Smith Mountain Lake

The weekend of June 6-7, the LPCM group hit the road and went to Maggie's family's cabin at Smith Mountain Lake.  The weekend was an interesting one, too.  It rained quite a bit, but all in all, it worked out well.  We left Harrisonburg at 3 PM on the 6th, and returned at approximately 9 PM on the 7th.  Smith Mountain Lake is quite the area, too.  It's well removed from more urbanized areas, and is very quiet.

The weekend quickly became known as the weekend of the hand signal, which stemmed from my methods of communicating with the lead car in our caravan.  In traveling down to the lake, we took three cars.  The lead car had Spencer and Maggie, the second car was Josh and myself, and the last car was Kathleen, her children, plus Lori.  Kathleen and I each had cell phones, and so we were able to contact each other through there.  The lead car, however, had no phone.  So we had to resort to more primitive methods to contact them.  We had to make a pit stop in Roanoke, because after driving long enough, I simply had to get up and walk around.  After consulting with Kathleen, after we hit Interstate 581 through Roanoke, I overtook the lead car in order to lead them to Valley View, where we could make a pit stop.  In overtaking them, I made some weird hand signals in order to get them to roll their window down so I could communicate the plan.  I was unsuccessful in getting them to roll their window down, but they got the idea.  And thus the infamy of my wacky hand signals began.

And so now we join the group a little further down the road from the hand signals, at a stop for groceries in Rocky Mount, Virginia, a small town in Franklin County, just off of US 220...

Far beyond the original hand signals in Roanoke, we're in the parking lot at the Kroger in Rocky Mount.  Look at that parking job... I'm WAY over.  In this picture, in front we have Maggie, then behind Maggie is (left to right) Sarah, Lori, Jane, and Josh.

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Spencer and Maggie imitate the hand signals I was giving on I-581 in Roanoke.

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An LPCM tradition... the location movie!

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Spencer tries the Mountain Dew Live Wire soda for the first time...

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The grilling of the steaks goes off without a hitch, thanks to using propane and propane accessories instead of charcoal like we did at Canterbury.

Jane gives us a better look at the shells she found...

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A discussion of the orange Mountain Dew...

And now we get ready to go out to the lake to go swimming in the night...

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Maggie's putting her class ring in the "Rings and Things" container.

Don't worry... be happy!

Spencer prepares to attack the zebra pot-holder!

At the end of the day, after Kathleen put her kids to bed, we all gathered around the TV for Dirty Dancing.  Most stayed up for the whole movie, but two did not.  Lori passed out first, and then after I put the camera down, I was quick to follow, falling soundly asleep on the other couch.

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Good morning!  How was everyone's sleep?

Kathleen shows Josh and Maggie the Taizé CD, and then starts it playing.  It should be noted that we do some of our Wednesday worship services Taizé style.

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Maggie prepares a mixture of orange juice and Sprite for Sarah, which was jokingly referred to as a screwdriver.

Breakfast time!

Everyone had a camera to capture their own memories of Smith Mountain Lake.  Here, Maggie prepares to capture a moment on film.

Meanwhile, Spencer and Josh take a moment to help with the dishes.

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The weather, however, can be very hit-and-miss...

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Monopoly!

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While Spencer counts the money, we prepare to roll to see who goes first.  To keep it simple, the roll didn't determine sequence - just the start person.  After determining the start person, we just went clockwise around the table.

And while we played Monopoly, Kathleen took a moment to read some magazines from the late 1980's and early 1990's that we found.

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Spencer's enjoying what came to be known as "Aryan Chocolate".  Reason for the name?  Look at the kid!

A closer look at the candy in this somewhat-blurred picture hopefully illustrates what Spencer's talking about...

Hi, Sarah!

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Spencer attempts to not burn himself with the hot water while doing dishes, and I sing the "It's such a good feeling" song that the late Mr. Rogers ended his show with so many times.

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I'm fishing for compliments on my singing, and Jane just bursts my bubble.  Kids do say the darndest things, don't you think?

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Josh and I discuss that since it's raining, hopefully the car trip back will be a little more pleasant than it was coming down.  Since the air conditioning on my car is broken, we had to ride down with the windows open, setting off both of our allergies to an extreme.

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Contemplating our Smith Mountain Lake trip...

Since Spencer went straight to Richmond on the way back, I gained Maggie along with Josh for the trip back.  At Tanglewood Mall, we stopped for dinner, but first - a picture of the travel group.

I'm just glad we got the car going in the first place - my car got stuck in the mud leaving the cabin, and it took everyone's help to get it loose.

At the Tanglewood Mall food court, we had dinner.  Some got Chick Fil-A, and some got Chinese food.  The final group for dinner was (left to right) Josh, Jane, Maggie, Kathleen, Sarah, Benjamin (Kathleen's son), and Lori.  Not pictured: Me.  I'm taking the picture.