This post starts with Thanksgiving 2013 in Asheville, NC – our
home town. We were delighted with our
role as ‘organizers’ of the Thanksgiving dinner that 50 people enjoyed in our
Unitarian Congregation. We are planning
on doing it again in 2014….after so many Thanksgivings with lots of folks in
our house, this was a ‘no-brainer’ for us and was great fun.
The day after, we left – in our new little and
environmentally friendly KIA Rio - for our next house-sitting assignment in
Portland, OR and after a night of venue hopping in Nashville, we headed
west. On the way we had a good visit with
David’s brother and wife in Lincoln, Nebraska (they drove up from their home in
Manhattan, Kansas - the Little Apple).
After Lincoln and an overnight in Cheyenne, we planned the next stop in
Western Wyoming, but a scary run-in with a huge snow storm ended with an
unplanned stay in Rawlins instead. So,
our visit with son John & his wife Sutton in Salt Lake City was shortened
by a day. From SLC we crossed southern
Idaho into Oregon, made it thru another big snow storm in the Pendleton area
and finally arrived in Portland – this is one HUGE country where the weather
is, indeed, at times, as big as the country itself.
Lisa and Paul, owners of the house we were going to care for
are delightful folks with a wonderful story of their own and live in a lovely
renovated home in a great ‘hood in Portland.
They were off to Asia while we really took advantage of being in that
great town: had Christmas dinner with an
old friend, attended many performances of music both before and after
Christmas (this was a 200 strong tuba concert),
attended lectures at the University, saw plays. Enjoyed a visit with
Kendra & Jim Golden who were passing thru in the motorhome we had shared
with them for several years. We met
friends-of-friends and had several great lunches and dinners with them and with
other couples who we met thru other connections. Had a visit from son John who just happened
to have an appointment in PDX while we were there, took walks marveling at the
lovely Portland gardens – even in the mostly mild winter - and enjoyed being
within walking distance of Whole Foods and the big in-town mall (with a skating
rink where little kids had lessons that we became addicted to watching).
Time flew by and before we knew it Lisa and Paul returned
and we were off to explore the exciting and wonderous Route 1 down along the CA
coast – we loved it in years past but it had been a long time since we had done
that drive. We stopped in Eugene for
dinner with a friend and a fun impromptu concert in a consignment shop; we
stopped in Mendocino for a eagerly anticipated visit with our friend Shirley
Frerick who lives in a gorgeous spot on magical land…while there we had a great
visit with the folks at the Ford House Visitor Center on the headlands where we
volunteered as docents for a summer a few years ago. We had lunch at Nepenthes at Big Sur, stayed
in San Luis Obispo, stopped in Venice Beach and went on to Borrego Springs for
another visit with the Goldens. Then on to Tucson.
Except for Susan’s nasty cold/virus that just wouldn’t quit
we had an exceptional time in Tucson! We
were treated to a get together by the IONS Tucson group, had lunch and dinner
nearly every day with some of the wonderful friends we had made during the 7
years we lived there. It was a really
wonderful visit and so so good to see these really special folks. On our way back to Asheville – 3 ½ months
after we left – we did that endless drive thru Texas (but the presence of wind
turbines gave us great joy) as did the spring flowers (like the dogwoods in
Vicksburg) – the earth’s coming alive is so exciting, although winter and
spring seem to fight it out during March and early April - here in Asheville the
greening is breathtaking.
Now that we’ve been back awhile, David has been working on
rebuilding the “purple” room downstairs that had to be dismantled because of
the failed waterproofing on one wall (see the 'big dig' a prior post) – so, the framing, insulation, sheetrock and tiling are about done, and then with the taping and painting done we
will have yet another room that we’re not sure what we will do with…
we’ve
installed an outdoor shower and just love, love, love showering under the stars
or in the sunshine. We are open for
guests after August 13th and hope you will consider a visit…..we are off tomorrow morning (1 July) to the UK to do another house sit...with a week in Cornwall and Devon first....crop circles here we come. We'll try and report sooner about this new adventure....bye for now.
Many hugs, S&D
