Peepaw and I have been away from this blog way too long. We'll try to be more diligent about posting, I promise.
I think I speak for both of us when I say that the last week and a half have been so very special. Flying to Texas and witnessing Joshua and Mollie's wedding, reuniting with friends and family, having Jason officiate at the wedding, then returning home to spending the day with Karen, Ruth, Rhiannon, and Jackson was absolutely wonderful. You are all loved so very much. Joshua and Mollie, I hope you had a wonderful honeymoon week (we're glad you didn't die on the mountain). May you have a lifetime of happiness.
It was hard to return to the daily grind after such a fun week. It was especially hard on Peepaw because he developed a bad sore throat and cold on Tuesday and had to start taking some antibiotics later in the week when he just couldn't shake it. I'm happy to report he's much better today. In fact, when I got home from work, we decided to take a drive to Cumberland Gap for the afternoon. It was cloudy, cool, and the leaves are peaking right now and it was just too gorgeous to stay in the house. So off we went in search of more fall foliage, antiques, and food.
We oohed and ahhed the WHOLE way there and decided that there just aren't adequate words to describe the beauty of the scenery. We arrived in Cumberland Gap around 3:30 and promptly went to a neat little store called Whistle Stop Antiques. There were 3 little black cats laying out in front of the store. I tried to pet them but they weren't having any of it. We browsed inside the store a little while and tried very hard not to knock anything over. I found some beautiful little salt and pepper shakers among other things and Peepaw saw things that his mom and his Nanny used to have around when he was a little boy. One was a wooden hamburger press. He recognized it because there was a picture of 2 roosters on the front of it. It is hinged and you open it up, plop a hunk of hamburger meat on it and then close it. It presses it out real thin and perfectly round. I also saw some spice containers that my mom used to have that had a little metal sliding door thingy on the top and you push it to one side to reveal the little holes that the spice comes out of. Anyway, we both agreed that every time we go "antiquing", we always see some object that one of our moms or grandmothers had when we were little and we want to cry....in a good way, you know.
After we browsed, we went up the street to a little diner called Webb's Country Cafe. It's in a real old brick building and has a good atmosphere and really good food. I got a veggie plate (salad, green beans, potatoes, and pinto beans) and Peeps got a chicken fried steak sandwich. Nope, they can't do it here like they can in Texas but it was passable. I'm going to try to replicate the c.f. steak we got at Texas Pepper's in Livingston. It bears repeating.....that was THE BEST I've ever eaten and I've eaten me some chicken fried steaks in my lifetime.
On the drive home, we stopped along the road and took some pictures of the mountains with all the colors of the leaves. Peepaw said that his Nanny used to say that the colors of fall look like God dipped His hands in a bucket of glory and flung it all over the hills. Isn't that beautiful? It's so true.
I will close for now and send you all of my love.
Mom a.k.a. Meemaw
