A new personal best

 Four states in two hours.  In leaving Virginia, we passed through bits of West Virginia and Maryland, before crossing into Pennsylvania. 2017 summer trip map Across the Mason Dixon Line, we’re well into the North now.  We don’t really know much about the Mason Dixon Line.  I’m familiar with reference to it as a rough delineation between The North and The South.  I like the song James Taylor sings about it.  We decided to Google it.  According to Wikipedia, the survey for that Line was commissioned in 1763 to settle border disputes between Colonial Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.  It still serves as a line of demarcation between those states, as well as West Virginia, which seceded from the Confederate State of Virginia in 1861, to remain loyal to The Union. Rolling right along, stopping at KOA Campgrounds each night, we found another wonderful one.  I took this last photo because the flowers smelled so good.  

P.S.

 We’re through with Olympics, (but I just uploaded three more videos): Parallel bars   13th Place. Rings               8th Place. High bar         4th Place.  A two state day.  (But one of the states is really tall!) 2017 summer trip map Harrisonburg/Shenandoah Valley KOA.  Another great KOA! A site in the forest. Nicely improved. Excellent view. And a campfire in a dish. On the way here, we stopped at the oldest metal bridge in Virginia.   

What is this?

  It’s stuck to a wall. It looks like it might be something. It looks like something a big bug might make. I get closer and closer. And I still can’t tell.  What is it?  A three-state day.  Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. 2017 summer trip map Stopped for the night at the I-77/Statesville KOA. The campsite is not nearly as good as last night’s, but the rest of the park is pretty enough. 

We picked Henry up from Boy’s Camp at 7am.

  He was happy to see us and get back in his own car. Now that we’re through with Gymnastics, we’ve begun a northern trek, not to find cooler weather, but to make it to Great Barrington, Massachusetts in time for grandson Tony’s college graduation on Saturday.  It seems like we were just there as he was checking in, but here it is four years later and he’s getting his bachelor’s degree! 2017 summer trip map We’ve stopped for the night at the Savannah South KOA, in Richmond Hill, Georgia. This is a very nice KOA in a forest. With a big lake.  Those white dots in the water….  …they’re swans!   Overall, a very nice place. 

The 2017 Men’s Nationals are done

 Another full round today; every gymnast remaining, on every apparatus.  They continued to split the gymnasts into two flights, with one flight warming up on a duplicate set of apparatus in the back, while the other flight is competing.  Here is a shot of half the remaining participants stretching out before the event. Every rotation, they switch flights until every gymnast has done every apparatus.  The championship is a combination of last Friday’s scores and today’s scores.  Alex did really well.  Based on today’s scores he moved up from yesterday to 23rd in the entire country, for all-around at his Level.  Nicely done.  He scored 13th on the Parallel Bars, 8th on the Rings, and 4th on the High Bar!          The season is over, but the athletes all go right back into practice, building new strength and skills for the next season that begins mid-December. I took these pictures of Alex in the pool at the resort we’re staying at.  You can see the effect of all that hard work on his thirteen year-old build.