It is Monday, all day long! :)

Good Morning from Texas!

I hope you've had a wonderful week end! The week end was quiet here where I hang my hat & call home. But that is OK, quiet is sometimes needed & welcomed.

I spent some time reading old diaries. I never tire of reading in these. If you have known me from other forums, you probably already know abt my prized diaries that were written by my G-Grandmother. I speak of them often & if I have ever owned anything materialistic I am prideful of, it is the diaries.

I have 12 leather bound diaries that begins in a child's scribbling scrawl (she was 8)& ends when Gran was in her 80's, shortly before her death, with much the same scrawl as she began the diaries. In the between years, she had a very nice handwriting.

Being a genealogy seeker & history lover as I am, these diaries are the things dreams are made of.

She & my grandfather left Ringgold , Georgia in the early spring of 1834 as newly weds, headed west to seek a new life. She (Martha) was 17 years of age & his name was James Levi. He was 10 years her senior in age. She never refers to him as James, it is always the full name. James Levi was a minister, or as most people called him , just "Preacher". They left in a wagon train of 46 wagons, a medium sized train. It was considered a very good day if they covered 10 to 15 miles.

I can not imagine the rigors of surviving a trip of such magnitude. The hardships were unbelievable.

They were stronger people than the stuff I am made of, to put it lightly.

Don't be surprised if excerpts show up here from time to time.

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Block: 'Swamp Patch' from the book : "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler"