Saying Goodbye

Saturday was pack up and leave day.  It's a sad day to say good bye to all, but a happy day to know the memories we made this time around. Unfortunately by the time we remembered to try to take pictures, almost all our extended family members had already left.

The Final Reunion BBQ

The last day of the reunion we always do an outdoor BBQ.  However, before the BBQ we took our kids and grand kids and went out to do a hike.

Grand kids are always so excited about hikes ... and so was Tina.

About a mile into our hike we started hitting rain, which turned into a major down pour, and also included a lightning bolt that struck ground perhaps 50 yards from some of  hikers.

Maybe that's why our grand kids don't get too excited about hikes.

For our BBQ we rented the pavilion over at Table Rock Lake State Park and had most of our 55 attendee's present.

After some good eatings, our younger crew moved over to the sand volleyball courts for some serious competition.

Meanwhile our youngest of youngest ones had a fierce competition going of who could play best in the sandbox.

The Reunion Talent Show

Monday and Tuesday was boating and picnicking and not a whole lot of pics of either.  Wednesday night was our usual talent show and although I didn't get a whole lot of pics of it, it's a good cross sampling of the talent which attends these reunions.

Finally ... At the Reunion

We finally arrived in Southwest Missouri and spent most of the day settling in a visiting family.  The only pictures I got was the two grandparents visiting with two of our grandkids.

Final Stop on the Reunion Roadtrip Up

The last stop on the way to Missouri was at a B&B adjacent to Land Between the Lakes which border Kentucky and Tennessee.  Unfortunately a lot of the nicer trails we wanted to do had been washed out by a major weather system a month before we arrived.  We ended up doing a bike trail, but then proceeded to get rained on about a mile into it.

Reuinion Roadtrip Reaches Gatlinburg

After the hike outside of Ashville we made it up to Gatlinburg.  I won't ever recommend Gatlinburg in July due to how crowded it is, but Tina and I had fun none the less.  On the full day we were there we drove 23 miles into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park (which took a total of 90 minutes due to traffic inside the park) to hike up a trail known as Abrams Falls Trail.  It's a 2.5 mile trail up and then back down, with a lot of up and down hillsides along the way.

Reunion Road Trip Continues

From Savannah we made our way to Ashville NC.  We had dinner with my business partner and his wife and then proceeded the next day to a hike known as the Cataloochee Divide Trail.

It was a beautiful trail, although a bit warm of a day.