We're halfway through a two-week vacation in the Southeast whose main purpose is to introduce Soren to his great-grandma in Tennessee -- but that won't happen until this coming Easter weekend. Meanwhile, we've been visiting other family and friends in a driving loop through Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina (where we are now). We're averaging 50 mpg in the rental car, since we got upgraded to a Prius!
OK, first stop was Chattanooga, Tenn., where we flew in and were hosted by my cousin Jamie and her husband Louis and kids Emily (7) and Jack (3). Three blondies! Jack was pretty hot on Soren until we all had to ride in the car together, which brought on Soren's inevitable yowls of protest (he still doesn't like to be confined to his carseat, too bad for all of us). With fingers stuffed in ears, Jack demanded, "Turn him OFF!" If only we knew where
that button was...! We brought the kids a stuffed orca whale from Washington, which is shown in the PJ picture below.
Then it was on to Monroe, Ga., a perfectly lovely small town about an hour east of Atlanta that we discovered on our 2006 road trip. We stayed with our friend Chad, a 33-year-old community organizer dynamo and realtor/developer (of the good kind) who has founded a nonprofit called
Friends of Walton County and serves on Monroe's Downtown Development Authority, the Walton County Quality Growth Committee, and a YMCA steering committee, among others. Our kind of guy! He had a soft spot for Soren and is shown here assisting with some first steps on the full-length pine floorboards in his restored 1906 Craftsman.
Soren and I took a day trip to Suwanee, Ga., to visit my childhood friend Erin and her 3-year-old son Joshua, who is the most amiable toddler I have met. Anything Erin asked of him ("Would you like to show Soren your train upstairs?") was answered with a cheery, "Oh, yes, please!" And when he answered me, it was "Yes, ma'am." "We
are in the South," Erin explained. "It's a common courtesy."
Lastly, I will list among friends made this fellow we met briefly in Abbeville, SC, where we stopped for lunch yesterday. Turns out he is a member of a rhythm-n-blues/soul/funk band called The Flying Clouds. We found a video of the band from 1999 on YouTube (
click here), and he is the singer who comes in at 3:00 bouncing up and down with incredible energy -- which is sad, since recently he broke his leg and was hobbling around with one crutch and a cane. But his spirit was strong.
We're now in Charlotte, NC, headed tomorrow to the Asheville area, and we'll report on visits with those friends in Round 2!
It was so special for Soren to meet his great-grandmother Lebania in Rogersville, Tenn. She is 91 and in a nursing home, but on her walls are scores of photos of her two children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, of whom Soren is the newest. Whenever we called her, she would say, "I'm a-lookin' at Soren's picture" -- and now she has held him. That counts for a lot.
Making the rounds of the many relatives in Rogersville (where my dad grew up) included visits with my dad's cousins Ron & Jean (above), and Tom & Linda (below).
We were graciously hosted by my dad's sister Cheryl and her husband Harold. On Easter we all went out for brunch along with their children (my cousins) David and Sarah (below). David is a sheriff's deputy and Sarah is heading to Air Force basic training in one month.
Cheryl and Harold's oldest child is my cousin Jamie, with whom we stayed in Chattanooga. She and her family (husband Louis and kids Jack & Emily) also drove up to Rogersville for Easter, and that meant we got to spend time with Louis's mother Janet (below).
Hope you followed all the family tree connections! It was a whirlwind trip seeing everyone we could possibly squeeze in during two weeks, but worth it. And, for the record, Soren behaved very well on all our plane flights. One of the stewardesses wanted to take him home with her...!
