It is nice that we can see Helen and William now more often too.
When William had gone back he asked me to take care of the apple tree. I promised I would but only until we were bringing it to Nashville. He sent texts asking how it was doing. I took a photo for him to see how much it had grown.
Ah, so pretty. I planted it into a patio container. Wished I knew what this plant is. It bloomed all summer.
Monday the 18th we got up early and went on our way. We were lucky with the weather. It was a lovely drive. But it was also a very looooong drive. Lunch was a footlong from Subway we shared in a rest stop park.
When we arrived we were also greeted by Theo, a cuddly dog which Helen was taking care of for a couple of days.
I think William took this photo with my camera. It's a strange perspective.
Helen had taken off work and we worked on sorting the old place out. The new place looks nicer every time we visit. Unfortunately on Friday James was suddenly in a lot of pain. He must have carried something a bit too heavy. I was sure it was what I had a few years ago: Sciatica. Sarah suggested an Urgent Care place and I took him there. They gave him 2 steroid injections but they didn't seem to have helped at all.
We had wanted to have dinner with William's dad Ben but James just felt he couldn't handle it. So we had a take-out instead. After dinner we had to admire the sundown from the "party deck". It was a nice evening.
Saturday morning Helen and I got up early. She had a garage sale with all the things she/they didn't need any longer. Making good use of room and not cluttering up is so important. I must say that it was quite a lot of fun. Especially the young couple with the two little boys. All 4 of them kept finding things which gave them joy. The mother found a part of a Ninja kitchen thing which had broken of hers and she was almost giddy that she had found the replacement now.
In the afternoon James had some good time (thanks to Ibuprofen) and we went to the other townhouse again to have a look and think about whether there was any furniture or things we wanted to keep and what to do with it. We liked these chairs and always found them comfortable. We seriously were thinking to replace ours in Virginia with them. Unfortunately the wood is not a good fit with our other furniture. Sigh. But we measured them so we could think about it. This photo taken for the color.
Sunday morning at 5:30 am we were on the road again. We could sleep longer because of James' pain we were awake early. Strangely enough the drive was not bad because the heated seats were like a miracle to him.
The obligatory photo at the Virginia Welcome Center.
I don't very often go into the centers but did this time and enjoyed this display and the explanation of one of the 2 attending older ladies. The E on the right is made from soles of hiking boots as a symbol for hiking. The V paddle stands for canoeing or watersport. The O is a bicycle wheel but she didn't know what the L means. Well, the state slogan is "Virginia is for lovers".
There were other interesting things but we had to continue to get home.
The weather was still in our favor. We had thought that the traffic would not be heavy since it was a Sunday and it wasn't on most of the way. But three crashes on different parts of the 600 miles gave us red lines on the GPS and notices of delayes. But it could have been worse.
Now we try to get James fit for Sunday when our visitors from Germany are arriving. So looking forward to it!!!
