Dear Mrs. Loring,
.PP
Thank you again for letting us stay in your house
on Nantucket. We expect to go to the island on Nov. 15 and
return on Nov 18. I will telephone you 
when I have made the boat reservations,
or leave a message on your answering machine.
.PP
My wife, my sister and my son join me in this invitation
to you and your husband to make use of our house in Konnarock,
Virginia, 
whenever and for however long it suits your convenience
and your mood. The house, which is now 52 years old, is located
at 3000 feet elevation astride a valley in southwest Virginia,
about 15 miles north of that point on the map where Virginia,
Tennessee and North Carolina meet, and about 50 miles
east of Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee. The house is
surrounded by Jefferson National Forest.
It faces White Top Mountain (5200 ft)
and Mount Rogers (5400 ft),
the two highest peaks in Virginia. 
Our closest neighbor lives
about a quarter of a mile away.
Wildlife is abundant.
Deer commonly roam through our yard.
Wild turkeys sometimes graze on the shoulders of the highways.
There are said to be black bear in the forest,
but I have never encountered one.
Birds in their season include hummingbirds, robins, bluejays,
bluebirds, indigo buntings, goldfinches, Baltimore orioles,
juncos, chickadees, flickers, woodpeckers, including the piliated,
kingfishers, wrens, warblers, swallows, owls, hawks, turkey vultures.
When I was a child the cries of the whippoorwills echoed through the
evening; but they are silent now; I am afraid they did not survive
the insecticides.
.PP
My son and his family usually spend six days of the April school
vacation in Konnarock.
My sister is usually there from June 15,
to Labor Day.
My wife and I usually go in April, May, August and September,
but our Nantucket commitment may limit both the frequency
and the length of our trips.
For the past two winters,
the house has been unoccupied, regrettably,
since the winters there are usually mild and very beautiful.
The house is large enough that whenever you choose to come,
we could all be there together, if you can tolerate us. 
Last April when we had visitors from Europe,
six adults and four children occupied the house without embarrassment
for six days.
.PP
The house has in addition to kitchen, dining room, living room
and study,
three bathrooms, six bedrooms, one of which serves as
a den with a seldom used television set (3 channels,
no cable or satellite),
and one of which is used as a storage room.
There is a 170 ft. deep private well supplying a pressure tank
in the basement. The hot water tank, the kitchen range
and the clothes dryer are electric;
there is an electric refrigerator, an electric freezer,
and a washing machine but no dish washer.
.PP
The nearest electrician, plumber or oil burner technician
is in Damascus (12 miles), Chilhowie (14 miles), or Abingdon
(28 miles). I have found them unpredictable and unreliable,
and have attended to all repairs myself, at least for the
past thirty years. I replaced the oil burner 2 years ago,
but have not succeeded in adjusting it to burn reliably.
The problem seems to be in the draft, which is either too weak,
in which case the oil burner smokes, or too strong, in which
case the flame is blown out and a safety switch shuts the
system off.
But it may also be that the fuel oil in the 2000 gal
subterranean tank which has not been replenished for two
years has become contaminated with moisture.
I thought that the burner was finally working
as it should, when, two weeks ago,
the day before we left for Massachusetts,
it failed again. I again got it started, but until
it has proved itself for several months,
I am reluctant to trust it.
Since the radiators and boilers and all the drainage traps
are filled with antifreeze and the water supply is drained,
I have no concern about pipes freezing if the oil burner
should fail. However, when you decide to come in the
heating season, I would want to be there when you arrived
to make sure you were warm, and to arrange for someone to be
available for repairs, if necessary, after I had gone.
.PP
The driving distance from Boston is 850 miles. We customarily
take the Mass Turnpike through the Berkshires to the Taconic
State Parkway just beyond the NY state border, then drive south on
the Parkway to Interstate 84, crossing the Hudson at Newburgh,
and the Delaware at Matamoras, drive through the Pocono Mountains
to Scranton, then south on Interstate 81 to a small clean and
inexpensive motel at Grantville, Pennsylvania, just east of Harrisburg,
where we spend the night. The first day's drive takes us about 9 hours.
.PP
The next day we drive south on Interstate 81 about 410 miles
to Chilhowie, Virginia, from where a newly built highway takes
us across the 4000 ft high Iron Mountain, and down into the
valley to Konnarock. (The last mile of this road is presently
under construction). The second day's drive is again about
9 hours. An alternate route is the Skyline Drive
(100 miles with a 35 m.p.h. limit) and the Blue Ridge Parkway
(up to 300 miles with a 45 m.p.h. limit)
These roads are two lane parkways
threading their way across the summits of the Blue Ridge,
extraordinarily beautiful, with many spectacular views,
but adding many hours, and most likely a third day to the trip.
.PP
The enclosed pictures are printouts of color slides
which were taken many years ago and which I have transferred
to the computer. I hope they will help to persuade you
and Mr. Loring to consider Konnarock another vacation home.
.nf


                                  Sincerely,