This and That

This is Fred, the beautiful fluffy Great Pyrenees who lives next door to Green Cove Station. He faithfully guards his friends, the flock of six sheep, when he isn't napping up in the corner of his private domain, a large green field covered in grass and yellow wildflowers. It sounds ideal but I'm very upset that neither he or the sheep have any shelter from the hot sun or various other elements presented by Mother Nature. It broke my heart last week when we had a terrible thunderstorm and he sat on top of the hill all hunched down as the fierce wind drove the rain onto him while the thunder crackled overhead with tremendous booms. Then wouldn't you know it, it started to hail. He looked so miserable. When the storm was over. He went to his favorite place to nap which was covered with mud, he was a mess when he got up. I'll keep trying to get a good pic of Fred and his charges.



The two bikers below are Vernelle and Keith, husband and wife, both retired Army Sergeants. They were a very nice and ambitious couple who spent the night in our campground one night last week as they were biking from Culpepper, VA to Napa Valley, CA on the Transcontinental Bikeway. You can find out more about them from their website http://www.2sergeantsbiking.com/w.2sergeantsbiking.com/ .







They were kind enough to set up my campfire so all I have to do is strike a match now. They felt sorry for me after seeing how my miserable little fire never took off. Good luck and safe travels to the both of them.
















This is Dave and Sam who were hiking with a group of Boy Scouts. They hailed us down one morning as Betty and I were on the way to work. They were needing a way to get back to their car at Grayson Highlands State Park as Dave had had some irregular heartbeats the day before and wanted to get checked out by a doctor. Carrying a large backpack up these hills sure wasn't helping so they climbed into the back of my Honda CRV which already had my bike and a 40 lb bag of dog food in it, but they managed. When we got to Green Cove Station we found them transportation. Dave was a computer programmer and Sam was a large animal veterinarian, both from North Carolina. Two really nice guys.


I probably mentioned that my new friend Nell and I bought electronic mouse chasers. Well it seems mice have moved into her car as she found out one day while driving and a mouse walked across the outside of her windshield. This just cracked me up when I heard about it. Can't you just picture it?


There never seems to be a dull moment up here. This is the last day of my 4 days off this week and I haven't done too much. Jay, the campground host taught me how to play Skip-BO. We're practicing so we can beat his friend Wallace. Nell, Betty, Jay and I all played yesterday afternoon. Thursday I had my eyes checked out and don't need new glasses, afterwards Betty and I met for dinner at the Tuscan Restaurant in Marion. Tonight, Nell, Betty and I are going to Jerry's for dinner, that's where all the hikers eat so we'll see how it smells. Ho ho!



I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. By the way, we've had seven beautiful days without rain so I guess I'm not in Oregon after all.