Greensboro – Travels with Fred

Greensboro – Day 3

Thursday, 19 May 2022

My day started a teeny bit earlier than yesterday. Instead of getting up at 7:30 I got up at 6:30. As usual, Stephen was ready with the coffee. Since it so early and the morning was cool (in the low 60’s) Jimmie and I headed out for a walk. The humidity was low and it was overcast so it was a very pleasant walk of around 1.8 miles.

We headed back home and had bagels for breakfast. They know my weakness for cream cheese with chives and always have it on hand for me.

After breakfast, it was time for our traditional making of the tea cakes. Over the years, I’ve given the recipe to most of my relatives and all of my friends (often with samples of the tea cakes) and everyone raves about them and yet no one seems to make them. The only time I make them at someone’s house is when I come to visit Jimmie and Stephen. Every time. Like clockwork. Stephen has become our official taster. Jimmie rolls the dough and cuts the cookies while I make the dough and place them on the cookie sheets.

After lunch, Jimmie and I did tai chi. Jimmie is a long time practitioner but I’ve never done it but have admired the grace of those who practice it. She logged onto a site and introduced me to tai chi with an instructor that was pretty laid back. It certainly is good for breathing exercise and Jimmie knew I wanted to work on my balance so she cued up a video for balance. I did OK but I found out I really do need to work on my balance. Strangely, I have better balance on my left side than my right side. Jimmie says the same for her. I think I’ll continue it when I get home.

Later in the afternoon I did another walk. A block from their house is a loop that is perfect. Every time I visit I try to make that walk at least once. This visit I made it twice.

While on the walk, I found some maple “seeds.” Technically, they are not seeds but are a winged fruit called a samara. Where Jimmie and I grew up, we would find the winged seeds of pine cones and throw them up in the air. The design of the seed at one end and the wing on the other makes them “helicopter” back to earth. It’s a pretty efficient means of seed dispersal.

She had been wanting some maple samara to show her granddaughters and as I walked on the sidewalk of the loop I found two pair of maple samaras.

I know it is confusing that pines have winged seeds and maples have winged fruit but for the most part, to young children, they are just helicopters and a load of fun.

Tomorrow I head for Jacksonville, Florida to spend the night en route home. I always thoroughly enjoy my visits to Greensboro and catching up with Stephen and Jimmie. They treat me too well but that’s how they are. Hopefully, before too long I will get a chance to spoil them a little in Fort Lauderdale.

The trip to Jacksonville will be a little over 7 hours. It’s just too long of a drive for an old man like me to make it in one day back to Fort Lauderdale. By the way, I found out why my GPS was routing me through strange back roads. I clicked on the options and found that during some trip I had clicked on the “closest” route, not the fastest. I checked my new routing to Jacksonville and it had me going mostly via interstate with a couple of short by roads to the next interstate. Maybe, just maybe, it will not steer me down any more dirt roads that lead to nowhere.

Stay tuned!

Greensboro – Day 2

Tuesday, 18 May 2022

I was a late sleeper this morning. Part of the reason was taking a Benadryl last night for itching. I probably needed the sleep anyway since I’ve been getting up around 5 am on this trip.

Stephen had coffee ready for me first thing and then we all sat down to bagels for breakfast. From there, Jimmie and I decided to head to Kernersville to tour the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden and Körners Folly. My GPS routed us through the back roads to Kernersville and we both thought how quickly the trip went even though it was the back roads. We figured it was because we were busy talking and seeing the sights of the area we passed through. Actually, Kernersville is 14 miles west of Greensboro.

This is a really neat, small quintessential southern town. The main street is Main Street. Some of the architecture of the old homes reminds me of the Federalist period.

The botanical garden was named for Paul J. Ciener who had a vision on the garden for the Piedmont triad of North Carolina. I can safely say I’ve never seen a better maintained botanical garden. That may be, in part, due to the small nature of the garden (7 acres) but when Jimmie and I arrived there was a host of volunteers at work weeding the garden.

View of the visitor center from the garden

The visitor center was completed in 2011 and when the garden is completed, the garden will have 25 different botanical areas.

Most gardens have butterfly gardens to attract butterflies but this is the first time I’ve run into butterfly houses. Look at the slots on the houses. At first confusing, I realized that the body of the butterfly can fit through the opening when the butterfly’s wings are folded upward over the body. The idea is to protect the butterfly from predators.

