All roads lead home

So I took my road trip, down the road that I know the best, the one that leads to my mama and daddy.

I went down yesterday, spent the night and came home this afternoon.  It did me so much good to be with them and we had so much fun!!!

They had gone to town yesterday morning and brought me home some Troy burgers for lunch.  Now if you grew up anywhere within ten miles of Montezuma, you know what a Troy burger is.  If not, then bless your heart. Troy's Snack Shack has been in the same spot in downtown Montezuma, Georgia for as long as I can remember, longer than I've been alive probably.  Their burgers are legend where I come from.  And the fries, the perfect mix of crispy and salty, are the absolute best I have ever had.  There's even a Facebook group of us who have moved away from Montezuma and would kill for a Troy burger.  Ha!  There is none like 'em.  

We visited, drank coffee, hung out in the yard and even had company yesterday evening.  My friend of 30 years, Lisa, her mama, Carla, and great-nephew, Dustin, came and spent a couple of hours with us, visiting and catching up.  It was really good to see them!  Lisa is expecting her first baby (a little girl!) in April and I'm so excited for her, I could just bust!!

 
Last night for our almost-midnight snack, we had ice cream and I made this banana split.  They kept adding stuff to it, Mama, the cherry, Daddy, the chocolate chips, until it looked like this.  It was soooo good!!!


After sleeping late and having a big breakfast of sausage, scrambled cheese eggs and oven toast with blackberry jam this morning, we went out visiting family cemeteries.  I LOVE going to visit graves!!  It might sound silly but I believe those loved ones who have passed on know that we're there to see them.  It makes me feel better to go and visit the ones I remember and I love the stories that Mama and Daddy tell about the ones they remember, the ones who were already gone by the time I came along.  Our family is mainly in three cemeteries and what's so cool to me is that we have family from both sides buried in this one cemetery, the one at County Line Baptist Church in Ellaville.  Mama's daddy is there and not ten feet away, Daddy's grandma and uncle are buried.  I realized that just today!  They are buried so close.  Daddy told me he remembered being there, six years old, right after his grandma died and his daddy crying at her grave.  That's a story I didn't know until today.  The older I get, the more I crave stories about my family.  I'm on a quest now to find all of my great- and great-great-grandparents.  One set of great-greats is buried at County Line and one set is in Oglethorpe.  Mama and I are planning a trip to Dooly County to find some more.

We found this grave today in the Oglethorpe cemetery.  This is the lady I was named after!  She lived in the same apartment house with Mama and Daddy when they were expecting me.  She was so good to Mama that she and Daddy gave me Irene for my middle name to honor her.  Miss Irene died a month and a half after I was born.  She gave me a silver spoon set that I still have.  I told her who I was today.  :)

I couldn't believe this thing was still there!  We were going home and passed the old primary school, where I went for 1st and 2nd grade.  When I was 6, I was running from the main building to this one, the lunchroom and library building, and I HIT MY HEAD ON THIS METAL BOX.  I still have the dent in my skull to show for it.  The school is falling down now but that dang box was still there!!  :)

Daddy's young river birch tree that I just thought was the coolest thing!  

I love how the bark just sheds like that.

Mama and Daddy's goldfish pond with the most gorgeous natural moss growing on the fountain.  I took this picture of all of the fish so I could show just how big that one in the middle is!

 Just LOOK at her!!

She was so hard to take a picture of!!  She kept swimming away, swishing that tail at me. I told her she was gonna end up on a plate with some hushpuppies if she didn't smile and say cheese for me.  She said this was the best she was gonna do.  :)

We had such a great time!!  I cannot wait to get back down there!!