Southern Hospitality

John and I had been planning a trip to North Carolina ever since his cousin Kent Luton came to visit last spring. Kent told John he had 1400 board feet of walnut and cherry that were his for the taking; all we had to do was pick it up. North Carolina is a long way to go for hardwood, but John figured it was worth thousands of dollars and it was worth our time and money to take the trip.

John took our 2001 Tahoe on his Middle Fork of the Salmon river trip two weeks before we planned to leave.  He drove in snow and on dirt roads towing the trailer full of gear without a problem. But when I drove it into Salt Lake the transmission casing cracked. After 220,000 miles we finally said enough was enough, sold it "as is" for $950 and bought a 2006 Toyota Sequoia. It could have been so much worse, stranding John on a steep, icy, mountain dirt road in the dark or stranding us on our North Carolina trip in the middle of Nebraska. It isn't often I see such a direct answer to a prayer for safety and the car to function properly that we always say before a trip. I am sure it happens, we just don't always know it.

We had planned on stopping at Chris and Meg's in Kansas City and Matt and Erin's in St. Louis on our way cross county. It turned out that Matt and Erin's kids had fall break and we invited them along. It was also Erin's 40th birthday and Chris and Meg drove to St Louis with us to celebrate. When we got there we loaded up Matt's new Hobbie kayak sail boat, three sit on top kayaks and went to Creve Couer Lake, about 20 minutes away.

Matt can get the whole family on his Hobbie including Vader the dog

The cousins loved the little kid sized kayaks Matt and Erin had.

Fun times!

The next day we were off! North Carolina here we come. We took the southern route, through the Smokey Mountains. Gorgeous, clouds hovering like smoke, but still green. We were a little early for the fall foliage,

When we got to Elizabeth City, North Carolina we were welcomed with open arms. We stayed at Uncle Earl and Aunt Shirley's old home. Uncle Earl died last November and Aunt Shirley is living with Kent and Peggy, so the house is empty. It is over 100 years old and backs up to the Dismal Swamp. When the house was built they didn't put in a septic tank, just piped the sewage into the swamp. And it still is! It is kind of gross when you think about it. Every time I flushed I felt a little guilty. The house would be condemned if they tried to sell it now, it is not worth putting in a septic tank and bring things up to code, so they just keep it as the "Luton Hotel" and decide what to do with it after Aunt Shirley dies.

The last time we visited North Carolina was when we lived in Delaware. Thomas was a newborn, so Matt would have been 8, Chris 6 and Annie 3. Very close to Ian, Lily and Molly's ages. I remember being embraced by family. Even though they didn't know me. I was Martha's daughter-in-law, and John's wife, so I was family. We stayed with Uncle Earl and Aunt Shirley and they treated us with southern hospitality. They even rented the Lion's Club hall for a huge family gathering. Aunt Shirley cooked us southern food. We had butter beans, a form of lima beans that are grown in North Carolina. Uncle Earl took the kids on tractor rides and we went to Kitty Hawk.

This trip was a little like deja vu. We did the same things, 28 years later and were treated with the same southern hospitality. All John's Luton cousins came to dinner hosted by his cousin John. I was extremely touched by their family loyalty. We felt like the prodigal family returning to the fold. 

John with his cousins, he obviously didn't get the Luton short genes!

We had planned on taking the kids to Wright Brother's National Memorial at Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks but the government shut down closed the park. A friend of Kent's told him about a back way into the park by climbing over a little two foot rope fence. There was a great life sized sculpture of the plane that the kids could climb on. and we could take a trail up to the memorial.

We also went to Jockey Ridge State Park, site of the tallest natural sand dune in the Eastern United State, and Nags Head Beach. I just couldn't go all the way to the Outer Banks and not see the ocean. It was a blustery windy day, but  cool, not cold.

When I made our family calendar last year I realized I didn't have any pictures of just John and me,
so I am trying to do more selfies. 

Our visit to the Dismal Swamp was anything but dismal. It was the sunniest day of our trip

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The Dismal Swamp Canal is part of the Intercostal Waterway. The sailboat is going up the east coast on the Canal.

Erin and Lily

All too soon it was Friday and time for the long drive home. We planned on getting to St Louis by Saturday afternoon, drop Matt and Erin off and drive to Kansas City to spend the night and get home late Sunday night. After loading the trailer with the cherry and walnut boards to the absolute max we enjoyed a southern home cooked dinner at Kent and Peggy's of fried chicken wings, creamed corn, collard greens, squash, green beans and field peas (like a reverse black eyed pea that are quite good) all preserved from their garden. 

Lily, Molly, Kent, Aunt Shirley, Ian, Peggy and John. 

We got up bright and early the next day and drove toward Norfolk, VA. John soon realized the trailer wasn't towing quite right and we stopped to have it looked at. We found it would take at least 4 hours and who knew how much money to fix it but we didn't dare not. So we left it with them and visited Historic Jamestowne to pass the time. John wouldn't tell me how much it cost to fix the trailer, only that it was a lot. We didn't get on the road again until 4:00. 

We started heading west, driving over a bridge/tunnel over/under the Chesapeake and were completely stopped for 1 1/2 hours by a multi car, multi injury accident. By 6:00, we had been on the road for almost 12 hours and made less than 100 miles.  After a late start Saturday morning to give the kids time to recover from the stressful day before we started again. We found that we couldn't drive over 60 mph or the trailer started to fishtail especially going down hill. It was the hardest driving I have ever done. I started to fishtail in a moment of inattention and scared us all to death. I realized I had concentrate on my driving all the time. Once we got out of the West Virginia mountains driving got easier, but we still couldn't drive any faster. We didn't get to Matt and Erin's home until 11:00 pm and spent the night there. We made a quick stop at Chris and Meg's on the way through Kansas City. We thought we would never get out of Nebraska and had to stop in Rawlings, Wyoming at 11:00 again.  We got up at 4:00 am and were home Monday morning by 9:30. Whew.

We have been asked if we thought the trip was worth it. A new to us car, repairs to the trailer and a extra night at a hotel were all costs we hadn't planned on. The drive was long and at times very difficult. The wood John got is great and he is very pleased with it. It was a delight to see the autumnal splendor across the United States.  But the highlight of the trip wasn't the scenery or the wood John got, it was the time we spent with family. Matt, Erin, Ian, Lily and Molly were delightful to travel with and grandma and grandpa time is always welcome. Reconnecting with John's North Carolina relatives was priceless, well worth the time, effort and money we spent. Are we glad we went? Absolutely. Would we do it again? Certainly, if we fly.