Wheel Crank..$40.00, Walkie Talkies..$69.95...Kindness and Generosity of Strangers.....Priceless

We had a pleasant evening in Buchanan. That is like someone asking you in a rhetorical way, how are you? And your response in "just fine thank you." Actually we did have a good time at Buchanan. A good night sleep, breakfast, and we packed up the camper without a hitch. Um, packing up the camper without a hitch is actually not a good thing. I guess in retrospect, it was reasonably foreseeable (ok you can take the lawyer to Buchanan, Virginia, but she is still going to talk like a lawyer) that when you hitch the camper up to the van and the camper is higher than the van, the hitch may not rest fully on the ball. We leveled it out and adjusted some more, and it seemed to be ok. So we are almost ready to head off and while we were standing near the van the door flings all the way open and knocks over the scooter. You may recall, this is the new scooter. No harm done, everything is ok.

So we are off, a dirt road that heads up the mountains and meets up with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Beautiful day, and Ka-boom.........the trailer comes off the van. Oh Oh....crash, boom, bang........Well we recover quickly, the electric chord gets wrapped in tape and is fully operable. We get the hitch back on, but the crank that lifts and lowers the camper is fully blown. We are ok to make it up the Parkway, but plan to stop in Roanoke for repairs. Everyone is cool, and working together, but there is an undercurrent of THIS DAY IS FEELING LIKE A DISASTER!!!

And then we get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was (yes, I am going to say it again!!) beautiful!! We had the whole road to ourselves with one breathtaking view after another. Spectacular. And would any day be complete if a red tailed hawk did not show itself as it swooped overhead and landed in a tree!! Oh, good, Dale is still hanging in with us despite our boneheaded maneuvers. Which reminds me, I neglected to tell you all that on the road through the state park yesterday, when I was out of sight of the sag wagon ahead, and started to doubt that I was still on the right road, as it hugged the river, a great blue heron took flight to my right and flew alongside me. I must tell you that I was struggling with my fear at the time, and found solace in the company of the great bird. So we rode the parkway, the pictures speak for themselves.

Soon we came down into Roanoke, and began our search for a store that could have the parts that we need. We found a True Value Hardware store, and within fifteen minutes we had not only the parts we needed, but the generosity of David Ratliff who installed if for us (he does not even work at True Value). The manager of the store, Dennis Gould, helped us with finding accommodations for tonight, made lunch recommendations, and was helpful in answering all our questions about our immediate needs. The support of these kind people was overwhelming. We left with a sense of new found optimism, and belief that all had happened for the right reasons. We also received some donations to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation from these kind people, as we have found that there are very few among us who have not been touched by this disease.

If that were not enough, while we were having lunch at Famous Anthony's, as suggested by Dennis, David showed up to tell us that he wanted to show us a shortcut to the campground we were planning on staying at tonight. He also told us that he called the local television station to tell them about our story. We contacted them, and they are planning on coming to meet us tomorrow morning to cover our story.

It is amazing that at times when all seems like it is going south in a hand basket, if we can ride it out, more often than not all will work out ok. Not only will it work out ok, but it can work out better than you ever could have hoped. Such was the case today.

Please enjoy the pictures, and when going through tough times, persevere, do the right thing, and wait for the rainbow, it will reveal itself. sending lots of love. xx00

p.s. as further evidence of the fact that things always work out for the best, True Value also had walkie talkies to replace the one that someone in the sag wagan managed to lose or misplace along the way today..............it has been a day!!!