As part of our celebration of our golden anniversary, Mary Lee and I set aside time for an overnight "honeymoon". This was just a time to get away by ourselves, and to creat more memories of this very special time in the adventure of our lives together. We drove north from Roanoke along old US route 11. We first stopped and had a simple lunch at the Riverside restaurant in Buchanan, a small quaint and old town situated on the James River in Botetourt County. Then we continued north to the juncture in the road which took us east through Buena Vista and up the winding road to the top of the mountain and onto the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. We traveled north for about twenty miles and then left the Parkway, descending down a very steep and winding road, passing through Raphine and Steeles Tavern and then back on to US 11. However, this time we drove south for several miles to just north of Lexington, VA, where we had made reservations for overnight lodging at Maple Hall. This is a bed and breakfast inn which was orginally a plantation house built in 1850 in which the livng area for the orginal family was on the two upper levels with the kitchen and servants quarters located on the ground level. We were assigned a room on the second floor which had a fireplace and was furnished with antique furniture. The bathroom was extremely small and was the only negative aspect of our stay. There were also several other beautiful old brick buildings on the property of two and three storied structure. The grounds themselves presented a very pleasant and gorgious setting.

After, refreshing ourselves and having a short nap, we drove into Lexington, just several miles away, for dinner at Cafe Michel. This is an upscale restaurant featuring French and American

cuisine. The restaurant was very tastefully furnished and the food and service were excellent, combining to make this a very enjoyable dining experience. "Michel", being the French spelling of a man's name, is the Chef and his wife is the hostess of this family owned business of many years. It was formerly located in Clifton Forge, VA, a town too small, and perhaps too remote to accomodate a restaurant of such obvious class. After dinner, we returned to Maple Hall where we were rather surprised to learned that we were the only guests for the evening. Imagine our further surprise to find out that the evening manager was departing at 9:00 PM, leaving us alone in the large old house of many rooms and secret places and passage ways. I jokingly asked her if there were any ghosts in the house to which she replied in a rather somber tone, "Not that I have encountered," adding, but then you have to believe in them to see them."

So we loocked ourselves in our room for the night, sleeping very well and comfortably. The next morning, three ladies came in to take care of the preparation of our breakfast, which consisted of a large extended continental breakfast as though a full house of guests were expected.

After we left Maple Hall in mid moring, we drove into Lexington to the historic district and browsed a few of the quaint little shops and a natural foods grocery, and had lunch at a cozy bistro. We enjoyed talking to the very friendly staff and telling them that we were still celebrating out Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Finally, we left Lexington and drove west on the most beautiful drive through the countryside and on to Goshen Pass. This road skirts the Maury River, which is one of the most rock filled riverbeds we had ever seen, not with pebbles but with very large rocks. And the river itself was practically dry at this time, in most places. This route also eventually led us into the little town of Goshen where we shopped at a Dollar Store, of all places, before heading home, thus concluding our travels of this little venture in celebration of our fiftieth anniversary.

I have been on a long journey, in fact, one of fifty years duration. This journey began on August 15, 1959, in Roanoke, VA, when I married my beloved companion and friend, Mary Lee. After a courtship of four years and nine days, as she loves to remind me and others, we were joined in holy matrimony at Cave Spring Baptist Church. God had led us together after she set her goals and I committed my life to the Lord for the mate of His choosing. She had written down upon a piece of paper what it was that she wanted in a husband. He must be "tall, dark, handsome, and a preacher," she had written. For my part, by the time I was a senior in high school, in what must have seemed like a rather ridiculous desperation of failing to find a permanent relationship on my own, I asked the Lord to take over. Therefore, through His providential leading, by that summer, we came face to face at a Youth for Christ Bible study. We had our first official date, soon thereafter, at the insistance of a friend of mine who was dating Mary Lee's best friend. On that "double-date" with the two of them, we attended a Youth for Christ ralley on a Saturday night. Since that time, we have been constant companions and the subjects of a beautiful love story. The quality of our God blessed relationship has continually deepened and strengthened over the past fifty-four years plus a number of added days at the time of this writing. Thus we celebrated our fiftieth Golden Wedding Anniversary on August 16, 2009, at the Mountain View Recreation Center in Roanoke. This was arranged and put together by our two daughters, Alethea Adkins and Chara Tolbert, who did a wonderful job of beautifying the place and bringing together a large number of our good friends and relatives. What a blessed and emotional time this whole experience has been with the stirring up a long string of wonderful and precious memories which have accumulated over many years, a lot which had become rather latent due to the ordinary busyness of our lives!