Greetings from the other side of fifty nine and from the state of North Carolina. Due to both the state of my birthday, traveling and house hunting, I have not had the time to sit down and write anything yet I have so many thoughts to put down on iPad and paper. I have yet to journal since before leaving. It is a cool Friday morning and I am sitting out on the screened in back porch listening to the rain and watching the cows graze. Yesterday was nature day because I saw so many birds, including hummingbirds outside our window, a red robin, woodchucks, bunnies, and the baby goats next door cried out a welcome greeting or maybe that was hey all the other guests come over here and throw apples over the fence to us. Be patient little goats, all in good time.
Sunday morning we were on the road by 4:20 am and headed toward Blue Ridge Georgia. We did a hard first day's drive and made it to Chattanooga with time to grab some dinner at the El Matador. Not too bad of Mexican food outside the state of Texas. By doing a hard day's driving we were only an hour and a half from our destination and my cousin reunion. Lois had found a great house with five bedrooms set on a beautiful, sky gazing, gorgeous view ridge. Since we have not seen each other in a very long time we had a very fun afternoon of catching up. We went out for my birthday dinner to a local place with a buffet of every you could ever think of in southern food. Yum and I chose peach cobbler as my dessert of choice to finish off the meal. My cousin Becky and her husband rode along with us and after eating, we didn't go straight back to the house but looked around and discovered the scenic Blue Ridge Railway. Roy and Becky signed up for the train adventure for their Tuesday excursion. I felt like I couldn't give that much time to a train and opted out but I did get away with my thoughts for some time alone to write, with a little shopping thrown in, you know just to keep in practice. Roy and Becky would have several hours in MaCaysville for lunch and shopping, so I decided to drive over that way and surprise them. They detrained before I arrived but after a phone call I found them having lunch at George's BBQ. NC is more of a pork than a brisket BBQ state, so the pulled pork was delicious. We shopped and Roy took multitudes of pictures. We were right there at the Tenn/GA state line, so you know being in two states at a time is a whole lot of fun picture taking. They got back on the train and I took my time heading back stopping at a few antique stores and a Methodist Church. The church was a little white chapel and behind it under huge shade trees was a cross and the Ten Commandments whittled and shaped from the plenteous supply of timber from the area. A rooster stood in front of them and at first I thought it was part of the display and I pondered the denial of Jesus by Peter with the cross and The Ten Commandments when quite by surprise being startled that it was a real rooster who looked like he had pecking my legs on his mind. The train pulled into the station around 3:00 and we did the typical Roy thing, let's go find a DQ for a blizzard. After getting our DQ on we went to the famous Mercier to look around. Oh my goodness...everything apple and then some. It is now apple season in these here parts. We got fried pies for later, some peach hard cider and of course I found books that needed a home with me. Just like a train can, I just got derailed from my original story....after my birthday dinner, Becky went to DQ for an ice cream cake, a tradition in their immediate family. That my friends is a good tradition! We came back and opened gifts rather I opened gifts, from Lois and Scott a good book by Francine Rivers and from Becky and John a pottery piece for my desk...to hold all my vast collection of pens and pencils and a candle that has a wonderful fragrance.
My cousin Mark and his wife Carol from Iowa were there, we were only missing my brother Doug who couldn't get away for business reasons. Funny, it does not seem that long ago that we five cousins would sit upstairs at our grandparent's home wondering what the adults downstairs were talking about. We would send one brave soul to sneak down the squeaky steps to spy and no matter who was sent down on mission and we all had the same report....BORING! To anyone younger than us and if they were there, they would have thought the same as us all those many years ago...but we would beg to differ with them.
Wednesday morning Roy woke up bright and early, ready to hit the road and get here to the farm. We had several stops to make along the way and Google Maps doesn't quite understand the terrain and it will take more time than they estimate to arrive. Before leaving Blue Ridge and after saying goodbye to my cousins, we made a quick stop at Mercier's to pick up a few more things...read fried pies in that vague description and some regular cider. The muscadine tastes like communion juice and with that we also got cherry apple cider. We stopped in Murphy at a local place downtown and then Roy had a field day taking pictures of the quaint town with stunning architecture. We stopped at a produce stand and got heirloom tomatoes and an orange tomato. Right before Waynesville is Barber's Produce and they had just opened on August 1st for the season that lasts almost to the end of the year. We stopped in and picked up peaches and apples. Then headed to Mast General store to return shoes I had bought in April. When you stop at Mast, you must take a look see around the store and we did just that. Such a fun place. A late lunch at The Moose Cafe and we headed toward Alexander, NC. We were greeted by the owners with fresh picked corn straight out of their field. We made a quick trip to the grocery store and then I went to sleep cause Thursday morning would begin rather early on our house hunting adventure.....and dear friends, I will leave you there to continue later.
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