August 23 - September 5

Spruce Pine

Clara and I left early Thursday, stopped by Nashville to check on Dad (He's doing real well), and headed up the mountain for a couple of weeks of relaxing and enjoying the cool climate.

The temperature at night is generally in the 50's.  We've even had to close the windows and doors in the early morning hours because it is so cool.  Great sleeping!

Most mornings, we woke up to clouds in the valley

We've worked on the yard and cleaned the basement, throwing away a lot of stuff that should have been discarded years ago.

Friday, we enjoyed visiting The Orchard and listening to Bonnie Schmink's band.

Saturday evening, we visited with our neighbors, the Holtzclaws.  They live near the bottom of the mountain.  Keith recently retired as the CEO of the Spruce Pine Hospital and was on my EDC board when I worked in Mitchell County from 1998 to 2001.  It was a good chance to catch up on what is happening here in the county - Keith is now a County Commissioner.

Sunday afternoon, Brian Gurl played at The Orchard and that evening we had a nice dinner outside at the Grassy Creek Country Club and listened to "Three Phase" playing some good music



Kit Truby and Clara

 Monday, we were invited to Bonnie's for ribs on the grill.  I ate entirely too much, but they were great.

Tuesday was a lay day, with nothing scheduled and we enjoyed our mountain home.

Wednesday, we invited our hosts in St. John, USVI, Pat and Dave over for dinner.  We added to the list Kit, Will and Bonnie.  They brought with them Pat's daughter, Karen.  We had a delightful evening of discussions about our trip to St. John this past April, sharing photos and stories.  It was really great to see Pat and Dave, and we hope to be able to visit them again in St. John.

Brian Gurl

A small group gathers in Brian's studio to listen and enjoy his great music.

Thursday evening we were in for a very special treat.  Brian and Joey Gurl had invited us, along with 9 other guest to their home for champagne and the ivories.  We met a lot of new people, most from Mountain Air Golf and Country Club.  Kit rode over with us.

It was an amazing evening of world-class music by Brian, playing his piano and singing.

Friday morning, we had Ray's Tree Service start up at 8 am, clearing our view.  Over the years, the area that had been cleared when we built the home in 2000 has rapidly grown up into 30+ foot trees that are beginning to obscure some of our beautiful views of the mountains, and we had always wanted to clear a little further South so we could have a clear view of the Black Mountain Range about 30 miles away.  Working in a thick fog, Ray's crew had the work done in a couple of hours opening up a beautiful view.

Brandon Ray working in the fog clearing our mountain view

The view after clearing

Just about every morning, the clouds lay in the valleys until the sun burns them off.

Friday evening, we picked up Kit and drove over to Burnsville's Downtown theater to listen to Judy Alexander's "Country Kickin" show.  A great evening of fun entertainment.

Judy Alexander

Bonnie and Will 

Terry McKinney (We were made honorary members of the McKinney Clan several years ago 

Eddie Graham, who once played drum for Elvis, plays around the room, showcasing that anything can be a drum. 

Kit and Linney Ski

Saturday, we went over to Asheville to see Keith and Diane Howell.  Diane and Clara worked together at Memorial Mission Hospital for years.  They were having a family reunion this afternoon and we got to meet a large part of the family.  We had visited Diane's sister and brother-in-law in Missouri a couple years ago on the way out west in the motorhome.

Sunday night Kit invited us to her home for fresh (frozen) Maine lobster, which are fantastic.  Bubba and Susan Crutchfield and Bill and Judy Carson also were there.  We really enjoyed the evening and especially catching up on Bubba and Susan's extensive volunteer work in Western NC.

Monday we relaxed around the house enjoying the beautiful views.

Tuesday, we got a late morning start and drove to Cary to see Slade and the kids and Wednesday we drove back to Beaufort

August 9 - 19

The Lantz's are in Beaufort

Wendell, Dawn, McKinna Autumn, and her boyfriend, Nate came down from Ohio.  Their new guest house is nearly complete and Wendell worked diligently on it while here, completing it.  It will be a real asset for them as their family continues to grow.

We ate together most evenings and enjoyed their company.

We were able to get out on Wendell's boat a couple of times - to Shackleford and the Cape.

Nate boards at the Cape

The Lantz's climbed the lighthouse

Nate and Autumn

The "Salty Buckeye" at anchor at the Cape

The Lantz's and Nate

Autumn on the board on the ocean at the Cape

At The Cape

August 6 - 8

Joe and I have finally gotten Eureka away from the dock for more than a day sail.  That seems to be all we've done this year.

