Cossetted in W. Virginia in borrowed slippers and PJ’s

Haven’t been able to get online for a day or so. Will catch up with photos and stories later.

Arrived with the winter in Princeton W.Virgina at 6pm tonight to stay with dear dear friends, Gloria and John Coffey.

It was pouring with rain for  most of the 4hr journey here from Richmond VA so we couldn’t see the wonderful Appalachian mountain scenery. TT had to lend me his big outdoor jacket as I was cold and wet as the temp is about 40deg cooler that in Augusta  2 days ago. I even had to dig into my “winter suitcase” for a big wooly jumper to wrap myself in.

As we crossed in W. Virginia from Virginia, I tried to get TT to sing John Denver’s, “Take me home, country home, to the place I belong, West Virginia, mountain ?? , take me home, la la la”. Anyone know the missing lyrics? Haven’t enough battery left to Google it.

I couldn’t sing because I was slurping down my hot chilli that we had just bought at Wendys. It was very nice and warm and got rid of my “chillys” very effectively.

Am now off to bed in a pair of fleecy Christmas PJ;s belonging to Gloria. Both my pairs are in her washing machine and not nearly warm enough for the winter which has arrived on Summer’s heels, completely leaving Autumn no room at all.

TT and I are sleeping in her sewing room. She is a wonderful quilt maker so we are surrounded by her marvelous, “Works in Progress”. I’m even wearing a cozy fluffy pair of slippers of hers. She didn’t say I could borrow them, but I’m sure she won’t mind as she and John have told us to make use of anything we want in their home. Their cats, Princess and Oreo are making use of our cases, especially our mobile cool box, the soft top of which they are fighting over as a bed.

We are here until Monday. Tomorrow we are going with them to watch 42nd Street. Friday we are having  a bunch of people over from their church. Several of them came on our England holiday to Oxford a few years ago. They all feel like family. Saturday TT is doing a play at the church.

So happy to have a quieter month lined up and be with friends for the next month in WV and then dear old Nashville Tennessee.

Good night from Princeton West Virginia and Happy Birthday to Charlie our eldest grandson who is 6 today!

night y’all.

xx

Roadie Gran rocks with Rose at Cracker Barrel!

Melanie let me have a cuddle with baby ROSE! Too hot to play checkers outside. There is a joke somewhere about "draughts" being welcomed to cool us.

You know you’re in the south when the temperature is so jolly high, the steering wheel is too hot to touch and you have breakfast at Cracker Barrel!!

Jason, the Pastor of the Calvary Chapel here and his family took us here this morning. I love this place.

I had eggs over ease, grits, biscuits and gravy, sourdough toast and jelly/jam…. Also had a rock with Rose on the porch in a rocker. TT enjoyed his breakfast, without the grits and gravy. It was, a sort of,  “last supper” as he has put himself on a diet to lose a little weight. He has only had salad, porridge and fruit since. What a hero! This was my breakfast, with biscuits, grits and gravy.

He did 2 performances today at Heritage Academy, the school where the church meets. It was part of the Augusta Arts weekend festival.  This school was started by a benefactor to provide good affordable education for the children of less affluent families. They provide scholarships and meet in a gorgeous building on a lovely street that reminds me of  “Gone with The Wind”.

TOmorrow he will do “Prisoner of Passion” in their morning service. We are staying in this hotel tomorrow night, which will be nice. So we don’t have to pack up and move until Monday lunch time when we retrace our steps to Virginia for a Tuesday “gig”.

Not sure whether it was the breakfast or the heat. (The latter I think), but I felt so tired this afternoon that I stayed in tonight and TT was his own Roadie. Poor man. Sorry darling one.

While he was doing his second show of the day I dozed at the hotel with the air conditioning full on. I was delighted to find lots of British TV programmes on the Public TV channel. I watched snippets of  “Last of the Summer Wine”, Mr Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Lark Rise to Candleford. Deep joy!

Tender, tearful, Tennessee State Line sighting.

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Yesterday and today I got a bit emotional. “What’s new?” I hear my family and best friends asking. In just over three weeks, we have traveled over three thousand miles and have lived out of suitcases, computer roller bags and a mobile fridge.

Our hotel rooms have looked like this.

Hotel room = Organized chaos?

We have had a fantastic time but it has been busy and even stressful with deadlines and 13 performances so far.

Niagara Falls was a wonderful break. We packed an awful lot into a few hours and had a nine hour plus journey afterwards to get us to our next “gig”.

TT’s plan worked. After this wonderful treat I would never dream of leaving his employ or even our marriage for another “Roadie” position. It certainly made up for the hectic, slightly crazy times when I just wanted to pack up and go back to sleepy Somerset and retire.

Like the time I mislaid the Brylcream just before the show or made his tea with Redbush/Rooibosh tea , just before he went on stage with it in the teapot. I  should have used Yorkshire tea bags.

