We started out the day driving to Manchester, NH, to pick up my favorite sister at the airport who was arriving after a red-eye from Los Angeles to Newark to Manchester. As usual, when we were a bit tardy picking her up, she was grinning away standing in front of the airport where I could easily spot her. We trundled her small bag into Charlotte’s back seat and zipped back up the road to Contoocook. We dropped her luggage at the Invader and continued on to Elkins where even more relatives had materialized for a big dinner at the house Barb and her hubby Riley had set up camp across the road from the main party site. I don’t know the folks who own the house where we went but it was a good ‘un.
Barbara and Riley had us all over to their ample place for Texas barbecue along with a wide selection of other great eats coupled with enough good alcohol for all. It was a tip-top get together without lacking any of the good stuff that makes for great parties. The house is located quite a ways up a steep road and offers a superb view of the lake below. It is my understanding that most of the remainder of the festivities will take place at the lakeshore house which is also a big joint with more bedrooms than I ever needed, two kitchens, a great boat, a handsome and very friendly Doberman named Zach, great shade trees and some very tenacious bugs of a type I could not identify but who found me to be quite tasty. Not surprisingly, the party hosts (and there were a bunch of them) had the foresight to provided an ample supply of bug repellants for common use but the bugs in this area are very tough little buggers and could probably be quite happy dining in a gas chamber.
We got back to Sandy Beach at about 1:00 AM and soon found our way into bed after only a couple more drinks.