We departed Monday morning in light winds for a leisurely sail to Cape Lookout, tacking and jibbing randomly just enjoying a nice day on the water.  We arrived mid afternoon and swam a while and cleaned the prop on the boat.  It looks like we're going to have to replace the prop on the next haulout - it has a small chip out of one of the blades.

Tuesday was a day of leisure, swimming to shore for exercise, walking on the beach and taking the dinghy to Les and Sallie's dock and walking for a while on the ocean side.

Cape Lookout, in my opinion, is the most beautiful anchorage on the East Coast. 

Tuesday night it rained and it was still raining lightly Wednesday morning when we raised the anchor and motored back to the marina.

The Maxwell's visit

August 2 - 3

We always look forward to Ken, Renee, Cal and Christina's visit every summer.  This year we were especially pleased because Christina has recently won Dintinguished Young Woman of America competition.

I had made arrangements with the local paper, the Carteret News-Times to do an interview and article with Christina early Thursday.  Then we took off on the power boat, ending up at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse early afternoon.  I checked and was able to get all four of them a climb in the lighthouse, which is a wonderful experience.

Thursday evening they had dinner with us.

Friday, we went on Eureka for a fun day of sailing and swimming.  While we were sailing in the ocean, the wind died, so we stopped about a mile offshore and swam for a while.  Very refreshing and certainly very different for them.

July

June 30

Slade, Evan and Anna came down to Beaufort for the weekend.  Saturday, we "built a boat" as part of the NC Maritime Museum's Build a Boat in a Day Program.  We actually did build a boat, but nobody volunteered to take it out on the water.

We started with this!

Evan and Anna work diligently to make sense of the parts and get them to go together.

Papa and Dad help - a little.

And Mimi gets in on it too.

All the pieces finally come together for a real boat.

 Late June - early July

Evan and McKinna take a "real" ride on the tube behind the boat

The Lantz's come down from Ohio for a few days.  Additionally, Olia's parents fly in from Spain and stay in our guest house.  Olia is an exchange student from Basque, Spain and has spent her Junior Year in High School with the Lantz's back in Ohio.  She is now going back to Spain.  We enjoy the few days with all of them.

July 9 - 20 - Sail Camp

We drive up to Raleigh and pick up Evan for a real adventure.  He is spending two weeks with us and is going to the NC Maritime Musuem's Junion Sailing Program. 

We are especially pleased that we have been asked to serve as Parent Liaison for the two weeks, which means we are available during session to answer question of other parents and act as a go-between between the instructors and parents.  It also means that we spend every afternoon at sail camp and get to watch Evan as he progresses from a beginning sailor in the Opti Class of boats to a rather accomplished sailor by the end of the two weeks.

The first week of sail camp, we spent a lot of time on the water.

The Opti tends to "plow" the nose when there's a little too much wind, ending up in the boat acting more like a submarine than a boat.

The second week of sail camp, Slade and Candace brought Anna down.  We have a fun weekend together and then we have another great week with the kids.  We spend 3 days on the sailboat with Evan commuting to sail camp by boat.

We spend a night at Shackelford Banks and Anna and Evan practice diving off the bow of the boat.

Anna gets "Chip Lips"

 

 

Sometimes, the little boats get in each others way.

On the last day of Sail Camp, the winds blow a steady 20 mph with gusts up to 34 mph, and Evan does a great job of sailing the little boat everywhere. 

But sometimes, mother nature gets the best of the best.

Evan graduates from Sail Camp.

July 24 - 31

Spruce Pine

We stopped by and spent a couple days with Slade and the kids on the way up to the Mountain House.  Slade has moved into a new townhouse and we helped him get a few things done as he settles in.

We arrived on  the mountain Tuesday afternoon to a couple of days of afternoon thunderstorms - and some really nice temperatures.  Most nights the temperature has been in the low to mid-60's.  We had to close the windows in early morning and get under the blankets because it got so cool.

The flowers were in full bloom

We got together with Kit, Bill and Judy a couple of nights and on Friday night, we went to Brian Gurl's new show "Gershwin with a Twist".  It was a great show and certainly showed off Brain's talents on the piano.  He is the most gifted pianist I have ever known.

Saturday, Bill and Jan came over and spent the night.  Monday I had the base plate for towing behind the RV installed on our 2009 Honda CR-V at Tom Johnson RV Center in Marion.

We were treated to some beautiful sunsets and had plenty of time to read and relax during the week.

A beautiful sunset from the deck