn with his dad, Todd...do they look like doppelgangers?
A reoccurring theme...spraying water on everyone and dunking your head in a bucket of water. Grandpa experience two days of getting soaked while the Super Ks experienced the pleasure of laughing their heads off at him. As you can see, Grandma was the instigator!
George and brother Chuck relaxing with Pat, his sister Patsy and her husband Bob on their deck.
Uncle Dick decided to plant two trees named Kasey and Karsten in his backyard and who better to help than the Super Ks! Dick has a lot of patience!
The Super Ks and their mom and dad on the way to the airport...it is already lonely without them.
We will continue our eastern coast trip after visiting with our Kenton classmates and golf. We will point the motorhome east to meet our friend, Mike, who we have not seen in over 25 years in New York's Catskills, hooking up with Tom and Maryann Graue (our Arizona family) for some quality time in Nantucket and Boston, and doing some genealogy work in New England before turning south to Harpers Ferry to visit with our friends, Doug and April Almond. After that we have not put much thought into our summer plans but rest assured wherever we go....it will not be boring. We sincerely hope and pray that your summers will be enjoyable and the terrible winter of '13/14 is long forgotten.
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