Reunion, 2016

We are here in Mississippi for the Pace-Stevens family reunion. We have fewer people who come every year, but we still enjoy visiting with those who do make the effort. We have lost many members since we started coming. We have only missed one time in the last 20 years, I think, since Terry's Dad died. The year we missed was the year we went to Alaska.

The night before the reunion, we visited with Shirley and Paul and Gary and Jo at Shirley's house. Vikki and Johnathon and Preston were there as well. Shirley and Gary are siblings and are first cousins of Terry's. Gary and Jo fixed dinner of pork chops and baked sweet potatoes, so we ate very well. We usually see Gary and Jo a couple times a year because they live close to the path we take when we cross the southern U.S. They live near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, so it's a short drive to their place.

We met Saturday for the reunion at Ramey's Restaurant in Marietta, just down the road from where we used to hold a picnic. Later after we realized it was really too hot to have it outside, we moved over to the Marietta Community Building which was air conditioned and a welcome relief for those of us not accustomed to the humid heat of the south. Now we meet at a restaurant so no one has to cook!

This year Uncle Bob was with us. He is the last remaining child of Ma and Pa Pace, so it's mostly the younger generations that come now. He did not make it last year. He, unfortunately, has Alzheimer's. But he was having a reasonably good day and we got to visit with him. It was good to see him. He is in his mid 80's and appears to be in good health. He was very touched that we all came to celebrate with him.

We came back to the motorhome after the reunion. We were camped at Piney Grove on Bay Springs Lake, which is part of the Tenn-Tom Waterway. That is the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a series of lakes, canals, and rivers that link the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico. It's a nice park and we always reserve the same campsite every year. We know we fit well on it and it's easy on and off the site.

After we rested and fed the girls, we went back into Baldwyn and had dinner with Cathy and Bill and their son Matthew and girlfriend Sarah. Cathy and Terry are first cousins as well and she is Uncle Bob's daughter. She made us doughburgers. These are similar to hamburgers, but have a couple extra ingredients and have a little more flavor than a regular hamburger. She knew that I liked them and I really didn't do a good job duplicating them the one time I made them, so it was a special treat to eat hers! We visited with everyone and stayed till after dark before we made our way back to the lake. It's about 22 miles from her house.

We had some lightning on the way back. It almost always storms at least one night when we are there for the reunion, but this year it was all for show. The storms were mostly north of us and we didn't really even get any rain at the camp. We did have one bad/loud/scary thunderclap that sent me and the dogs scurrying for cover while we were out walking. Fortunately we were right near the motorhome, so I got them in easily.

This morning we broke camp and headed into Red Bay, Alabama. We have an appointment at Bay Diesel  at 7 a.m. tomorrow. Ugh. But we want to make it as easy on them as we can and it is super hot here. So the earlier the better. We are staying at a new campground here. It's west of Red Bay, just outside of town by about a block. Full hookup for $20 as are all the sites in Red Bay. Nice gravel and spacious enough sites. We went into town and got our mail and the laundry is running in the bedroom. Life is good. Depending on when Chris gets done with our coach, we may be staying here another night or rolling on north later tomorrow.

Till next time. . .

Dale