Waterfalls and mountains and bears, oh my!

It was better than a trip to Oz. There were no witches, but there were "The Grammas." On a side trip we all piled into two cars and Lennon looked around asking, "Where are the Grammas?"
For five wonderful days, he had four Grammas and the pups had four Mamas. I never knew who would make the coffee, or wash the windows, or move a ton of rocks to make a rock garden. I never knew whose arms Lennon would be in, singing and talking his little heart out in. They almost painted my living room, but we had to tour the Biltmore, visit antique stores in out of the way places, climb down into streams and take pictures of waterfalls. We went about four hours out of our way on the day they were supposed to leave, so they left after dark on Sunday, but they were hours well spent.

We drove through picturesque towns with carillons playing and trees whose names hung around their necks on placards. We saw some of the poorest of North Carolina's poor and the seeds for the newly arrived rich. We bought antiques from an old cold storage apple barn and whizzed up and down mountains better than any roller coaster could ever hope to be. Rose is one uninhibited driver! The people in the back seat got car sick, but we stopped and if we hadn't been lost, we might never have seen the black bear that was lumbering down the side of the road towards us and casually loped over the side rail when we got too close.

There were no mistakes, only things to laugh about and new ways to do things. We managed to share one bathroom and two beds and even sleep a little. And now they are gone. Back to Illinois and Lennon misses them. He was so afraid I was going to go with them. His little face just crumpled when he saw us all get in the car, but I didn't, so he and I had breakfast with Bobby today and the world is back the way it was before.