All that effort I put into our new chore system plumb wore me out, so I needed another mountain retreat the next day. Fortunately, my brother Robert and sister-in-law Cindy were having a family get-together at their place on John’s River. They generously supplied all the food and invited us to come eat and have fun. So we did.
The weather was beautiful. We even had cooling breezes during the hottest part of the day.
Cindy’s daughter, Shasta, and Sidney spent a lot of time looking for snakes in the rocks.
They terrorized and chased this poor baby snake all over the creek. He bit both Shasta and Sidney before they finally caught him. My poor mom was yelling from the creek bank, “Sidney, don’t catch that snake!” She wasn’t very loud though and Sidney was too wrapped up in the excitement of the snake hunt to hear her. It didn’t bother me though. I mean snakes, shmakes. Big deal. That is not nearly as creepy as having a mouse in my house.
Shasta searched patiently through the rocks for a long time to find this pretty boy.
After a full day in the river, we packed the children up to head home. But a trip to John’s River is never complete without a drive by the famous John’s River House of Mugs.
Sid stopped in the road so I could take a quick picture from the Suburban, but Mr. House of Mug guy saw and yelled from the porch to “Come on in!” So we did.
A closer look at this unusual creation.
Mr. and Mrs. Sisk, the proud owners of the House of Mugs. They gave us a tour of the inside and asked us to sign the guest book. Inside, the tiny cup house is packed with antiques and various curiosities, like a river rock in the shape of a boot, a coffee cup with Ronald Reagan’s picture and cups so small your pinkie finger wouldn’t fit inside it. Mr. Sisk has a scrapbook on his porch with hundreds of pictures of all the people who have stopped by. Guess whose picture is in there now?
Prairie Sings 