The past few July Fourths, Sawyer and I have gotten up early to go to Greensboro's parade and Fun Fourth festival downtown. I have a hard time sitting through parades, but I'm compelled to do something patriotic on the Fourth. Fireworks shows are usually out if I'm working, so the parade is the best option. And if we go early enough and sit in the right spots, you can find some shade and avoid the extreme summer heat.
Besides where else can you see Uncle Sam on a Segway?
This year, we threw out all our regular traditions.
We have friends who bought a house in the mountains last year, and we'd talked about helping them add on to their deck. Ray's done some deck-building, so he offered his assistance. Somehow, he came up with the idea that going up for the weekend of the Fourth would be a great time to start on it. And we could have a little family trip to the cooler weather of the mountains and fun times with Margaret and Bruce. Those are the new friends.
And as it just so happens, we have old friends who have a big Fourth of July celebration near this house in Todd. There's a giant campout and one amazing fireworks show. Ray's been to "Boonestock" a handful of times, often helping with work at the property or arranging the fireworks display. I've been twice. As the attendees get older and children are added to the mix, this celebration gets a little milder each year. And I thought it might be fun to stop by and visit with Susan, a longtime pal who worked with both of us at The Herald, persuaded Ray and me into going out, stood up with us at our wedding and recently moved back to Florida. She's the old friend.
It all (mostly) worked out.
We had a fun time with Margaret, Bruce and Bruce's sister, Betty, at the house. While then men did lots of hole digging, Margaret, Sawyer and I took off for a tubing trip down the New River (which is just down the street from the house). It was Sawyer's first time, and I was a little concerned that he'd be scared. But the water was so shallow and placid, that my biggest worry was that it'd take all day to make it to the end.
I had made reservations for the tubing, so we walked down to the river and over the bridge to Wahoo's about 10 a.m. It was already packed with tubing guests. We waited while three other vanloads of people headed out to the dropoff point. No one seemed to know what was going on. The loading of tubes and people was mass chaos.
Finally, it was our turn. We drove a couple miles up the river to get dumped out. We grabbed tubes, include an adult and child one tied together. (Sawyer's tube had a bottom so he wouldn't fall through.) I didn't want Sawyer to get separated from me. I could just see him sailing off past me and both of us freaking out!
The water was chilly but tolerable once you got used to it. And the water was so calm that we really didn't get wet. Our biggest challenge was that the water was TOO calm. In a couple spots, we drifted over the side of the river and lost our tiny momentum. A few times, the wind was blowing hard enough to send us back upstream. We really could've used paddles.
Margaret got ahead of us a few times and had to pull over and wait while we caught up. After that, we tried to hang on to each other's tubes and stay together. That made us go a bit slower, but we had some good laughs.
Getting a picture of all three of us was a challenge!
Getting a picture of all three of us was a challenge!
Possibly the funniest part was explaining to Sawyer how to take a "potty break" in the river without a potty. We stopped at a large rock in the middle of the river so he could get in the water without floating away.
After that, we had to make our way to the tall side of an incredibly low bridge so we could duck and slip underneath. It felt like forever, but we finally made it back to our starting point at the tubing outfitter, though the water was moving so slowly that Sawyer and I hopped out and walked the last 200 feet or so.
We climbed the hill back to Margaret and Bruce's house (Sawyer got the luxury of a piggyback ride) and ate lunch. We all took showers and then Ray, Sawyer and I headed over to Boonestock to visit Susan and friends. Naturally, Sawyer fell asleep in the car. And as Boonestock goes, nothing is ever normal or simple. When we got about halfway up the steep mountain driveway, there was a tree blocking our path, a tree the owners had just cut down for firewood. We had to hang out while they chopped up the tree into smaller parts for hauling up to the meadow.
One woman came over to introduce herself and kept telling me how cute I was, and wasn't I just adorable and so on. (She was so drunk we saw her passed out on our way back down the mountain an hour later.)
We found Susan, who talked to us for a while after finishing her card game. She filled us in on her new job and financial studies. Sawyer woke up and got to say hello, and by then we had to race back to the house for dinner.
After eating, we piled into cars and drove to Tweetsie for the fireworks. It was packed, and cars lined every available spot along U.S. 321. We parked in Tweetsie's grass lot, not thinking about how crazy it would be to get back out.
While waiting for the show to start, Sawyer wrestled and dove on Bruce. I think it wore them both out! It was chilly enough that we all put on jackets and snuggled under blankets. Sawyer even climbed into Betty's lap for the show, which was lovely. It was such a nice change from the normal fireworks show at the Grasshoppers games. The fireworks didn't drown out the music, and they spaced them far enough apart that you could appreciate each big mushroom of color. Add to that: It was quite dark and they shot the fireworks off from near the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful sight.
The less beautiful sight was the colossal traffic jam at the end of the night. It took us more than an hour to get out of the parking lot, and that was after sneaking out a back way with dozens of others. It was 11:30 before we got back to the house, but we all had a huge helping of strawberry shortcake that I'd made for dessert. Except Sawyer who was asleep. He ate his for breakfast.
We were going to go with Ray on Saturday to the IDPA match in Wilkesboro before coming home, but I didn't feel well so we hitched a ride with Margaret, who had to get back to Greensboro in time for work.
After that, we had to make our way to the tall side of an incredibly low bridge so we could duck and slip underneath. It felt like forever, but we finally made it back to our starting point at the tubing outfitter, though the water was moving so slowly that Sawyer and I hopped out and walked the last 200 feet or so.
We climbed the hill back to Margaret and Bruce's house (Sawyer got the luxury of a piggyback ride) and ate lunch. We all took showers and then Ray, Sawyer and I headed over to Boonestock to visit Susan and friends. Naturally, Sawyer fell asleep in the car. And as Boonestock goes, nothing is ever normal or simple. When we got about halfway up the steep mountain driveway, there was a tree blocking our path, a tree the owners had just cut down for firewood. We had to hang out while they chopped up the tree into smaller parts for hauling up to the meadow.
One woman came over to introduce herself and kept telling me how cute I was, and wasn't I just adorable and so on. (She was so drunk we saw her passed out on our way back down the mountain an hour later.)
We found Susan, who talked to us for a while after finishing her card game. She filled us in on her new job and financial studies. Sawyer woke up and got to say hello, and by then we had to race back to the house for dinner.
After eating, we piled into cars and drove to Tweetsie for the fireworks. It was packed, and cars lined every available spot along U.S. 321. We parked in Tweetsie's grass lot, not thinking about how crazy it would be to get back out.
While waiting for the show to start, Sawyer wrestled and dove on Bruce. I think it wore them both out! It was chilly enough that we all put on jackets and snuggled under blankets. Sawyer even climbed into Betty's lap for the show, which was lovely. It was such a nice change from the normal fireworks show at the Grasshoppers games. The fireworks didn't drown out the music, and they spaced them far enough apart that you could appreciate each big mushroom of color. Add to that: It was quite dark and they shot the fireworks off from near the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful sight.
The less beautiful sight was the colossal traffic jam at the end of the night. It took us more than an hour to get out of the parking lot, and that was after sneaking out a back way with dozens of others. It was 11:30 before we got back to the house, but we all had a huge helping of strawberry shortcake that I'd made for dessert. Except Sawyer who was asleep. He ate his for breakfast.
We were going to go with Ray on Saturday to the IDPA match in Wilkesboro before coming home, but I didn't feel well so we hitched a ride with Margaret, who had to get back to Greensboro in time for work.
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