February 17th. It’s the Lizard’s last year as a young’un since he turned 59 today! So we loaded up The Bike, decked out the camper & hit the open road! Three (our magic number!) nights at Newport News city campground are on the schedule, then one night camping at Cousin Larrys place with a birthday bonfire while playing “Shut the Box”! It’s a balmy 74 degrees here at the campground with a lovely breeze & cornflower blue skies!

We updated the campers photo gallery ahead of the trip! Have to keep it fresh after all!

Simply glorious! Also our friend Chris’s daughter painted Jakie for us, and truly captured his happy smile! Part of the reason for coming to tidewater to celebrate Chris’s birthday weekend is to bring some of Jakie’s ashes to spread in Cousin Larry’s yard, as Jake spent many happy vacations with Larry here and in Batesville.

After a nice long stroll we opened a celebratory bottle of Buzzed Bee mead – cheers!

18 February started with a delightful eight mile bike ride through the woods to the battlefield, past George Washington’s headquarters. Blissful solitude, flat paths, spinning easily! Then Cousin Larry arrived and we were off to find Birthday Barbecue! Something Chris was so looking forward to that he skipped breakfast!

It was heavenly! Tho when I whipped out my phone for photographs Cousin Larry looked at me like I was crazy. “Woman, don’t bother me – can’t you see I have a barbecue sandwich in hand?!?”

Ha! Chris merely looked bemused. Nothing was going to deter him from devouring his meal!

After enjoying our lunch, completely satisfied, we returned to the campsite where Larry was at long last reunited with his gnomes. Alas, they had looked SO cute on our hearth…

February 19th – a crisp (read that as freaking cold), breezy day for a wonderful twelve mile bike ride through the historic Yorktown Battlefield loop. Feels really great to be out on The Bike again, and we had the nicely paved trail almost entirely to ourselves!

After lunch we went for an hour long stroll around the campground. Peaceful serendipity!

Sunday morning brought glorious clear skies & freezing cold. Thirty-five degrees for our 9 mile bike ride around the historic Jamestown Island loop.

Then we were off to camp our final night at Cousin Larrys. He greeted us with a huge birthday bonfire in his fire pit!

A little Daytona 500 on the tv in his man cave, grilled pork chops and twice baked potatoes with green beans- we were in heaven! We sprinkled some of Jakes ashes in his yard, then settled in our lawn chairs, stoked the bonfire and relaxed!

The gnomes look quite nice in his backyard, tho I still say they were cuter on our hearth!

Tomorrow morning we load up and head home to Batesville. Chris is hearing the siren song of his video game Diablo and the jungle needs watering! It has been a totally wonderful birthday celebration! Life Is Good!