Almost Heaven, West Virginia...

This week I have been trekking to Wisconsin. I have had the privilege of stopping to see Elisabeth and Pete, and much of my family.

I love my family so much. Until Monday, I hadn't seen my dad's dad in over a year.
Pap and Chuck live in the middle of nowhere West Virginia. I love it there because that is where my family is and that is where I remember spending at least part of my summers as a child. As I watched Pap chat with my Uncle Chuck and fix his tractor, I realized that all these years he hasn't changed one bit. He is the same grandpa that sat out on the front porch with me after dinner when I was five and the same grandpa who let me hunt with the men as long as I was quiet.
My cousin, Tommy, was there too. He is eight now and reminds me of Robby when he was little. (In that his wrists start half-way up his arm and he is really smart.) While the men were working on the tractor, tommy was singing, "Country Roads, Take me Home" at the top of his lungs. (That part of him reminded me of Bob too.)
Someone left Chuck and Pap a bunch of pre-cooked refrigerated crabs. (gross). They were wondering what do to with them. I had the brilliant idea of making crab-meat pasta salad. The crabs were awfully hard so I googled "how to soften pre-cooked, cold crabs". That didn't help. I took it upon myself to boil them then smash them and throw away the gills and anything else icky. Well, I don't think it ended up being that yummy of a salad. Oh well. We had a casserole that someone had brought the guys and then Chuck, Tommy, and I went to Dairy King. (Don't be jealous, guys. I got a raspberry swirled ice cream - yum!) Oh yeah, and when I went to pay for the ice cream I gave the lady my Visa. She laughed and said, "Honey. We are still hillbillies. We don't take credit cards." I thought she was joking.
Pap was so cute. He got up early with me when I left the next morning and took me to breakfast. He said he wanted to make sure I had a good breakfast before my long trip.
Chuck hasn't changed a bit either. He still insists on wearing a hat almost always...but I did get him to join facebook. I definitely need to go to WV more often. Everyone there is real and I like that. real. unedited.