The Family Gathers in Dillard

Sunday June 12

We had breakfast in the room. That was what was in the coolers that Bob unpacked from the car yesterday. Our A/C ceased to work, and they said they couldn't fix it today as it was Sunday. Their maintenance people did not work on Sunday and they were too cheap to pay anyone else to come and fix it.

Dillard is a very small town (although it does have a post office)

Dillard City Hall

It is just across the border from North Carolina. It is surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1794, John Dillard was awarded a land grand of 1000 acres of land for his service in the American Revolution. John Dillard served as a lieutenant in the Virginia Militia in the American Revolution where he was in the Battle of Guilford Court House and other battles. He settled in the area around what is now with his son, James Dillard, about 1823. Legend says that Captain Dillard made peace the the local Cherokee Indians by trading a muzzle-loading rifle, a jug of apple brandy, one coonskin cap and $3. cash for the land between the two maintain tops. James took title to 1,000 acres of land by purchasing the lottery rights of land holders in Rabun County

Bob went out to a cemetery that we saw when we came in

Head of Tennessee Baptist Church

and took photos. The the original settler in the area - John Dillard who was a Revolutionary War soldier was buried there.

John Dillard's gravesite

More of the family arrived - at the end of the day there were 23 of us.

• (2) Myself and Bob .
• (5) Our oldest daughter D

Oldest daughter and daughter-in-law

and her husband (drove down from Maryland), her daughter and her daughter's husband and their son (our great grandson) who flew in from CT;

Great grandson

• (4) Our second daughter B, her husband, her daughter and a friend who drove up from FL;

Miami daughter and SIL relaxing while they wait to get into their room

Florida granddaughter and her father

• (5) Our third daughter E and her husband

Sons-in-law (From Florida and Texas)

and 3 children who flew in from Texas;

• (7) Our son and his wife,

Grandson-in-law, daughter-in-law and son

and their daughter (who drove in from SC) and the fiancee of their son (our grandson), and her father, her brother and their child (our great grandson) . They had driven down from upstate NY. The NY group got there last.

Missing were my oldest grandson and SO who lives in VT and couldn't get away, my second oldest grandson who was doing reserves training with the marines, and two grandsons who were taking exams.

We sat on the porch and talked, played frisbee

Playing Frisbee - the girl catching is the friend of my granddaughter

and corn hole.

Texas grandson and Son playing cornhole

The little kids had soap bubbles.

Youngest granddaughter and soap bubbles

someone took my camera and took photos of us.

Me and Texas granddaughters

Texas grandchildren and me

Some people swam in the pool at the hotel. Our son set up a BBQ

Cooking dinner

and the others got sides, so we had a BBQ dinner on the lawn.

Family getting dinner

Dinner

Sunset

After dinner we played Cards Against Humanity. We were very noisy - I felt for the people who had rooms in our midst (which we reserved but didn't get)

Monday June 13

We had breakfast in our room again. Some of us were going to go white water rafting, but there wasn't enough water so they couldn't do that. Some of them went golfing. Some of them took trail rides

Our son rented a pontoon boat and a tube on Lake Burton and we went with them. Lake Burton is a 2,775 acre reservoir with 62 miles of shoreline located in the northeastern corner of Georgia in Rabun County. A dam was built in 1919 and it created the lake. Lake Burton is named for the town of Burton, which was the second largest town in Rabun County with a population of approximately 200. The former town now lies below the lake's surface. The lake is bordered by beautiful large and expensive houses. House owners rent the land under 99 year leases and all the land is owned by the Georgia Power.

There are two marinas on the lake (Anchorage and LaPrade's). Boat owners can rent slips, and get fuel at the marinas, or visitors can rent boats. There is also a spotted bass fishery. Anchorage Marina is a full service marine which has slips, dry storage, boat sales and repairs and a gas dock. They also have a marina store, a restaurant and a beauty shop. Pontoon boat full day $200/$225 Half day $150/$175 We also rented a single person tube for $25/day

My son and daughter-in-law, granddaughter, grandson's fiance, and her brother all went pontooning. But I couldn't put on my bathing suit without help (and Bob refused to help me), so I didn't wear it, and therefore I didn't get to swim so it wasn't so much fun for me.

Daughter in law spraying suntan lotion on our granddaughter

Great grandson getting ready to get on the pontoon boat

Great grandson crawling on the pontoon boat floor

We ate the sandwiches that our daughter-in-law made and they did some more tubing. Our great grandson took a nap. Bob and the brother and our son took turns at the helm.

Son at the helm of the boat and granddaughter

daughter-in-law, and daughter playing with the baby

Dam in the lake

Granddaughter tubing

Son tubing

Great grandson

After our great grandson waked up, our granddaughter-in-law-to be called her dad to come and get him and take him back to the hotel and I decided to go back too - I wanted to see if they had fixed the A/C

Marina

Monday evening ,June 13

When we got back to the hotel our A/C was still not fixed. I had to call them two more times before they sent someone.

After that was taken care of, we sat out on the porch and we grilled out again but when we brought tables out from the rooms, they came and made us put them back in the room.

Son, daughter, son-in-law and grandson getting dinner

Sitting on the porch having dinner - Bob on the right

Grandson's fiance, my daughter-in-law, great grandson in the lap of my granddaughter and grandson's fiance's brother and dad

They had hot dogs and hamburgers, and I had three hot dogs which I rarely get to eat. They told us that this was our 80th birthday party. (His birthday 3 months late and my 80th birthday 18 months early). They even had a cake.

Birthday cake

They called it a Family Reunion because they didn't think Bob would come if he thought it was a party for his birthday. They gave us a picture with all the relatives holding a letter and the letters spelled out "We are all a bunch of turkeys" They also made drink cozies with "Beasley Birthday Bash" on them.