Southern History and Hospitality

Lexington, Virginia is a lovely old town, steeped in history. A really beautiful place for a long walk.

This is Stonewall Jackson's house.

 

And this is Robert E. Lee's church.

Washington and Lee University.

Lee's Chapel. He was a president of the university.

Right next to Washington and Lee University, is Virginia Military Institute. The lawns actually flow from one campus into the next.

That's Stonewall Jackson.

 

From Lexington we drove to Charlotte, North Carolina where we picked up Ray's brother, Roy, who flew in from Montana to continue the trip with us. It was so great to see him! Reminded us of meeting up with Roy more than 40 years ago in Rome and traveling together. In Charlotte we had the good fortune to stay with Roy's brother-in-law, John, who just moved to Charlotte. We had also been contacted by my brother's wife's sister, who lives near Charlotte, who invited us to go with her and her husband and another couple, to a winery for the day, yesterday. OK, have you followed all this? The cast here includes: me; Ray; Ray's brother Roy; Roy's brother-in-law John; my sister-in-law's sister, Linda; Linda's husband Brian; and Linda and Brian's friends Carol and Rob. Whew! (Pay attention— this will be on the test!) Anyway, a big group, mostly strangers to one another. But it turned out to be a wonderfully fun and compatible group. We had the greatest day together at the beautiful Raffaldini Winery. We tasted wine, drank wine, listened to music, drank in the views, laughed, told stories and by evening we were all best friends and shirttail relatives!

Ray recently installed drip lines in our garden and his greenhouse. He had to check out how the experts do it.

Sometimes the best days just kind of magically happen. Good wine, beautiful setting and, most important, good people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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