We had a short fall break from school last week – a half day on Thursday and off on Friday – so Stacey and I decided to drive down to North Carolina to visit my parents and my sister Hollie and her family. I’d never been to North Carolina before. Hollie and Jim moved there twelve years ago and we always talked about going down to see them, but it never happened until now.
We left on Thursday at 1:30 and drove south. We stopped in Duncannon to visit with my aunt Esther and cousin Rob for a minute and then kept on driving. After crossing all of Pennsylvania, part of Maryland and West Virginia, and all of Virginia, we arrived in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, at 11:30. The Martins and my parents were ready for bed but waiting up for us. Hollie took us to the home of a friend of hers who is away right now where we slept while we were there.
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| Aunt Esther and Cousin Rob. |
Friday morning Stacey and I made our way back to the Martin’s house. Because we’d arrived when it was dark, we didn’t see much of the area on Thursday. Friday morning we noticed right away that North Carolina is a whole different world from Potter County. The first thing I noticed was that it was in the 70's. The trees were starting to change, but hadn’t progressed too far. There were lots of pine trees. In the flower beds at the house where we were staying there were banana plants and flowering ginger. The ginger was in bloom and during our stay, every time I walked by them, I had to stop and smell them. As we drove to the Martin’s house that morning, we passed fields of cotton and, being tourists, we stopped so I could take pictures. I never realized what a pretty plant cotton is. At the Martin’s house they had a camellia bush in bloom and other summer flowers still lingering. I was immediately jealous.
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| Flowering ginger. |
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| A cotton field. |
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| Cotton. |
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| A camellia blossom at the Martin's house. |
We spent our days there mostly visiting. I can sit and talk to my parents for hours at a time – and we did. It was nice to see the Martin’s house so now I can picture it in my head. It was good to see how my parents have settled in there. Hollie, Jim, and Laura are taking good care of them. My father had a “shed” put in the back yard there. It is more like a little house than a shed. In the shed there are easy chairs and a television so he and Mom can sit. Dad has his computer set up there and Mom has a place for her binders full of family history. I think I need a shed like that to work in.
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| The Martin's house. |
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| My father's "shed." |
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| Inside the shed. |
On Friday evening my niece Jennie (Hollie and Jim’s oldest) and her family came over for dinner and to spend the evening. It was great being with them.
On Saturday Hollie and Laura took Stacey and me over to their local farmers’ market. She said it was winding down now as the growing season has mostly ended, but there were vendors there selling pumpkins, squash, apples, cabbages, and other vegetables. There was vendor there who sells boiled peanuts, a Southern treat. Hollie bought a bag and we ate some. They were soft and salty, more like edamame than peanuts, but they were good. There were basket makers and wood workers. It was a great market. Hollie said that most of the year there are many vendors there and the place is packed on Saturdays. I wish we had a market like it here. Saturday evening we went out to eat at the Pizza Inn, a buffet style restaurant with great salads and pizza.
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| At the farmer's market. |
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| At the Pizza Inn. |
On Sunday we went to church with them and then we had to say good-bye. It is so hard for me to say good-bye, especially to my parents. Even now, I can’t think on it without feeling the emotions. Stacey and I headed home again. We both had to be to work on Monday. The drive north was grueling. The traffic in some places was terrible, especially near Washington D.C. We stopped in Alexandria, Virginia, for just a few minutes to visit with our nephew Teddy Shillig and his family. As we continued on northward, the trees grew more colorful. Then it got dark. We got home at 10:30, tired out and sore from being in the car for so long.
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| At church with my parents. |
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| All of us at church. |
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| Our nephew Teddy and his family. |
It was brisk when we stepped out of the car in our driveway. The air smelled of damp fallen leaves. It was 81 when we left Rocky Mount. It was 48 when we arrived in Gold.
Our trip was quick and our visit too short. It was great to be with family. Twenty plus hours in the car has taken its toll on my body. It feels good to be home again. I’m intrigued by the South. I’d like to explore it further. My roots are all sunk north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but Stacey’s family has roots in Alabama and Georgia. I’d like to go see those places and maybe even deeper into Mississippi and Florida – especially when it’s winter here in the frozen north. We’ll see.
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| Sunset before we went south. |
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| At sunset before we went south. |
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| The mowed meadow. |
So I’m home again. I have so many things I need to get done before the weather turns colder. I thought I was pretty much done with the garden, but I’m not yet. I have a big pile of mushroom soil still waiting to be moved. I have wild flower seed to sow in the orchard. My friend Nancy Jones brought some plants from her flower garden that I need to get in the ground. I’d like to get the (ex) woodland garden a bit tidier so I can work with it as soon as possible in the spring. This will be a busy week. I only have a few hours of daylight after I get home from school to work outdoors. And by the end of the week it’s supposed to be colder and wetter. At least there’s no snow in the forecast yet.
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| Top: October in 2011. Bottom: October in 2015. |
