Robertsons & Daughters: Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun Labor Day weekend and took off for our own family vacation. I couldn't miss running up to Lois' for her birthday! Stacie and my mom met us there.

I made lunch for everyone. It was delicious!

We headed to Grottoes for one last swim at the pool. We only went three times this summer since our regular pool wasn't open. Christian was able to come with us and we met up with my friend Jenny. We were at the pool for about 5 minutes and then it started raining, and we couldn't get our money back. But it was fun to see my friend. A mutual friend, Megan, invited us over to her house for brownies and ice cream. It was fun seeing their house that they are remodeling.

On to Labor Day...we finally did the 40 mile bike ride I've been wanting to do this summer, but that we canceled twice already. It was on the New River State Park biking trail that use to be a railroad.

I thought it was so cool that the trail had two tunnels.

We left from the "Foster Falls" stop which was mile 24. So we rode to mile 44 and then turned around, giving us our 40 miles. We couldn't see the 44 mile marker, and had beeing seeing them consistently till about mile 42 but then they stopped.

We decided this was mile marker 44 and called it a success

The crazy adventure happened about 13 miles from the parking lot of Foster Falls where we had started. I got a flat tire. Ugh. Thankfully Haley was with me and rode ahead and found Lee. And it was a miracle she found Lee because I told him to just ride ahead and get back to the parking lot, load the bikes and we would be even closer to leaving. Lee was waiting for Elden, so Haley was able to find him. In the meantime I was walking. I walked about 1.5 to 2 miles, is my guess. A guy stopped to help me but couldn't get my bike tire off. He use a cO2 cartridge on my bike tube to pump it up fast as a last resort. But the hole was too big and the air only pumped up about half the tire. I think I got a hole in it because of a thorn. I rode in the grass next to the trail to get out of the way of some horseback riders passing.

Lee was able to get the tire off right away and thankfully had a new tube. Sadly, he didn't have a presta valve bike pump. Lee tried his c02 cartridge but it didn't work properly. I asked Lee if he could ask anyone he ran into if they had a presta valve pump. I started walking again. Amazingly enough, the first people Lee saw was a couple just sitting on a bench. He stopped and asked them if they had a presta valve pump and they did and they let him borrow it! WHEW! So Lee was back again the second time to pump it up and we were on our way. We leaned in to a fast, good pace to get back. Sadly Lee hadn't told the kids to start riding back to the suburban so they just waited and Shanna came riding to meet us. Since they hadn't kept going, it still took awhile to get back. I was hoping the bike ride was going to be 4 hours, but it ended up taking 7 hours.

We then drove down to Whittier, North Carolina and camped at the Flaming Arrow campground. We had stayed there two years ago to see my aunt and uncle who were serving a mission there. It's a fun campground with a pool, pingpong, and a playground. Cute little habitats created by Elden and Haley.

Clark and Shanna enjoyed some Chess.

Mid-morning we went to the local building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We figured it wasn't open and even if it was that we couldn't go in because of occupancy restrictions. And no one was there. We had our sacrament and scripture reading at the little picnic table area outside.

That afternoon we decided to go to Clingman's Dome. It was so so so crowded there! I thought the walk was, well, a walk. The trail is all paved but it was much longer that I thought and much steeper. We decided it was turning into something more than an easy Sunday stroll and went back to the campsite. There were some awesome views though at just the part we did go by.