Almost Heaven, West Virginia

We spent the weekend in West Virginia. Back in the hills where the cell phone and the wi-fi won't work. The "road" back into the hollow is part dirt track and part creek bed. Very rocky. You need an off-road vehicle to get there. Go Jeep! It's not a smooth ride, but we are still clean when we got there. (Unlike some people who chose to drive four-wheelers or ATVs and arrive covered in mud or dust.) You know you've reached your destination when you can see two cabins, one very high on the hill with a road up to it that is probably a 50 degree incline (too steep for anything but an ATV or a dirt bike) and another one at the bottom of the hill. There is a bright blue and white awning set up next to the lower cabin and two long folding tables - one of which looked like it had been out in the weather since the previous year. There are some really sturdy wooden picnic tables. These are new. Then the people, and the food start to arrive. Country ham, roasted chicken, fried chicken, Italian sausage, meat loaf, stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes, potato casseroles, noodle casseroles, cucumber salad, taco salad, pasta salad, cakes, pies, brownies, cheesecake. I'm sure I haven't named everything. It's the Mohr Family Reunion - an annual gathering of four generations of Mohr descendants.

A day of fun and games for all! There was a game for couples where you had a coconut between you and you had to get it to where both of you could kiss the coconut without using your hands. Mark told me that this was an engineering problem. I should stand on the incline. It would take a screwing motion to get the coconut from waist to face. I imagine that is exactly what they were going for. We didn't win, but we didn't drop our coconut. I have no idea who won. I only know that my aunt and uncle were still playing with their coconut after everyone else had stopped.

Then there was a game where men were blindfolded and had to pick their partner's hand out of a line of women (okay and a man or two) with their right hands out. Mark was brilliant. He knew my hand just by feel. Okay, almost everyone got it right. Only one cousin picked the wrong woman. Jeremiah applauded Mark for bravery. Jeremiah declined to play, comparing it to playing with a loaded gun.

There was a "pie" eating contest. Chocolate pudding and whipped cream in a pie tin that had to be consumed without the aid of eating utensils or hands. No thank you. And then there was an obstacle course relay. The instructions were so complex we bowed out. I can only tell you that it involved blowing marbles up an incline and frozen tee shirts.

Then there was the auction. The money raised by the auction goes to fund the next year's reunion. There are always an abundance of hand-crafted items, as well as some silly things, like a stick one of the kids found in the woods and a jar of "pickled hinies". You could bid on home grown tomatoes, sassafrass tea, and hot sauce.

It rained off and on all day, but it was dry under the awning and while it might have slowed us down, it didn't stop us.

And now we're headed for the beach...