Reunion

I'm not sure that I can fully explain my feelings about this weekend.  I don't think I realized just how homesick I was becoming.  It really hit me, just about the point that we were south of Charleston, and I started smelling the sulfur coal in the air.  It truly is the smell of home to me.

So many trips to visit family. To spend summers.  To spend Christmases.  To wait for my brother to be born.  To learn how to be a mother the first time around.  To heal.  To escape.  To re-prioritize.  To love and be loved.

We stayed with my cousin, Renee, and her new hubby (just married Memorial weekend), Hugh, (who prefers to be called, Blue).  Got to meet Blue's two youngest, Caleb (6) and Lola (3) and the whole host of dogs that currently live with them.  Renee and I are 10 years apart (she's the younger), but she's the daughter of one of my all-time favorite uncles.  We really didn't get to know each other until a few years ago at a family member's funeral.  Since then, we've kind of danced around a relationship building, but this weekend definitely cemented things.  We felt so comfortable with them that it was like we were seeing different versions of ourselves.

At the reunion, you could see the normal groups breaking out.  The aunts and uncles wanted THEIR children and grandchildren, etc., to sit near them.  The aunts/uncles that get along with each other wanted to sit together, and made anyone "uninvited" feel left out.   (Peer pressure in schools/churches/work places hold nothing to the peer pressure at a family reunion.  Those who think/dress/believe/act alike stick to each other.)  Having been away from the family so long, they weren't really sure where Sir and I "fit".

We just kind of made our own group.  Talked with anyone we could get to sit down for more than 1 minute.  Ate lunch near a mixed group of "in-laws" and cousins.  Found some shade with cousins that tend to be excluded from everyone else's group.  Basically, we confounded them all!  (Sometimes I DO love being the "rebel"!)

We left the reunion before everything was concluded, but that was because a horrible thunderstorm was blowing in, and I HATE being on the mountain during a storm.  As it was, we drove in and out of storms until we were nearly to Charleston.  (All 3 of the big mountains were being hit with heavy rain and wind as we drove over them.  Joy! Joy!)

We did manage to make the trip in 5.5 hours each way.  That is a most definite improvement!  Normally, it's 6.5-7 hours.  Of course, WV raising their freeway speed to 70 mph, may have contributed.  Our little red PT was booking it!

I didn't see the first rocket or firework display, but that's okay.  This time the 4th of July was all about family.  I really wish the girls and their families could have come.  I want so much for their children to learn about some of their family heritage.  Maybe one day.