Easter and Spring Break

 This past week has been so full I couldn't begin to tell about all of it.  We took a week-long trip to West Virginia for Spring Break.  The key idea was to get as far from internet, wifi, cell phones, and screens as possible.  I found the perfect place.  No cell service or high-speed internet the entire time, beautiful nature, gorgeous night skies, and plenty of time together.  It was perfect.  We rented a 3 bedroom farmhouse up on a mountain top (25 min just to drive down the mountain).  It was a great house with anything you could want for $50/night.  Mostly the boys rode motorcycles along the trails which led straight from the front door and down over the mountains for miles.  Bella, Peter, and I spent most of our time hiking in the woods, exploring parks and playgrounds, playing games, and finding little treasures in nature like a muddy puddle full of tadpoles.  Bella occasionally also rode with Kelly alone in order to get better at it, but I have no desire.  I enjoy nature much better at the pace my feet can take me or a bicycle, but not a roaring engine.  

 One rainy day we decided to drive into Charleston, the capital, to see how it varied from the run-down, junk strewn trailer homes in our area up on the mountain.  It reminded me a lot of Lansing, MI.  Very nice area around the capitol building, very ornate, beautiful capitol building itself, but otherwise, a very modest, small scale city.  Much more of a suburb than a city, really.  No large buildings, no expensive shopping areas, or wealthy neighborhoods, no real cultural center, etc.  We toured the areas the online resources said to see, (historic downtown, outdoor farmer's market area, riverfront plaza) but most were still closed for Covid or the winter.  We ended up enjoying a quiet, solitary take-out lunch by the river's edge at what is supposedly a very busy, active place in Summer, trying to avoid waking the homeless sleeping on the stairs nearby.  In all, I didn't dislike Charleston.  Being so much like Lansing in appearance and feel, it had it's appeal.  However, it certainly shows the poverty that West Virginia suffers. 

On our final day there we stayed together and found a 30 mile bicycle trail just over the border in Kentucky.  It follows an old railroad line from which they've torn out the tracks.  We got to ride over the old train trestles and through the tunnels.  It was a lot of fun.  We only went half the trail in order to keep Peter happy and it was plenty for all of us to get a full feel of how gorgeous Kentucky can be too.  There were places along the trail I'd really wished we could have stayed too.  Sparkling river, large jutting cliff edges, green fields, etc.  This country really is so amazing.

The funniest thing was that as we were unloading the bikes and getting ready to set off, a dog scampered up to us.  It was so friendly and well behaved, we kept looking around for its owner to come up to us as well.  However, no one ever came.  It had a collar with a name and number of the owner but we never saw a soul.  We petted the dog and then got on our way, thinking it would return home.  Instead, however, it began to run with us, sticking beside whoever was riding in front.  Each mile we rode, we were certain the dog would get tired and turn around, but it never did.  Mile after mile, it happily jogged along with us, occasionally pausing to mark the path, catch a drink from the stream, or chase a chipmunk, and then come right back to us.  It ignored all other barking dogs along the way and never varied from it's devotion to us.  No one happening upon our group would have doubted for an instant that it was our dog. The kids were elated.  They fell in love with the dog and dotted on her like a favorite friend, petting her and talking to her whenever we took a break. They begged repeatedly to take her home and everyone imagined themselves playing with her back at home. She stayed with us for the entire 14 mile ride and I really wondered what she'd do when we got back.  However, when we got back to our truck, she loped off immediately, and left us without a backward glance as if she'd never seen us in her life.  It was the craziest thing.  She was just gone, as suddenly as she'd arrived.  We'd just rented a dog for the day.  We discovered in following her, that she lived at a store near the trail-head.  No one ever came out to see her, but she seemed to be at home on the store's patio and she ate and drank out of boxes and bins she found around the perimeter.  We assume that she must belong to the owner.  She paid no attention to us after that and we never saw her again, a great source of sadness to the kids.  They hate that I refuse to have a dog, but despite the dear sweetness of that one, I refuse to take on the work that a dog brings.   I have enough.  I have to say, though, that I also loved having that sweet companion with us on the ride.

Today was Easter and Kelly's birthday.  We watched General Conference, had an Easter egg hunt, painted eggs, and then went to the Cartwright's house for dinner and games.  They made a huge dinner for us with a birthday pie for Kelly, at my request.  I knew since we'd only gotten home from our trip late the night before, that I'd have no time to do any great cake baking or elaborate prep for his birthday.  Tim agreed to supply a pie and dinner on my behalf. It was so very nice of him.  Also, Kyler flew in an joined us at their house for dinner.  It was wonderful to have more family in town on the holiday. How nice to have a pilot in the family.  I realize now that I didn't take a single picture with him!