Then Look What the Easter Bunny Brought April 13, 2020

A tornado! The night before we had been warned of potentially severe weather during the early morning hours.  I had been awakened by the storm  and was trying to get a tv update, but I dropped the remote.  I got on the floor to look for it when simultaneously at 3:23 a.m.  the power went out and my cell phone buzzed with a text message "Take shelter NOW". I  crab crawled to the hallway and braced myself against the walls.  Bob was on the bed with Roscoe waiting to "hear the roar of the train" that is supposed to precede a tornado, but that train just came on through.  We could feel the house shake as it passed.  After it was over, we tried to see outside, but it was too dark.  About an hour later we could hear chain saws, but it was still too dark to see why until the sun came up.

When I looked out, all I kept repeating, "Oh, my God." My brain couldn't comprehend what my eyes were seeing.

The big old cypress was uprooted and blocked the driveway to the front street.  Bob's ratrod was within feet of it, but not damaged at all.

The big old pecan tree was uprooted and blocked the driveway to the side road.

Bob had an electric saw, but that was no help since the power was out.  He took my dad's old hand saw and whittled some branches through this mess so that he could get out and buy a chainsaw. 

The storm passed within 35 feet of our front porch and felled 5 of the biggest trees in the yard.  Miraculously, our vehicles, camper, boat,  memory bench, bird bath, house,   Roscoe and our lives were spared.   

and these two little figurines ....

that were in the planter box under this fallen hickory tree.  The only 2 trees on the top "north 40" that didn't fall were the dead hickory here and a sapling willow that had died during the drought last fall while we were on a road trip.  In the almost 40 years in Florida, we never experienced as much destruction from the hurricanes.  And we were luckier than most...some areas were damaged a lot worse by the F2 force winds and one man lost his life.

It took Bob two days to cut through the cypress trunk.  At that rate, it would take him until Christmas to clear the yard, if even then! 

But help arrived Wednesday....Bobby and Valerie came by to lend a hand.  They wanted to come sooner, but it was too dangerous due to downed trees and  power lines and road closures.  Notice here how close the memory bench was to the pecan tree and how the trees across the road in the background were untouched.  It was as though the tornado stopped at the cross road.

And more help arrived later in the day, but the kind that had big equipment and would do the job for a price.  But, the price was more than fair, and the two part time college guys who had the tree service were extremely nice young men and did excellent work.

Within four hours, they had the trees, stumps, branches and twigs cleared.  Although they did a great job, the land looks so barren now compared to what it looked like a week ago.  But we keep reminding ourselves that we are blessed that it wasn't anything worse.  And we will begin to green it up again.

February and March 2020

February is definitely not my favorite month, and I hold my breath until it's over.  But, it started out nice...we dog-sat Honey for Bobby and Valerie while they took a little getaway trip to Jekyll Island for Valerie's milestone birthday.

Roscoe and Honey are good at sharing.  But we noticed Roscoe was drinking a lot of water, and after Honey was back at home, we took Roscoe to the vet.  As we thought, he was diagnosed with diabetes, but thankfully at an early stage.  Bob is now giving him insulin shots twice a day and the vet said he is doing great.  However, we can no longer be lazy in bed...we have to be up by 6:30 to get ready for his shot which he needs every 12 hours.

Then on February 8th, we had a fairly good snowstorm, although the birds didn't think it was so good.

and probably neither did Bob or Roscoe!

It was a wet snow, great for making snowballs, snowmen and snow forts!

Around this time, our microwave went on the fritz.  We had said once the old appliances needed to be replaced, we would redo the kitchen.  So, we headed off to Lowe's to order a new microwave, dishwasher (installed here), stovetop and wall oven, and decided to get granite counters and a new sink from a local granite company.

 However, this turned into somewhat of a haunted kitchen project.  The backsplash was supposed to be 5" high, but was cut to 4", and the paint and some of the sheet rock were ripped away during the removal of the old counter.  Also, the installer didn't cut the piece so that it looked seamless.  We were totally dissatisfied and the company agreed to replace it.  Due to the pandemic that followed, we are still waiting for the remodel.

