Homestead & Helicopters

Today Sam and I headed out to the Homestead, his fifth trip to this exclusive five star resort in his two and a half year life span.  Not too shabby, huh, considering that it's a once in lifetime thing for most people fortunate enough to go there at all.  Trust me, we are far from wealthy, very far indeed.  However, we do have an extremely generous friend who owns a time share here.  Since she lives in Boston and can't make it down all the time, she often shares her time with lucky us!  Well, rather than being elated, Sam would have much preferred to see a helicopter and felt free to mention that every few minutes along the three-hour drive here. "Sam looking for a helicopter!"  As ordered, we were all on high alert for a helicopter sighting all the way here, to no avail.  

His all-out helicopter obsession only started yesterday when he got his mitts on the video from our honeymoon helicopter ride in Hawaii.  At the time we bought the video almost six years ago, I thought it was a big ole rip-off, but we have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it and then some in the last 24 hours. Who woulda thunk?  He has watched it over and over, gleefully pointing at the screen, "Mommy and Daddy in the front seat!" Then at the end he'd announce, "Sam want to watch it a few more times!"  Oh my.  It was tempting though since I had a lot of packing to do and Bern was down and out with a bout of the flu.

Once we arrived in Hot Springs with no helicopters to be seen, Sam moved on to his hankering for M-c-D-o-n-a-l-d-s.  (I have to spell it out these days or he gets all fired up to go there.)  No fine dining for him apparently, which is a-Ok with me.  However, Bath County does not allow the Golden Arches to do business within its boundaries, so the nearest locale was in Covington over a half an hour away.  No way, absolutely no way.

So here we are in a three bedroom/three bath house on the Homestead grounds, but to Sam we were an uncivilized world far from deep fried Chicken McNuggets and a heliport.  In Sam's book the Homestead does not deserve any stars at all.  However, the nearby Greenbrier Resort has its own landing strip AND boasts of a McDonald's about a mile from its front gate.  We're heading there tomorrow for a day trip, so hopefully Sam will give it a five star rating.  It all depends on what's landing and the quality of nuggets because -- BREAKING NEWS --we have discovered a Subway/Duck Inn near the Homestead with a large selection of popsicles.

LibbY