Travel 2025 – Spring/Summer Time

Continued from:  Travel 2025 – Early Start

While we started out our travel year early in January, it was not until the second week of April three months later that we made our next trip together.

The occasion was to travel to North Carolina to join our brother-in-law in celebrating his retirement. With the party being held at the home of my wife’s deceased sister, I knew it would be a hard trip for her.  So, I suggested that in addition to attending the party, we drive down to western North Carolina to check on the recovery progress from the severe flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene.  She readily agreed.

After two short flights, we picked up our rental car in Greensboro and drove the 2.5 hours down to Black Mountain.  As we drove into town, it appeared life was back to normal but as we drove the short distance to Montreat, we saw numerous piles of debris along the road, most of which had been there for a long time.  It was a relief to come to the gate that I had passed through my entire life to get to this mountain retreat, and which had seen water flooding over its roadway last October.

We first went by the house that my siblings and I had reservations for just two weeks after Helene hit last October.

While it was no longer listed on the rental site, it appeared intact.  However, other homes in the area had been devastated and were in various states of restoration.  Our next stop was Lake Susan that had been completely swamped with flood waters.

The lake was back to normal as well…

… although I could tell the entire left bank retaining wall had had to be rebuilt.

There were other signs of progress and so I was convinced my siblings could likely return in the fall for our annual SibSab (Sibling Sabbatical).

That night we stayed in Asheville and had a delicious trout dinner, which is a must anytime I am in the area.

The next day as we set off to drive back for the party, we drove through one of the hardest hit areas of Asheville.  Biltmore Village, being just a short distance from the flooded Swannanoa River, had received the brunt of the swollen river.  I had seen pictures of water as high as 12 feet here and totally gutted buildings with nothing, but a roof and posts were clear evidence that it would take much longer for this part of Asheville to be restored.

That night, we attended the party which was a huge success and a just celebration.  We got a chance to talk with many of our brother-in-law’s family and friends, most of which we only get to see when we are in town.  I frequently checked in with my wife throughout the evening to see how she was doing but only on our drive back to our hotel for the night, did I learn how hard it had been for her.  But she made it, and we both agreed we were glad we had come.

Our next trip was in May when we took a road trip to the Commodore Hotel in Linden, TN.  This was a destination I had been wanting to travel to for quite a while so that we could kayak the Buffalo River.  I previously wrote a post about that trip so if you missed that, you can click here for the full story.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I drove over to my sister’s house in Northwest Arkansas.  The purpose of this trip was for us to work on several dollhouse furnishings, the fruits of which I posted about last year.  In addition to spending most of our time working on these miniatures, I also got a chance to have dinner one night with all of my relatives that live in the area.

In June, over Father’s Day weekend, my wife and I flew out to Seattle with our youngest son and his kids to visit our daughter and her family.  The purpose was to give the cousins a chance to play together.  It was a great trip with lots of fun activities, although just too short.  I posted about this trip last year so you can click here for more details.

Over the 4^th of July holiday weekend, we took another one of those three generation vacations together with our son and his two children.  While my wife and I are not “beach people”, we went along to enjoy our time together.  We had a great trip and since I also posted about this trip last year, you can click here for more details.

Then early in August, I flew out to California to help my son and daughter-in-law.  Her parents were leaving that week for a six-week long trip and with school starting and both parents working, they needed an extra driver for all the activities.  I had not been out for a visit in almost a year and when they found out I was coming, they made lots of decorations to welcome me here.  They heard I liked snow and since Memphis did not get much snow, they made me numerous snowflakes in addition to the welcome signs.

Besides doing school drop off and pick up, my son had some home projects for me to work on.  But it wasn’t all work.  On each of the three days I was there, I got one-on-one time with each grandchild which was a lot of fun.  And when I went to the grocery store for a few items, I was pleased to find I could get my favorite bread as well without having to drive to Fisherman’s Wharf!

The last week of August, we met our daughter and her family in Nashville where her husband’s brother and his family live.  Her husband’s parents were also in town and so we got to see them as well.  Each day, we had multiple fun activities with our grandsons and got in nice visits with our daughter’s in-laws as well.  We had a great trip and since I posted about this trip last year, you can click here for more details.

The second week of September, I flew back out to California to help my son and daughter-in-law since her parents were still out of town.  It was a very similar trip to the one in August with me doing drop off and pick up duties as well as spending fun time with the grandkids.  The only difference was on Wednesday afternoon, my son and I were able to take some time to go to one of his favorite wine stores for a wine tasting.  We enjoyed some excellent wines there.

     To be continued…