Saturday, July 27

Up around 7 a.m., and after a breakfast of banana bread, blueberry muffins, and fruits, Hubbie, Sis, and I, along with Son, Daughter-in-Law, and great-grandsons, went to the Grape Festival grounds to buy grapes.


We were interested in Reliance grapes, but when Hubbie and I stopped by there yesterday afternoon, I bought two cartons of them, and then was informed that that was the last of them, because rainy weather had ruined a lot of the crop.


This morning, though, the vendor said he was able to harvest some more of them, so I bought four more cartons, plus a couple of cartons of Venus grapes for making jelly. Sis and Daughter-in-Law also bought cartons of grapes.


From there, we went to a roadside vendor to buy peaches. The biggest reason for our going to the festival each year is to buy these succulent fruits. Today, Sis and I split a bushel of peaches, and later in the day, Sis went back and bought a basket of Venus grapes. We'll both be busy freezing peaches and making jelly when we go home.


Went back to camp after that to have a lunch of deli meat sandwiches and chips, before returning to the festival, where Great-Grandson was scheduled to participate in a grape stomp. I'd signed him up for the event yesterday, when Hubbie and I went there to buy grapes.


While we waited, I went to the food court to buy a cup of soft serve ice cream for Mother, and a couple of large cups of shaved ice for Hubbie and me. Son bought a wine glass and went off to sample wines, while Daughter-in-Law and the boys went in search of lemonade. Sis also bought a wine glass and sampled a spumante wine.


While we enjoyed our treats, a very attractive African-American woman running for state auditor stopped to talk to us. She happens to have the same name as my daughter. We spent quite a while chatting about this and that, and then she asked if she could get a snapshot with us. We agreed. She also asked if it would be okay to post the photo to her website. We agreed.


At 1:30, Great-Grandson went up to the grape stomp stage and participated with three other people (a man and two teenage girls) in 30 seconds of stomping grapes. The girls won in a tie, but each participant was given a certificates.


After that, Son and family headed off to take the boys to the bounce house, and for a ride in a train (several barrels made into cars pulled by a lawn mower). The mower quit working about a block away, so that everyone had to walk back to the festival.


By this time, we were ready to go back to camp. It was an incredibly hot and humid afternoon, so a few hours outdoors was plenty. And Son family were really overheated after having to hike back to the festival.


At camp, we adjourned to our separate campers for a nap in air conditioning...which was heavenly until the power went out. We were snoozing when Son knocked on the door to ask if we had power. We soon learned that no one in our end of camp had power.


A power company worker finally arrived to repair damage to lines caused by trees limbs falling on them in a Wednesday storm. Campers at that end of the campground said they'd seen sparks on the lines.


Hubbie and I went down to the area and talked with the ranger, who said the campground is served by three different power sources...a local company, a company in another town, and through power generated at the river dam. This is a very small campground, so I'm not sure why it's necessary for three power sources to serve it. Naturally, the power company that came was the one farthest away.


I was glad that power was restored in time to heat food for supper...baked beans, barbecue, and hot dogs. Served the meal with macaroni salad, coleslaw, and sliced tomatoes.


Afterward, we spent time visiting outside, and then near sunset we went to the dam site overlook to a take sunset photos. We weren't there long before Son and Daughter-in-Law began being bitten by mosquitoes. Hubbie hurried to the van to retrieve the repellent, but Daughter-in-Law had had enough by then, and retreated to the truck.


The rest of us stuck around and enjoyed the beautiful sunset, and snapped lots of shots of it. Afterward, we traveled back to the campground to view and take photos of the lighted bridge.


We weren't long heading to bed after that.