Berry Family Reunion - July 2013

The Berry family reunion was the main reason for this trip – Cousins Gail and Debbie were  principle organizers.  Lawrenceburg, TN is where the siblings:  Russ, Ruth, Josephine, and James (parents of the cousins) grew up. This was our first family reunion ever and 15 first cousins attended (plus spouses, children, and grandchildren of cousins).  It was a wonderful time of seeing folks we had not seen in many years and meeting some for the first time.  Joyce’s brother William and wife Sharon came from Lenoir, NC and cousins came from all over, although most live in Tennessee. In addition to seeing all the cousins, we really enjoyed spending 3 days in Lawrenceburg with William and Sharon. Cousin Jimmy, the only cousin still living in Lawrenceburg, gave us the grand tour of Lawrenceburg, where Joyce and William and many of the cousins were born. Jimmy took us to see William’s best friend from first grade who still lived in town and managed a local museum. Jimmy gave a great tour. The reunion went well, lots of food, lots of hugs, lots of “now, who are you?”, and lots of picture taking.

The day after the reunion, we traveled to Gainsboro and met Dillard Jr.  (Joyce’s step brother) at the family cemetery and visited Lynne at her home.  Then we stopped in Nashville and visited a high school friend Ronnie/Lois Cantrell. Another highlight of the trip was spending a few days with cousin Debbie/Robert and then cousin Gail/Tom. We’d seen them at the reunion and wanted to spend some time visiting and do a little sightseeing around Nashville.  It was so nice being with family.  Since we moved west in 1979, we don’t get to see our family often.  They both went out of their way to make our visit enjoyable.

While in Nashville, we faced a choice: begin the journey home or continue the adventure and go somewhere else. We chose somewhere else, and that somewhere was Oshkosh, WI.  John had always wanted to see the airshow at Oshkosh, and this seemed like the right time. So, we turned north, across the western tip of Kentucky, and into Illinois.