Poor “C.S. Lewis” had to pretend to enjoy this African grown tea instead of that distributed by the U.K. Yorkshire tea company!

Back to Niagara . I haven’t even told you about the boat trip, right up to, and into the spray of the falls.

It was AMAZING!!!

Those of you who have done this “Maid of The Mist” trip, know that each passenger is issued with a big blue waterproof plastic Macintosh with hood to keep you dry. Well of course it doesn’t completely,  which adds to the fun, especially if like us, you were on the top deck right at the front.

Excuse me I should say the ” Bow” or “Poop” for my nautical readers. (If there are any) Actually I think I have one. My sailing son Daniel, who knows his “poop” from his “stern”!

Anyway it was fantastic ! Have I used that adjective before? I yelled and screamed my lungs out as we got closer into the falls and got soaked with the spray.

Everyone should do this before they die. Unfortunately I dropped my new camera while I was taking pictures of the Falls and broke it. Another emotional high and low all mixed up together.

Happily TT has ordered me another one from Amazon. He is working hard to keep me on an even keel, emotionally speaking . See I am keeping with the nautical theme!

Yesterday I was feeling a bit travel weary on the 8 hr drive from Virginia to Georgia. Then I had an attack of “the warm fuzzies”. Why? We were crossing the state line into Georgia, when I realized that our beloved Tennessee is the next state to here. I even saw a sign for the I40 and Knoxville!

I nearly made TT swerve off the road as I suddenly burst into a rousing chorus of “Good Ole Rocky Top. Rocky Top Tennessee. Click here and sing with me. Yeee Hii!!! Here are the lyrics.

“Good ‘ole  Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee!! You’ll always be, Home sweet Home to me!!”

So… I’m feeling very comforted to know that we are so near our Nashville home and will soon be seeing our dear dear friends from there and even our house in Mt Juliet!  Deep joy!!

We arrived in our Augusta hotel a few hours ago. We are unpacked and my lovely jubbly husband is out visiting Panera to collect our supper. Veggie soup and “Orchard Harvest Chicken salad” for me. He will have their wonderful French Onion soup and a Panini.

Bon appetit and good night all,  from The Paynes in hot hot Georgia.

P.S. May have another outside swim before I go to bed. It’s still in the 90deg F/?30+C here.

Love hugs and prayers.

From Marilyn aka Roadie Grandma and David aka TT “The Talent”! xxx

Brill day in The Adirondacks!

At 8:00am this morning I was sat ON the lake on Larry and Lois’s boat dock, enjoying the peace and quiet and amazing view.  Had a lovely time of morning devotions with my bible, note book and a cup of coffee. The only other human I saw for a long time was a lone skuller?oarsman if that’s the right word. Just as I was about to climb back up to the house for more coffee and some brekkie I saw a canoe for two in the distance. I thought I would be nosey and watch it go by and as it got closer I realized it was our fellow house guests,  fearless Diana and Adrian.  After going for a cycle ride yesterday they had got up early to have a canoe on the lake before heading back to Canada.  We walked up to the house together and had breakfast.  Adrian returned to the boat dock to collect his keys and wallet from the boat house then appeared shouting excitedly, “loons, loons. Tell Lois the loons are back”. I thought he said “balloons” and asked, “what type? Hot air ones?” He laughed and graciously explained that he had said “loons, as in water bird, not BALloons!” Lois had wanted to see them so she appeared with camera at the ready. By the time we had all scrambled back down to the dock they had gone past so we high tailed it up to the neighbours where Lois captured a display of loonism by the little family who had lingered near her.

So as you see a good start to the day. Busy morning sorting out tour things. Had 3 more request for bookings today. I think we fitted in 2 out of 3 but diary is filling up nicely. Larry and David had radio interviews again.  Larry gave us a copy of his new book that is about to come out and about which he is being interviewed on the Radio.   “The Story of The Bible”. It is a gorgeous hard backed coffee table type book with of gorgeous illustrations. He spent some time in the British Library doing research there.

This afternoon we did the Lake George steam boat trip. WONDERFUL! It was cloudy and not too warm by NY standards and TT and I were the only ones on the open deck for a lot of the time. You could tell we were hardy British seafarers and are used to less than 70F temps on the Gosport and Isle of Wight ferries.  IT WAS GREAT. We took some video and lots of pics. unfortunately I have left my cable for loading pictures from my camera to computer on Ocean Beach I think so can’t post any from that camera yet. TT took a lot with his upmarket camera so I will post these soon.

Went out to Lake George village tonight for supper at the Alibaba Restaurant. Gorgeous. Middle Eastern Mediterranean Turkish type food. Lovley.

There was also a classic car rally on in St George and hundreds of old US cars around. Finished off with an ice cream from Ben and Jerrys.

Home to bed now. Feel much better cough wise today. Have now got the prescribed narcotic cough mixture from the pharmacy just in case, but haven’t taken it yet.

