As has been expected, Maureen died last Saturday. While it grieves me to type that sentence, both Bruce and I are rejoicing that her suffering is no more. From what I understand, she died in her sleep, another blessing. Searching for blog posts mentioning Maureen, this one from December 2018 tells the story of what was the beginning of her downward spiral. Parkinsons disease is usually associated with tremors and if that were all there was to it, a person could adapt. Unfortunately, there are a host of consequences, none of them good. I last visited Maureen on what would have been Carol's birthday had she lived. She was completely unresponsive. Lynn, a longtime friend of ours, arrived at the same time and neither of us could get through to her, however, I didn't expect it to be my last visit, but then again, how would I know? The truth is, she has been "gone" for a long time now, so while grieving, I am relieved that she has been released from this life of misery.
Now we are down to three sisters. :(
In other news, Matt has had Covid. Although his symptoms have been mostly mild, it has taken a good long while to get a negative test. Another post that mentioned Maureen is this one written in the early days of the pandemic. My goodness, clearly from what I wrote, I never expected this virus to still be with us in the middle of May 2022! Matt is not the only one who has recently had Covid....about six other folks we know have had it as well. Who knows how we have so far escaped it? Hopefully we were not exposed during the trip we just returned from yesterday afternoon, thus no blog post to speak of last week.
And where did we go you ask?
We are considering buying a summer home in North Carolina, thus we went for a visit and viewed two condos, one of which was super pretty, but more than we hoped to spend, the other was okay, but too dark for my liking. The truth is that this is probably a terrible time to buy a property what with prices everywhere skyrocketing. It's hard to predict if a crash is coming; any property we might find now may become worth less than we payed. Both were located in a lovely planned community called Connestee Falls. There are four lakes and more importantly, dedicated pickleball courts! Named after a beautiful double waterfall,
it has a lot going for it, that is if you don't mind driving on super windy roads!!
Let's back up a bit and I'll tell you how we got to this point, shall I?
This trip was not very well planned as we hemmed and hawed before finally deciding on Monday to hit the road in the morning. Packing our bags, along with our pickleball stuff and a cooler. we took off later than was ideal. The important thing is we were on our way. Taking the interstate, we first stopped just outside of Jacksonville at Buc-ee's which we'd heard so much about.
That would be Buc-ee in the back of the truck. Picking up more snacks and gas we continued on our way. The wages paid there are really something.
Do you think this roadside message could be any clearer?
Outside of Brunswick, we got back to our roots, taking state roads where you never know what you will see next. The reason it takes us longer than most folks is because my dear husband never complains when I ask him to turn around so that I might get a photo. In this instance, well can you blame me?
Adjacent to the old VW garage I thought this was kind of clever. Take note of the gasoline price too.
Fortunately, on this trip, the Subaru got pretty good gas mileage and unlike the MINI takes regular gas. We saw it as high as $4.50 per gallon!
Wildflowers graced the side of the highway and it was here that Bruce finally pulled over in order for us to eat the sandwiches I'd packed. Great location, right?
According to their Wikipedia page, it is not somewhere you would want to live! Mostly it was smooth sailing with little to no traffic on the roads, however, we did come across some construction where I just marveled at how red that Georgia clay is.
We drove by farms, fields of corn, and one with bagged Vidalia onions. Bruce was a man on a mission hoping to get to Brevard by nightfall, some 570 miles from home. Stopping at the Georgia welcome center I picked up several brochures, one of which was for
The Georgia Guidestones. Reading it with interest, I put it in my bag. Well, lo and behold, later on I saw it was just ahead on the map I follow on the iPad. We just had to stop! Should you want to know more, click on this link, to learn how an anonymous man paid to put this in Elberton, GA!
Onward into a corner of South Carolina that is as pretty as can be.
On our last trip to Brevard, we came in on the eastern side of the city and let me tell you, the last bit in S.C. was as scary as can be. This time, coming in on the western side was plenty windy but nothing like that last trip! Finally, as it was turning dusk, we made our way to a Holiday Inn Express that I'd booked while we were on the road. The only redeeming feature of that place was the blooming dogwood just behind the hotel!
All joking aside, it seemed as if they were not immune when it came to having enough employees just like every other business. Plus it was close to Pisgah National forest where we went just after breakfast. The Looking Glass falls did not disappoint!
Unlike the pictured woman we did not go out onto the rocks, although the spray is so fierce we could feel it on the viewing platform. Before that, however, we pulled into a little area, climbed down a bit, so that the
birthday boy could do a little fishing.
Indeed, it was Bruce's 69th birthday and a lovely place to celebrate him it was. Moseying through the Davidson River campground, I saw this super cool mushroom. Taking the picture I was thinking of Maureen who loved this sort of thing. That said, it has been years since she's even been outdoors if you don't count our Covid visit in the parking garage.
From there we drove into downtown Brevard, one of the reasons to move there because it is so cute and lively! That said, Bruce had a heck of a time navigating the parking machine with this kind man helping him out.
Our friend Rhonda has a second home in Brevard and sent me a list of restaurants she thought we might like. Indeed, The Square Root was the one where we ate on our last visit. The brussel sprouts were fantastic, as was the pimento cheese.
Lemon cake for dessert! So pretty you hardly wanted to eat it.
Following lunch we drove to the realty office to make sure we knew where we were going in the morning. It is in a lovely setting adjacent to the falls.
It was during our stop there that I checked my map and next we made our way to the Brevard Health and Racquet club. Oh my goodness, I saw on the map that we were super close to a place that I'd tried and failed to book. After checking out the pickleball courts, we drove to
Deerwoode Reserve and it was
the best move of the trip. Oh my goodness, was it beautiful and they even had a cabin we could rent for as many days as we wanted. Instantly I fell in love with everything about it. The owner took us on a tour of the property which is 175 acres surrounded by mountains. Looking first at the Riverside cabin, we learned that it was already booked for the weekend. The French Broad river runs alongside it....duh, you guessed that already!
Because this post has gone on for a while, I will tell you more about this little piece of heaven on earth in my next post as Nancy has just arrived in order to be here for Maureen's memorial. But first the trees!
And the wide open spaces!
While we were there I took a large number of photographs that I think you will like. I sure loved taking them!
As I wrote when Carol died, it is important to do all that we can, while we can, because we never know when things will change.
your friend,
Gail
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