The fellow who installed the wall oven accidentally left some of the plastic protective on the racks.  We couldn't figure out what the awful smell was when he turned it on until the test run was over, and I found the melted plastic.  The lens covering the light under the new microwave suddenly broke during the middle of the night, not once, but twice for no explainable reason.  I contacted the company and got a replacement lens (twice) but not an answer as to what caused this to happen.  One of the two lights had burned out and we haven't replaced it yet, so the lens might break a third time once we use the light again.  The glass lens fell onto the new stove top, but thankfully didn't harm it.  So far the sink and dishwasher have not been infected. But the country was, and in March came the stay at home orders.  Joe, Bev and kids were going to go to Kiawah for spring break and planned on stopping to see us and Bobby and Valerie on the way back, but had to cancel those plans. 

A week or so later, Roscoe got his foot caught on the chain link fence while he was raising a ruckus with the neighbor's dog.  He ripped and broke one of his claws and could hardly walk, so we had to take him to the vet to have it pulled out.  He was bandaged up for a few days, but has since recovered.

At the end of March, it was beginning to look like spring which made the self quarantine somewhat  easier to handle.

Catching Up on 2020

It is now May, 2020...where has the time gone?  Well, I'll try to recap it in the next few posts.  Shortly after our trip from Blue Ridge in November, Bob's truck started running poorly.  It was in the service department at the Dodge dealer until early January before the technicians finally figured out the problem.  Good news was all the work was under warranty, and he ended up getting several new components before they were able to find the root of the problem.

Gwen and Ellen spent Christmas week with us.  We enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve and Day meals and our grab bag gift exchange. We celebrated Christmas again  with Bobby and Valerie at their lake house a couple of days later.

At the end of January, we decided to go to the state park in Morganton, GA, that we had discovered on our last trip to Blue Ridge.  We checked in on Tuesday, January 28, and left Friday morning on the 31st.

The park was virtually empty, and we were able to get a prime lakeside spot.   Bob didn't want to bother removing the camper for the short time we'd be there, so we left it on.

Lake levels were extremely low, but still presented a beautiful sight with the clear water and Blue Ridge Mountains in the far distance. 

Roscoe enjoyed the view, too.

And the sunset was spectacular, but brought on the cold winter night air, so we had to retreat inside.

The next day we took a self-guided driving tour which ended up taking most of the day.  First stop was for lunch!

The Toccoa Riverside Restaurant was just a short distance from our starting point, and Bob was already hungry.

The restaurant had a very spacious inside dining area, enclosed outside dining space, and this lovely riverside seating which I'm sure would be packed during the season.

The décor was very woodsy with carved bears cavorting everywhere.  The food was quite good, too.

A fair portion of the ride wound along the scenic Toccoa River, known for its trout fishing...

...and rafting and tubing.  This tree is decorated with life jackets, sneakers and sandals from some who enjoyed the river water sports.

Next on the tour was Sucches (pronounced such-as) where  Woody Gap School is located, the smallest K-12 school in Georgia that boasts 100 students.  Sucches is the highest community in the state at an elevation of 3000 feet, giving its nickname of Valley Above The Clouds.  

The touring map showed there was a suspension bridge which looked like a good place to check out.  The brochure did caution that it was a bumpy 3 mile road to the trail.  It didn't mention that Forest Service Road 816 was two way but barely wide enough for one vehicle, especially one with a camper on top.

But we managed to have two other cars safely pass in the opposite direction before we arrived at the parking area and trail head.

The brochure also said it was a short and easy hike to the bridge.  It was neither short nor easy for 70-somethings like us, but thankfully there were a few resting spots along the way, and the sound of the rushing river kept us motivated to continue.

I finally reached the "swinging bridge".  At 270 feet, it is the longest suspension bridge east of the Mississippi.  Bob and Roscoe had opted to stop where the trail got steep, about 500  feet from the river. 

Was it worth the effort?  Yes and no...in many ways, the bridge and scenery are very similar to Chau Ram Park, less than 20 miles from us with a truly short and easy hike to get to!

Thursday was somewhat uneventful...we road thru Blue Ridge and on into Copperhill, Tennessee, the little tourist town where the Blue Ridge Railway stops on its scenic route.  Friday we packed to leave and stopped at the dump station before heading for home.  Luckily Bob noticed we hadn't pulled in the camper slide...that would have made for an interesting ride back and would have been even more interesting if we had left it out when we were on that narrow fire road to the bridge!

About 20 miles from home, snow had dusted the apple orchards in Long Creek.  It was a nice ending to a pleasant trip.