Tomorrow we leave for Ellsworth Maine. Adrian and Dianna should be back in Windsor Canada. Larry flies back to Nashville to get the mail and Lois is going to Portland Oregon for a nurses reunion of her Phillidelphia Hospital nursing school class.

Thank you God for this wonderful 2 days of R and R. What a joy to renew old aquantances and make new ones. Larry and Lois were saying that they first remember meeting TT when he picked them up from London airport in the 1980s and drove them around.

Cast your bread upon the waters and it will take you back to the south west shore of Lake George and Katskill Bay!

Night night all. Just opened the shutters to hear the crickets and be ready for the chattering chipmunks in the morning.

The Big Blue Sort Out. Bikes and Soup kitchen day.

TT and I, aided by Adrian, our fellow house guest at the Stone’s Lake home took everything out of the van and sorted it.  Mrs Stone gave me free reign in her laundry room so Big Blue 2, a.k.a. Ikea dirty laundry  bag is empty and we have clean clothes. The weather was sunny and breezy and we even had to put on our long trousers after lunch as a storm blew up over the lake. There were a few boats going by and even a two man canoe, who seemed to be fighting hard against the wind and white capped waves.

The day started out with Diana, Adrian’s wife and I sitting on the boat dock, drinking coffee, admiring the scenery and having a nourishing conversation. How wonderful to meet new people and because of all of us being in God’s family immediately feeling like brothers and sisters. We had a lovely chat about our children, God’s goodness and our not so goodness, but how great is His grace and how as we get older our faith and trust in Him grows as He proves Himself faithful. Then organic muffins with butter and marmite on toast for me. The other 5 folks in the house turned up their noses to marmite.

Larry, owner of the lovely lake home and Rutledge Hill Press, spent the day doing radio interviews about a new book he is working on. One of the interviewers spent a lot of time asking his opinion of the crazy Pastor guy in Florida who is threatening to burn a copy of the Koran at the weekend. At supper Larry sugested that a much better idea  would be better for Christians to find a Moslem buddy. The Christian read the Koran and the Moslem The bible and then have a chat about it. Larry then went  for a run while I tried to stop coughing and rested on the bed reading, listening to the lake sounds, and then my Ipod. TT worked on bookings and “Tour Stuff” .  We are having requests for bookings that we are having to turn down as we are schedule is full. Nice problem.

Our Canadian friends went for a bike ride and then they and Lois served lunch at a soup kitchen with the church here.

I’m on day 2 of some strong antibiotics to clear up my cough. TT kindly drove into town to try and get the cough mixture that the doc had prescribed. I had been drinking gallons of honey and lemon but that didn’t seem to help so we decided to go the narcotic $22:00 a bottle route. I miss my British, National Health free prescription service!

Unfortunately the pharmacy had to order the cough stuff… So I will get it tomorrow. However at 6:00pm when I got up to start cooking the corn that Louis had shucked earlier, I felt much better.

Lovely supper again. Inside tonight as it was breezy and chilly outside. Freshly picked sweet corn, salad, stir fry, good conversation, grand children photo sharing and much laughter.

Off to bed now. SO thankful for this lovely restful interlude to re charge our batteries before out next show on Saturday.

Plans for tomorrow? Adrian and Diana are heading back over the border to Canada, but are going to come to Chicago to see TT in action.  David and Larry both have radio interviews!! We hope to do a trip around Lake George on an old steam boat. The Mohican. One of the captains of this boat visited here today his name. Bill Gates. He was the captain today but not tomorrow unfortunately.

Diana was saying that this morning she was thinking about hob knobbing with an actor and a book publisher who are being interviewed by the media everyday and then is told that another guest is coming, Bill Gates…. Not the master of the internet but ships captain. Hey ho me hearties. Shiver me timber and hoist the main’sle!

I’m getting silly which is a sing of excessive tiredness so “Good night all and felicitations from from upstate New York. USA.

TT sends his love and reports that his knees are improving.  Thanks for your prayers.

Lovely jubbly lake, friends, supper etc

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We are now staying with some US friends in their gorgeous rustic wooden cabin right on the shore of  Lake George in NY state. Fantastic home, gardens and porch, where we had a wonderful supper. Moroccan couscus, veggie and chicken stew and other lovely things. We make some new friends as there were 10 of us around the table and we dined watching the sun set over the lake. The children swung over the lake on a swing and we had a bonfire and chatted as we watched the sun go down and the stars appear. Lovely coolish air. We have opened the shutters on our dear little room and can hear the crickets, breeze in the trees and the odd boat and wave go by.

I visited a walk in clinic in New York and got some antibiotics for my chest infection which isn’t too bad according to the nice doc.

D’s knees are better too. We left Red Bank N.J. at 11:30am and arrived here at 6:00pm but did chores and errands on the way.

Good night. Wish you could hear the crickets too. I have missed them in Somerset