Back to North Carolina Again

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

What a day! We knew our original departure time of 6:00 am was unrealistic given the delays we had yesterday. We had hoped to leave by about 8:00. While we were loading out Max stopped to refill the hummingbird feeder.  He apparently was taking too long because one of the birds perched right outside the kitchen window to try to make him hurry. After finishing the load out we did leave the house at 8:15, but before we got to Aunt Helen’s the septic tank people called and needed us to come to Helen’s. We did not get away from Helen’s until about 9:15, then stopped for fuel at Busy Bee and the gym in Oneonta to hook up the truck. That made our departure time from Oneonta 10:10. We had a 30-35 minute delay between Chattanooga and Cleveland on I-75. Never did see reason for delay. Never saw accident, police, construction. Nothing. Just everyone sitting there, not moving on the interstate. This was after we saw all the signs in Chattanooga “August 21 Solar Eclipse. Plan Ahead” and “Expect Heavy Traffic.” Maybe all of us on I-75 today were just practicing for Monday. When we crossed into North Carolina there was another sign warning of possible traffic problems on Monday. Max is glad he is no longer working in emergency management.

We arrived at Hinton Center about 4:00 and went to the office to let them know we had arrived. It was great to see everyone again and there were hugs all around. We will meet with them tomorrow afternoon after Joyce and Ken arrive to get the work plan for this weekend. Then we left Hinton headed to Standing Indian Campground. It is a National Forest Service campground between Hayesville and Franklin, NC. It’s a beautiful place and Anne’s cousin Nancy has been there for a week and will be there until after the eclipse. We went there to visit with Nancy and were pleased when her son Andrew arrived unexpectedly.

Nancy prepared a wonderful dinner for us all and then made a scrumptious black forest cherry cobbler in her cast iron dutch oven over the fire. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating and then returned home to Hinton to write this blog and get some sleep. It was a great day. Thank you Lord for safe travels.