Yesterday we had a nice Mother’s day. Started with a trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway to see Smart View, a picnic area with a 2.6 mile trail. The trail loops around the picnic area in some nice woods. It was nice getting out there with Kathryn and Iris. Iris was in her backpack and seemed to enjoy the hike despite missing her morning nap. The weather was great. When we got back we were paranoid about ticks and sure enough, I found 3 of them crawling on me — 2 on a sock and one on my shirt. Thankfully Iris and Kathryn had no ticks on them.
Afterwards we went to the Rocky Knob picnic area to meet up with Kathryn’s grandmother and her Aunt Bo. They brought along Minnie, as well. We also met up with Duke and Margaret plus the kids. Everyone got a kick out of Iris. Katie practically worships Iris. Dylan really likes her too. They both got a kick out of keeping Iris occupied. Marie brought some interesting stuff for show-and-tell: a plaque that one of Ted’s congregation members dedicated to him, an antique tape measure used during the building of their house, and an old corn husking tool about the same age as the tape measure.
It was a great picnic; good to get out of the daily drudgery. We packed up when we felt some drops come down around 3PM; by the time we loaded up the car, it was pouring rain. People were fleeing the picnic area.
It was the first time we took the Parkway all the way up there — usually we go down 221 and then get on route 8 in Floyd. The Parkway was much more scenic.