Life in Dallas and Detroit

The following two pictures were taken as Bob Hargrove and Brother Bill began talking about their lives in the big city.

Mike's True Account of Events-Wednesday

August 2, Wednesday
Another rousing breakfast and off we went White water Rafting. Bonny put this event together and we drove about an hour and a half to the Nahantahala (I think that’s it). I drove with Patti, Aunt Judy, Bob and Josh. We arrived without incident. Bob got to benefit from older and more mature world vision and he suddenly declared in the car that he was switching from the Republican to the democratic to be more like Mike.

Our clan commandeered two rafts. In the first raft were a lot of Hargroves and Daniel. This raft had a guide from the raft company. Since the rest of us looked rugged and tough we did not have a guide and Josh with his vast white water experience became our fearless leader. Actually, Josh did a pretty good job. Since he was captain he was looking for a marriage to perform, but everyone on our raft was either married or not engaged (Timmy and Ryan). To say the water was cold would be an understatement. We had no idea how could it was because all our feet went numb inside of five minutes on the water. In the front of our raft we had Nikki’s husband, James and across from him in the stern was Timmy (This was a huge mistake as I shall relate.). Next came Patti and Wil was across from her, then me and Ryan with Josh on the tiller. The idea in white water rafting was to go frontward and paddle around obstacles. James and Timmy got a little confused over the paddling part. James lost his paddle and Patti had to rescue it for him from the current. Then, the front guys are supposed to paddle in unison. This was not happening and whenever there were words from the back about these phenomena, James and Timmy would stop paddling altogether to discuss the concept of paddling. This resulted in further dialog from the back of the raft. Fortunately, Wil was able to get James’ attention with his paddle. However, once we got going, the next time we came to another obstacle, the whole paddling problem would start again. Patti, whose profession it is to save lives, wondered aloud that if she killed James would the current keep him from view. I persuaded her against violence in that we would miss dinner if we had to explain James’ disappearance. We tried to trade James and Timmy for Daniel in the other raft but the Hargrove raft already knew a good deal when they saw one (Daniel). When we hit the final rapids, James fell out of our raft. There was a picture of this. Josh, however, wondered if there were any pictures of him paddling. However, in the other raft, Billy Hargrove took a fall into the river. See the other pictures on the blog for a true account of what happened in that conspiracy. We all had a good time. If you want to know about the other raft, then I challenge those others in that raft to post accounts on the blog.

We finally made it back right on time for a delicious dinner of ribs, chicken, corn, and all sorts of good stuff. Tom and Linda did the honors and we again sat around and told stories, hit the hot tubs or collapsed in sheer exhaustion.

Mike's True Account of Real Events...Tuesday

August 1 Tuesday
Clearly the highlights of Tuesday were Aunt Melva’s birthday, Mary’s knife demonstration, and the Cochran/Hargrove Tex/Mex dinner. I had breakfast that morning at Uncle Riv’s and aunt Cathy’s and after that at Aunt Melva’s. Patti and I went to scout around Asheville for a place to buy sausages for our dinner night on Thursday. I think most people just enjoyed the down time. Our little area had a boche court, putting green, chess board with players outside that stood around two feet high. Plus people had to sleep in and others that were up early had naps to take. I think Bill, Bob, Mark, Will, Aunt Judy and Shay went golfing. Word has it that Will won…lucky stiff.

First, Mary’s knife demonstration for Cutco knives was held Aunt Melva’s, Bob’s and Cathy’s. Mary made an excellent salesperson and was quite professional. She sliced that penny with the scissors faster than a lawyer assessing a billable hour. A number of us participated and got to cut things which was fun. No one lost any digits. We all left with the same number fingers and toes so this was a successful venture. Since then, I have received my knives and now have five band aids on each hand. So these things are sharp.

Next, we had dinner at Aunt Judy’s Will and Bonny’s place and ate good Mexican/texican food. Hats off to the chefs. We also had Aunt Melva’s birthday party and the highlight was the money tree. My job was to get Aunt Melva out of the kitchen/dining room so this tree could be made and be a surprised. Getting Aunt Melva to do what you want is a bit like getting a straight answer from someone from Detroit. It’s hard work. Aunt Melva didn’t want to sit outside and she didn’t want to sit somewhere out of the way. I did my best with help from some of the kids and she was surprised! She wanted to know why everyone went to all this bother. I reminded everyone that I had a birthday coming up soon. We had cake and ice cream and sat around and did what we do best…relax and talk. I think there was another hot tub group gathering somewhere later.

Update on Uncle Mark

Mark is home and doing well. He did a jolt of chemo on friday and goes back into the hospital on september 13. I've uploaded a new pic of Mark since Sue didn't like the last one!

Mike's True Account of Events-Day 3-Monday

July 31 Monday
Today we formed a large caravan and proceeded to the Biltmore Estate. That was after another round of breakfasts and lots of coffee. This caravan-involved people (Tim) flagging down our wayward group so we could all be together. We all enjoyed the tour. I kept wondering how many 514-32nd streets would fit into the Biltmore. My best guess is about 18 and a half. Then I wondered how many 417-39th streets could fit in there. I figured about about 17 because of the broader cellar. Then I wondered what it would be like to live there with all those servants and all those rooms. Could you imagine how more spoiled Josh, Katie and Zak would be? I kept wondering what kinds of chores I could make them do. I’d make josh polish the bowling alleys. I’d make Katie make all the beds, and and I’d make Zak polish all the antlers on the various animals in the great room. I did like the cigar and brandy room. (I’d have a big sign, No Girls Allowed.) I also thought the bowling alley was cool. We could have had a family league night. I would want Will on my team because he is so lucky. After the tour of the house we went to lunch at La Paz. Not everyone went because we lost a whole bunch of our people in the Biltmore. I thought I saw Bob taking a nap on one of the beds upstairs. We later went back later to the winery and had a nice tour…a little tasting and a visit to the wine store so folks could stock up for their hot tub evening soirees.
We again had dinner on Bill and Debbie’s deck. Dinner came via the Philadelphia Express. Andrea (and Tim) brought Lasagna from the City of Brotherly Love. Italian night was a success. We celebrated Jacob’s birthday. We had a nice cake and everyone was nice to Jacob. We all made an agreement to let Jacob win at poker that night (except Will).
We had to play Texas hold ‘em Poker at Aunt Judy’s, Bonny and Will’s house. Will won and Jacob came in second. We had a good time. Mark and Shay were poker novices so we wasted no time fleecing them although Mark gave us quite a scare for awhile with his “I’m not sure what to do” routine. It was fun for me lasting longer than Josh and Bob. We trundled back down the hill. Someone else will have to tell you about the various hot tub locations and what went on. The pictures today are of our Monday.