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Even though we have just returned from the birthplace and home of Thomas Wolfe who wrote You Can't Go Home Again, we have returned home once again from Asheville. Yes, we can go home again. Actually our trip is filled with literary references. We went past Monroeville, home of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. We went through Mobile, the setting of The Bad Seed and then Thomas Wolfe. I would write about other literary drive bys, but most of you wouldn't have heard of the places from Southern fiction. This trip and our Christmas was just about one of the best ones in recent memory. What would have made it better would have been getting to drive over to Nashville to see family. But the Blizzard of 2010 made it impossible to cross the mountains in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. We stayed an extra day at the Biltmore. Some trapped in train stations, airports or with too many long staying relatives, but we were trapped in one of our favorite places to be. Once we transfer pictures from the laptop, I will post some of the best snow pictures. Gee, I only have 2500 pictures to chose from. Roy was in the snow taking pictures for a good majority of the days. Christmas was extra special this year because we got to spend time with good friends in Atlanta and a great breakfast visit with my cousin and her husband. We saw beautiful God given scenery, treated like a Vanderbilt guest and in the midst of all the fun, we remembered the why and Who of Christmas. God came down here with us. Emmanuel!


Monday morning was filled with indecision. The weather reports were not good but we felt like we had a small window of opportunity to hit the road. The Inn held our room for us until 10:00 am when we would have to make the decision of whether to stay one more day or hit the road. I noticed that even though we were talking like we would stay the extra day, we kept packing. We prayed and asked God for wisdom and the wisdom came from a fellow traveler who had just made the trip to the estate on some of the very same roads we would be traveling. That is what we needed to hear, so we called the bellman and gathered our things together. Uh, we totally over packed and I am happy to report I was not the worst over packer. Just saying... With Sequisha loaded and covered with snow we headed out. The worst roads were on the estate. They had been plowed and de-iced but with snow falling and the wind blowing snow onto the roads, it was a difficult path. The streets in Asheville were not great either but once we made it onto the Interstate, we had clear roads. We even had clear roads for the 16 miles we went in the wrong direction. As South Carolina came closer we saw less accumulation of snow. We saw snow all the way into Alabama but nothing was as bad as the snow in Asheville. I think the total inches of snow was 10 inches. Since we started out at 10:45 am, we knew we wouldn't get very many miles under our belt our first day. We had totally planned an easy going route back. Spend Sunday in Nashville, head out Monday, stopping in Oxford to go to Square Books and then make our way to Hammond, LA where we would spend the night and only have about 4 hours on the road yesterday. On Monday we did make it to Greenville, AL. We had stayed there on our way up. We were comfortable with the town and knew where we were going. We stopped around 5, ate dinner, filled up the car, made a Diet Coke run and I was in bed asleep by 7:30 pm. We got an early start at 5:20 am yesterday morning but we made several stops along the way and arrived back into Houston around 3:20 pm. One stop was a car wash. Sequisha was covered in road salt and we wanted to get that off her. Several stops for Cracker Barrel and gasoline made up our second day journey. It was 21 degrees when we left Greenville and for the longest time basked in the balmy temps of 37. Buddy was so happy to see us. In fact she hardly snubbed us when we all arrived home. She was more upset that I wouldn't sit down so that she could crawl into my lap. Finally with everything in, she and I had our bonding time.


I am still really sore from my fall on ice. Not a good candidate for skating with the stars. On Sunday, Roy and I went to Antler Hill Village so that Roy could take some pictures of the snow there. For Houstonians, we were better prepared for snow than others. We both had waterproof boots on and heavy duty ski gloves. I had walked in the deep snow for a photo op and returned by the same path. I stopped for just a second and thought, wow, I did pretty good walking in 9 inch deep snow and the very next step, my foot got hung up on ice and down I went onto the hard, cold, icy sidewalk. So the Bible is true, pride comes before a fall. I have my volleyball playing days to thank for taking falls. I was able to catch myself and keep my head from hitting the sidewalk. I was so embarrassed and I was trying to get to my feet as quickly as I could. I still am sore from that fall. My arms, shoulders and neck still hurt and since I'm still on blood thinners I have a lovely case of purple bruising all over. My knee got a little twisted too, so thus add more limping to my stride. Add that fall to the embarrassing fall of several weeks ago, not good. So glad we have heated seats in the car because that really helped for that long duration in the car.

We were going to the Texas Bowl this evening to watch Baylor play but I know that even though my heart wants to go, I need to punt football tonight at Reliant and watch from the friendly confines of home. I also should really be unpacking and doing laundry but blogging had much more appeal to me this morning. We need to make a trip to the grocery store today because we don't have much in the pantry. Roy went out for breakfast with his Bible study group and I foraged through the freezer and found some old Eggos. Also defrosted some sliced peaches from this summer. Both Roy and I have to get back onto the healthy diet plan. We were somewhat remiss in our food choices over the past week.