04-14 & 15-15 Returning Home

Another bittersweet goodbye! Stayed up late last night scanning old family pictures that Uncle Shelby had. So much fun. Those I will post on Facebook. Loved visiting everyone and hate to say goodbye, but happy to be heading home at the same time. Miss Jacob, Karli and especially, Bonnye.
First, of course, we had to say goodbye to the animals on our way out. LOL!

  Misty

Sofie & Noah

 

 Curtiss, Uncle Shelby and I

Swung by to say goodbye to my sweet cousin, Oneita.

Juanita was off babysitting the grandkids.

Harold was sweet and swung by Mt. Calvary Cemetary for me, so that I could get pics of some of the Prather family gravesites. Couldn't find my Aunt Nita's (Uncle Shelby's first wife and my cousin's mother).

Paternal Grandfather Arthur Prather

 



Paternal Grandmother Ola Mae (Whittington) Prather

 

Uncle Napoleon (Nap) Prather (dad's half brother)

 

 Uncle Clarence (dad's brother)

 Nita Prather (Uncle Clarence's wife)

Aunt Bobbye (Trichel) Prather (Uncle Floyd's wife)

Rained most of the day.

 Krotz Springs, LA

 

 Baton Rouge, LA

 

Jacob's car's mileage rolled over 80,000 miles just before we left Alabama.

 



 Entering Alabama

 



Stopped in Chattanooga.

Last leg of the trip on 4/15. First stop - breakfast!

 

We started seeing tons of these pink/purple bud trees all along the road side when we left Chattanooga. So pretty. Found out they are called "Redbuds".



 

 

West of Bristol, TN we saw this cool building.

Yeah! We are back in Virginia.

Stopped at the first VA rest area and got a great photo op. This LOVE was not there last time we went thru this way.

 

Love this water tower. Wytheville, VA. We stopped at the Cracker Barrel there for a late lunch/early dinner.

View from the Cracker Barrel parking lot.

 

We stopped at this scenic overlook to take pics and it also had this memorial to VDOT Workers.

 

 

Peter in the redbud tree.

 



Overlook of the Valley

 



04-13-15 Visiting more of the Prather Family

Today was a good day. My cousins, Joan and Sharon brought Uncle Willis down to Uncle Shelby's to visit us. Plus, their brother, Winn also came up to visit us. They live in or near Colfax and Winn lives south of New Orleans. I had seen Joan and Uncle Willis in 2010 for mom's funeral, but I haven't see Sharon or Winn in 30+ years. I updated family records with them while I had them there to get the info from. I am trying to get the Prather family info updated and set up a family tree book.

 Uncle Willis (94y.0., dad's oldest brother)

 

 Cousins Juanita & Curtiss (Shelby's), Harold

 

 Cousin Joan Prather Futrell

 

 Cousins Winn Prather & Sharon Prather Turner

 

 Winn, Sharon, Uncle Willis, Joan

 

Uncle Shelby & Uncle Willis (dad's brothers)

 

 

After they left we ran to Eunice Poultry and picked up some crawfish for Uncle Shelby to make some crawfish etoufee for us for dinner and some to take home. Also, got some good mixed sausage for gumbo and boudin to take home and some boudin to eat now.

 

 Boudin

 

Crawfish tails

 

Next we went to see Aunt Pearl (dad's sister) and Peggy & Skip, who now live with her to care for her. They had just returned from Houston the day before. Skip had a stint/shunt put in for an aorta aneurysm. He was doing pretty good. This was the first time I had met Skip (Jack). Haven't seen Peggy in 30+ years. It was great to see her. She gave me a print of a bayou drawing that her son, Brandon had done when he was 18 (he is now 41). Love it. Aunt Pearl has dementia/alzheimers, but she seemed to know who I was, she just can't voice it since the stroke she had.

 

I had called and left a message for Uncle Floyd to let him know we were going to visit him next. He got the message and came over to Aunt Pearl's to see us. Saved us a trip and allowed us to spend a little more time with him.

Aunt Pearl Prather Young (dad's sister)

Uncle Floyd Prather (dad's brother) in chair

 

 Skip (Jack Adams)

Peggy showing me some special features in Brandon's drawing.

 

 Me and Uncle Floyd

 

Me and Peggy Young Adams

Yep, we are Prathers! LOL!

 

After visiting Aunt Pearl's house, we went to visit my cousin Harrison & Earline Prather (Uncle Clarence's son). Harrison has always been there for our family events, weddings, funerals, etc. They purchased and now live in the house that Grandma & Grandpa Prather use to own/live in. They have been doing some renovations and it really looks nice, inside and out.

 

 

 Their home.

Earline, Harrison and I

Harrison gave me some Mardi Gras beads with flying pigs on it.

They stock vending machines and rest areas and such and do some with the beads. Love 'em!

 

Returned to Uncle Shelby's and had some delicious crawfish etoufee.

 

Uncle Shelby makes the best crawfish etoufee. Yum!

Got some crawfish tails to take home and have his recipe.