Tonia, Katie, and Grace met me at the Greyhound station in Atlanta. From there we hit the road heading east. The idea was to get beyond the commuters before rush hour started. We succeeded in that. Maybe a couple of hours later we pulled over at an outlet mall and did a bit of shopping, mostly to get out of the car for a while. Later in the afternoon Grace entertained us by reading a bible lesson. For some reason listening to that made me want to get my camera out for the first time during the trip.

  

Finally we got to Virginia!

  

We finally reached Evelyn's in Richmond late in the day. Then Lal showed up much later. By the next day we were ready to hit the project we had all come to town to do, clean our father's library out of my step mothers house.

        

I began by taking pictures of the books. I didn't get everything but I got a lot of it. You can browse those by clicking on HISTORY AND MEMORY above. We hit the project hard. By the end of the next day we'd done just about all of it.

     

I had to wear my coat because in Richmond they like to turn up the air conditioning to freezing. I just don't know how they tolerate it!

  

I shredded papers my father had left behind all evening. It was just Evelyn and I. Lal had to go back to his family. Tonia, Katie and Grace had some plan that didn't involve us. No problem, the shredding needed to be done and who else had time? Evelyn and I had an interesting conversation while I filled three plastic trash bags with shredded things like old mortgage statements and my Dad's medical records. We just recycled stuff like the 54 versions of his plan to reorganize the State Department.

Meanwhile on TV they were reliving the Civil Rights movement story from the '60s. Wonder how it would have gone for the Green Party if Clinton had said something like that about us...

I was surprised that electronic privacy was front page news there the next day. I'd expect that in Silicon Valley, but isn't Richmond more concerned about tobacco issues or something like that?

  

  

Sad to report that taking this picture of Dad's headstone on Evelyn's smart phone was as close as I got to seeing it myself this trip. We were just too busy. The next stop was Teresa's to catch up with my sisters grand daughters and the rest of that family.

  

Thank you Gail for hosting us for a great swim and BBQ after the day at the zoo! The next morning Tonia and her family headed back to Georgia. My brother and I went off to Rural Retreat to install our father's library at ARE camp.

  

On our way we stopped in Blacksburg to have dinner at Abby's. They have an awesome pork chop special on Saturday evenings. We went in and everybody at the bar was old friends with the guy. Not long after we sat down a woman posted a selfie with my brother to facebook with the caption "Look who just walked in!" While we ate I listened to a lot of catching up on what happened to this and that mutual friend. After a while she showed us a picture of John responding to the post with an amazed looking selfie from work. After we ate the rest of the trip to ARE wasn't that long.

  

After that I spent a couple of days being a tourist in DC.

     

When the 4th of July rolled around my brother and I took his kids to see the Air & Space Museum before doing the fireworks thing.

So proud my brother now has my sticker on his Blazer!

     

I helped Treslyn finish her model. Her brothers were still getting around to building theirs when I left.

Of the books I read on my way home this was the real page turner. I didn't start on it until I was in Kansas or Colorado, but after I got going on the thing I stayed with it. Over and over again I'd pick it up for another hour or so of reading. So many interesting things happen between the covers of that one! A week after the trip I'm still enjoying another piece of it every time I ride a bus or train. Thank you Shane for an excellent book!