It’s taken a few decades, but this was my 4th trip to Perrydell Farm to visit the relatives on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family.

In 1982, my brother Ron and I drove across the country and we visited several sets of relatives, some rather obscure, and some probably befuddled at a couple guys from California in a ’68 Dodge van showing up and claiming to be kin. However, the Perrys of York, Pennsylvania were closer as Aunt Lourene and Nancy Perry kept the connections going. On that trip we stayed with Uncle Enos and were able to talk with Uncle Howard (both brothers of our grandma, Harriet Vail). Howard was the father of George and Roger who started the farm, and George’s kids now run the farm. (Did ya follow all that?)

In 1989, my sister Nancy and I drove across the country and not only did we visit the Perrys, but there was a pretty big family reunion. As I recall, Enos (who wrote a book on the artificial insemination of farm animals) and Howard (who believed we didn’t need to fight in any wars and would’ve been just fine) had passed away, but lots of folks were there and it was a good time.

!n 1999, Mary Lynn & I visited as a part of our honeymoon extravaganza (which included a stay at Chautauqua with some other relatives and my folks). Like that visit, this time was rather brief but it was great. We didn’t get to see everyone, but George (still spry at 96!) and Nancy Perry still live in a nice house overlooking the farm. Tom and Greg still seem up to their necks in milk & manure. And their sister Judy teaches kids in China online (gotta ask her some more questions about that!). We got to meet one of Greg’s kids, Andrew, and Judy’s daughter Samra – who hit it off with Charlie and Veronica talking about their common interests out on the internet. Nancy prepared a lovely lunch under a big tree next to the house overlooking the 170 acre farm…

Then we were treated to ice cream at the farm store. Tom gave us a tour of their new feed barn and milking facility, and we got to meet a few cows. Here are some more pix of our short but sweet visit…

Next, from York to New York…