FAMILY GATHERINGS

 On Sunday we had a gathering at Larry's mom's.

 Most of his sisters and brothers were there.

 Along with a niece and nephew.

 We had fun playing golf ball gymnastic. Even mom played a game.

 On Monday we went to Brian's for another picnic. So we spent the day with Larry's two sons Mark and Brian and his grandsons, Brady and Chase.

 We spent the whole afternoon playing lots of outside games and having lots of fun.

The wiffleball game was held up while the field was cleaned up. It was a good weekend with family.

WORK AND HIKING AT HOME

 Wednesday Larry had jury duty for Lancaster county. He didn't have to go back, so on Thursday we went over to his daughters.

 Larry's daughter, Mystique, owns a home in York. Her step dad has enclosed the back porch to give her a downstairs  bathroom, a laundry closet and broom closet .

 We gave a helping hand with the mudding.

 Her new dog, Mars, who is a year old is quite a handful.

 And good old Lee with Mystique.

 On Friday Larry and I took a hike at Susquehannock state park.

 I wanted to go because the rhododendron are in bloom.

 No blooms here. When I ask the ranger he said they won't bloom until the end of June. They don't look to promising even then to me.

 But the trail takes you down to  a beautiful stream.

 It is a difficult 1.2 mile hike up and down steep rocky trails.

 I think this part of the trail was straight up!  This is the third time we have hiked this trail, but I'm not sure I'll go back in June to see what rhododendrons have bloomed.

SHOPPING

 We have enjoyed being back in PA visiting our families. I spent the last three days at  my sister. On Friday we met Kathy and Lynn at Premium Outlet Mall in Pottstown and spent the day shopping. On Saturday Lynda and I shopped at King of Prussia. I think I'm shopped out.
 While I was at my sisters Larry went with his son Mark and got him a car. 1997 BMW 540. He hasn't had wheels for a long time, so he is pretty excited.

TOURIST STOP

On the way to PA I suggested we stop at Staunton,VA and go to the Frontier Culture Museum. We put it into our GPS and it took us into downtown Staunton, narrow car parked streets, turning right then left. Finally we found a place to stop and I called to find out where they were actually located. Would you believe it was right off interstate 81 and we had to drive back through the town to it.

The homes are real houses that have been rebuilt here from England, Ireland and Germany.

We really enjoyed talking to this woman. She farms, shears sheep, cooks, weaves, does all the things a yeoman's wife would have done in England in 1700.

This young woman was teaching this girl how to spin flax so they could weave linen.

Another interesting gentleman. Each was fun talking to and since it wasn't crowded (mainly just us) they had all the time to talk to us.

There are two parts of the Museum  the Old World and America.  At this 1740 farm they were working at cutting boards to make a hen house. some hard work.

By 1850 farms looked very prosperous. It was a very intersting museum and we were glad we stopped.

We stayed at the Walmart just down the road from the museum. We have parked here overnight before, but we don't remember these rocks they had at the end of each row. Larry didn't make a wide enough turn and we scraped this stone and cut the diamond shield on the front corner of our coach.

May 2 we are back in PA.

TRIBUTE TO THE KING

Monday night we went to see Tribute to the King. This theatre is also  close to our park.

John Beardsley  put on a two hour show covering Elvis' career.

He sure had the wiggles and moves down. It was hard getting a good picture.

Several costume changes.

You enter this theatre through the Ernest Tubb studio.

We don't see how it is possible to go 3 million miles in 3285 days.  They would have had to drive 913 miles every day, going 60 it would take 15 hours.  Impossible.

I'm sure they traveled a lot in this bus. It was fun going in and seeing it. another fun night.

MUSIC CITY

We went into Nashville on Monday. We parked by the Music City Center. It is an amazing building and would be fun to go to when it opens.

This is where we were headed.

Notice how the windows look like piano keys.

Wall of posters and exhibits started our tour. We took the audio tour. There were 36 spots we could hear all about the exhibit without having to do a lot of reading. It made a very interesting tour, but still at  our own pace.

Nudies made many of the beautiful country stars clothing.

Those blue suede shoes. I thought Elvis sang that but it said by Carl Perkins.

Two great cars.

Some special guitars.

Walls of all the gold and platimun country records.

Bakersfield, CA became famous for country music after the dustball sent many people west.

George Jones and Tammy Wynette

Each year three new performers are inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  One for having been in the business for 20 years or more, one for 45 years and one who maybe a composer or backup performer or somehow involved in recording.

All the members have a plague about themself in this room.

In honor of George Jones, you could sign the guest book.