Back Home In Northern Virginia

We enjoy spending time during the Month of May in Virginia. We lived in Vienna for over 30 years until Oct. 2007; returning affords us the opportunity to visit old friends and family. We continue to hold our membership at Skyline Ranch Resort in Front Royal near the Shenandoah River. While our campsite fee is covered by our membership, we must commute 65 miles to get to the Greater Washington Area. The trade off is that when we are in the campground, we have a shady site with full hookups, serenity, a clubhouse, pool, a caring staff, recreation activities, a fitness center, and lovely country roads. On May 16, the day after we arrived at Skyline, over 150 runners departed the camp at 5:00 a.m. on a 100-mile run. Runners had 36 hours to get back to camp, and the first one returned in about 24 hours. Jerry eagerly participated in the event, but he jogged back to the trailer at 6:00 a.m. after helping prepare and serve a continental breakfast that had begun at 4:00 a.m. for the runners.

On Memorial Day weekend, daughter Robin and grandson Samuel stayed on our site in their tent. Alejandro is in Colombia visiting his elderly father, who died a few days after the weekend. Samuel loved the opening of the camp pool, but his strong second best activities were roasting hotdogs over our open fire and grilling hamburgers. He also enjoyed table games like Mexican Train. We all celebrated the Lord’s Day by attending services at Skyline Chapel. We attended a Washington Nationals baseball game the next Sunday with Robin and Samuel, compliments of Samuel. He received free tickets in addition to many other awards for his phenomenal Boy Scout popcorn sales. He was number eight in the National Capital Area with well over $3500 in sales. Speaking of honors, Robin was recently saluted by her employer, Conservation International, at their annual event. She received the Excellence In Operations Award, the most prestigious honor earned by a headquarters staff member.

It’s hard to believe that our youngest daughter, Courtney, who was only six when we joined Skyline Ranch, is now 30 years old. How time flies! Courtney, husband Josh, and daughters, Althea and Baby Miribai, visited us one day at the camp. They are visiting for a couple of weeks from San Marcos, Guatemala, where they own an elementary school. They are busy with fund raising, which is accomplished by finding generous, caring sponsors for indigent children. One can sponsor a child at Escuela Caracol for less than $1000 a year. We sponsor two little girls, Sofia and Estrella. They are both charmers.

We joined the Northern VA Airstream Club in 1995. Now some of our favorite members are in there 80’s and are retired from RVing. We enjoyed lunch and Bridge with Handley and Millie and dinner with Chuck and Verlee in their respective retirement centers. We were invited to lunch in the lovely home of Bo and Lillian, long-time church friends from Columbia Baptist. Their spacious, fantastic addition won an award for their son-in-law contractor. Airstream and church friends, Lloyd and Elaine, have downsized and have recently moved to the Del Webb community in Ashburn. We had dinner with them in their lovely, sparkling new home. Other guests included Eric and Norma, NORVA Airstream members who lease a home on our street at the North Texas Airstream Community. They continue to own real estate and operate a business in Northern VA.