Alabama 2019 - Days 3 & 4 : In the woods, at school

Sunday 24 November

After a better night's sleep where I only got up once and was quickly back to sleep.  We were woken by the children. For breakfast I tried the cinnamon porridge we had purchased, the instructions do not allow it time to cook adequately.  Porridge needs to be simmered for a couple of minutes, so I tried that and the porridge is much much better.

Today we visited TJ and Val and their children Weston and Poppy.  We last saw TJ and Val several years ago, so it was good to re-new this acquaitance.  They too have a lovely house with a similar arrangement to the one we saw yesterday - a lounge area open to the top of the first floor.  We had dinner together at their house after some shopping.  We also visited the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefied Park (Civil War) and the four of us (Robert, TJ, Jo and I) took a stroll along one of the trails.  We arrived just as the 'five minutes to closing' announcement was made for the visitor centre, the trails are open for another 90 minutes.  It was a short walk along steep hillside paths covered in leaves so that rocks were not visible, the temparature was dropping as the sun went down.  The trees restricted the view, there is little space between them.  It was not easy for us on a planned, prepared trail.  What it must have been like to chase an army or be chased by an army through those woods is difficult to imagine.

Monday 25 November

This mornings walk around the estate was more eventful than usual.  Mauve was stalked by an escaped dog.  She was very concerned about being followed, I didn't know where the dog had come from, I'm not used to all the local canines yet.  Eventually after 5 minutes and maybe 10 steps a woman and a boy started to try to catch the dog. The boy caught it with an amazing rugby tackle and our walk continued.

The main event for us today was a visit to Karen's School  The Radney Elementary School.  On the way we stopped at Zaxbys and got a takeaway lunch.

We were signed in at the school reception, the ID required was a driving licence, a small machine copied the picture and a label was printed - very efficient.  The label is now on Robbie's bedroom wall. We ate lunch in Karen's classroom, Zaxbys salads are very good.  After that we met a number of the staff, including the nurse and the head teacher - a Star Trek fan who has a poster on his wall proclaiming "Everything I need to know I learned from Star Trek". I can't fault that!

It is Pam's birthday tomorrow, as she will be away we will celebrate this evening.  Robert bought Mexican pancakes. They are corn tortilla disks with bean mash to stick things to it.  There is a selection of toppings, its then covered in grated cheese and grilled.  Very Nice.

I spent the last part of the day connected to work, solving a SQL problem with the billing engine checking process. - All good fun! (I don't think)