A Late Happy Fourth Of July.

I’ve been a little tardy since my last post.  Please forgive me.  But I want you to know that this Fourth of July was very special to me.  And I hope all of you had a very good celebration.  I took off from Tennessee with my oldest son and my grandson on Thursday, the 3rd, heading to Cooperstown, New York for my grandson to play Little League baseball for a week at Cooperstown Dreams Park.  This is an immense park and is a huge operation and is strictly Little League.  I’ll tell more about this in my next post.  I want to tell about the trip up right now.

After we got well into Virginia, we ran into the remnants of the tropical storm that hit the North Carolina coast.  And did it rain.  My son’s mind was set on camping along the Shenandoah Parkway or the Skyline Drive that continues the Parkway further north.  We ended up on the Skyline Drive and continued driving higher up through either rain or fog.  By the time we got to the campground, we decided not to pitch tent, but to just sleep in the vehicle.  That was not a good night’s sleep.  But we woke to a beautiful day.  My son’s next goal was to go to Washington, DC.  By the way, when my son plans a trip, he does not go the most direct route.  He likes side trips.  Anyway, we got to DC and with a little luck, we found a subway station.  We got to the Mall about 1:00 PM.

We only had limited time since my grandson was supposed to be checked in at the Dreams Park by 10:00 PM.  This was my first trip to DC where I could see the memorials.  But it was so worth the trip.  We first hit the Smithonian US History building.  We took in just a very few exhibits mostly centered around the Revolutionary War and The War of 1812.  I went to tears several times, especially the area about Francis Scott Key and his penning of our national anthem.  Plus there was much about the flag itself that flew over Fort McHenry.  We got to the Washington Monument where I was amazed at how large it was.  Then there was the World War II Memorial.  That drew a bunch of tears, too.  I grew up among veterans from that great war.  And I feel so blessed for having them for my early mentors.  We tried to get to the Lincoln Memorial, but it was blocked off due to some of the festivities that would be going on.

That was all of the Mall we got to see, but my son had been there before, and he took us over to the fence around out president’s current (and temporary, I hope) home.  There were tents setup on whichever lawn we were looking at, the one at the front of the White House.  We were curious as to what they were for.  We later found out that the president was bestowing citizenship to 20 something immigrants who came over and did it the right way.  That seemed a little strange considering what he is trying to do for the illegals coming across our borders.  But I must give him credit for honoring the 20+ as he should have.  They deserved no less.

Needless to say, this was a day I will never forget.  A lot of the tears I shed were for today’s citizens who possess few if any of the character traits common to our founders, those who fought for the wars, and those who blazed the trails for the westward expansion.  They all gave so much of themselves to make this land great.  And many gave their all.  But nowadays, most of those who have that ‘grit’ are those in or who have served in the military.  I took that oath many years ago myself that stated I would defend this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  And I still support that oath.  Seems like today that most of our enemies are domestic, many holding high government offices.

Okay, that’s all for now.  Like I said, I’ll tell you more about the Dreams Park on my next post. Bye.