This past spring and summer, my stepfather experienced several health problems at the same time as I was going through oral surgery and recovery from my broken jaw, so I wanted to take a fall trip back to North Carolina to see how he was doing and to help my mother however I could. A nice side benefit of this trip would be seeing my brother, as he would also be visiting for part of the time. Barry and Paisley stayed behind in the Florida RV park, and I flew for this visit, which ended up being less expensive (and quicker!) than renting a car and driving up. The trip up was uneventful, and when I arrived, I was so relieved to see how much better Dal, my stepfather, was doing. When we'd left NC this summer, he was in a nursing home rehab facility and wasn't even walking, although he was improving slowly but surely. By the time I came back for this visit, he had graduated from a wheelchair and even a walker and was now walking on his own, driving, and back on his computer! Although he is still receiving treatment for back pain, he is much better than I imagined he would be, and for that I am extremely thankful and relieved. Mom had, as usual, prepared a lengthy menu of home-cooked delicacies for us to enjoy during the visit, and we had fun baking a couple of desserts together after I arrived. Here's a pretty lemon bundt cake we made, just one of several goodies we enjoyed during my stay. An Unexpected Storm.The day my brother Adam was to arrive, a strong line of storms was forecast to push into North Carolina from the west. However, we had no idea how bad it would be. In the early afternoon we were under a tornado watch, which was later upgraded to a warning. The Emergency Alert System on the TV warned us to take shelter in a room with no windows, on the lowest floor, so Mom, Dal, and I heeded the warning, hunkering down in a room in their basement as the worst of the storm pushed through. We had gathered together all the flashlights in the house, a fortunate thing, since the power went out while we were waiting the brief but furious storm out in the basement. The sudden storm left a swath of damage in its aftermath that suggested a tornado or straight-line winds. When we crept up from the basement to survey the damage, we discovered that a large pine tree along the back fence line had snapped off midway up the trunk and now lay in the back yard. Here was the scene the next day. We had no idea when the power would be back on, and with no internet or TV, we weren't able to get much information. We called the electric company's automated outage line, but they were only telling us how many people had no power (thousands) and no expectation of when things might be fixed. My brother Adam arrived around dinnertime that night, having had a long and tedious drive through storm squalls, but at least he was safe. Since the power was out, instead of Mom's planned homemade chicken pot pie, we instead dined on cold sandwiches, chips, cole slaw, and brownies for dessert; and the evening's entertainment was limited to conversation. Not a terrible thing when one is with family for the first time in awhile, though! It was a long night without power, but at least the weather was temperate, so the lack of air-conditioning or heating wasn't an issue. Adam missed his fan for white noise, and Mom her TV, but I lucked out by having my electronic tablet loaded with plenty of e-books so was able to read long after dark. If I'd had our Mifi box, I would have been able to get online, but it was back at Pearl with Barry. The next morning dawned sunny and calm, thankfully, but the power was still out. On a whim I'd bought a quart of cold-brewed coffee the day before, before we knew the power was going to go out. A lucky break indeed! We were able to heat it up on the gas stove, after lighting the burner manually. Not wanting to open the fridge, we drank black coffee for our morning caffeine fix, accompanied by peanut butter on bread for breakfast. Not the best breakfast ever, but we weren't starving, at least! Mid-morning, Mom and I decided to head to the closest grocery store, which we heard from a neighbor had power, and we bought a couple of bags of ice as well as some things for lunch to store in coolers since we couldn't open the fridge. We figured buying food for an extended outage would ensure that the power would come back on shortly -- and fortunately, we weren't that far off. We ate some of the food we'd brought for lunch, but the power came on just a few hours later -- for a total of 23 hours without power. There was much rejoicing throughout the house! Nearly everyone in the neighborhood had at least one tree down from the storm, and the sound of chainsaws was all around us. Here is some of what I saw walking around the day after the storm. I'd already seen a lot of these sorts of piles this season after Hurricane Irma hit Florida. In an adjacent new neighborhood with no tree damage but no electricity either, these folks had the right idea. They were running the generator in their motorhome so at least had some means of getting a little power! This reminded me how Pearl is much better prepared for a power outage than a standard house, with her generator and 12-volt appliances, plus a Mifi box for cellular internet. We had planned to head up to the mountains to spend a few days at my folks' vacation cabin in Ashe County, where no one had been in a year due to weather and illness, but the power outage postponed our travel for a day. We didn't want to leave Hickory without knowing when the power came back on, and by the time it did, it was late enough in the day that we waited until the next day to get going.
In the next post I'll share photos from our little side trip to the mountains. The new header photo is a preview!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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