There is still a good bit of land for development of the 25 areas but the areas that are complete are exceptionally maintained.

From there, Jimmie and I walked two blocks to Körners Folly. The bachelor home of Julius (Jule) Körner is 6,000 square feet, 7 levels, 22 rooms and 15 fireplaces. It is one of the most unusual architectural structures I’ve ever seen.

The home was initially completed in 1888 but it’s probably been under constant construction during Jule’s lifetime. It was scheduled for demolition in the 70’s but a private group took over the facility and began renovation. There are still rooms that need renovation but the house is in amazing shape.

What is now the dining room was originally a carriage entrance where carriages would pull into the center of the house and guests would then enter the “real” house to be entertained by Jules. Eventually it was enclosed to include the dining room and the breakfast room seen at the back of the arch.

There were two playrooms for the children. The ceilings were exceptionally low (child height). To get there, you had to walk up a confusing number of stairs and twists and turns in the house. It was very easy to get lost in the house but the staff figured out that if they numbered the rooms, tourists would be able to figure out if they had missed any of the rooms. I think we must have missed room number 5 but to be honest, I was doing good to figure out how to get out of the house.

The reception room was probably the largest room in the house. Guests were entertained here.

The top floor (remember there are seven levels) was a home theater with a stage where plays and performances occurred. It was easily the second largest room in the house.

If you are ever in the area, this place is a must do on your list.

Our last stop of the morning was at the Musten and & Crutchfield market.

Jimmie wanted to stop and get their original pimento cheese. Jimmie and I have a pimento cheese history. Both her mother and my mother used to make it for us. My grandmother had a hand grader that you slipped cheese into and you turned a handle that rotated a cylindrical drum that grated the cheese.

Her mother had a sausage grinder that clamped onto the kitchen table. Both made excellent pimento and cheese. We were pretty much raised on pimento cheese sandwiches, potato chips and cokes. We are pimento cheese connoisseurs. She swears by the version put out by Musten & Crutchfield. I have to admit, we had some for dinner tonight and it is far and away better than any pimento cheese you can get remade in supermarkets.

Of course, I make a superior pimento cheese by adding raw onions to mine. There are enough people who don’t like raw onions in their pimento cheese that they refuse it when offered which means there’s more left for me. I think what makes Musten & Crutchfield’s so good is they add a little vinegar to theirs – no onions, though.

Tomorrow is tea cake day. We’ll make a batch from my great grandmother’s recipe and eat ourselves into a sugar coma.

Stay tuned.

Greensboro – Day 1

Tuesday, 17 May 2022

There’ll only be a brief entry today. I checked out of McKinley Edwards Inn and was on the road around 9 am. My GPS, strange as usual, routed me through back roads and not the major ones. I didn’t mind one bit. I got to see some really great scenery and some picturesque small towns. I also have to admit how much fun it was to drive the curvy back roads in my jeep.

However, as I was nearing Asheville, a very recent wreck had the road blocked so I did a U-turn and headed back the way I came until I came upon an I-40 sign. Begrudgingly, Cassandra allowed me to stay on I-40 all the way to Greensboro.

It’s been about a year since I’ve seen Jimmie and Stephen. It felt good to pull into their driveway and see Jimmie there to meet me as I got out of the jeep.

I got an immediate hug from her and a hug by proxy from Jo (in New Mexico at this time). I felt badly but I had a ton of washing to do and we immediately put a load on. Jimmie and I went for a great walk at the bog garden and then across the street to Bicentennial Park.

I’ve been to both before but always enjoy them. It was good to stretch my legs after a 4 plus hour drive to Greensboro.

Even though its been a year since I’ve seen them, we fell into our usual laid back conversations, as if it had only been a few days. She and Stephen waited lunch for me and I was hungry.

I’ve been doing too much meat lately – some by choice and some because the vegetarian items on the menu were pretty bad – and Stephen and Jimmie made me smile with black beans and rice for dinner with all kinds of veggie toppings. She also made me her version of Waldorf salad which she knows I love.

We spent the rest of the night catching up. We haven’t any real plans tomorrow, just tentative, and I’m pretty much amenable to anything.

Stay tuned!

Greensboro or Bust – Day 7

When I retired in 2014 and started hiking again, I learned very quickly I needed to relearn how to pace myself on hikes. I changed my breathing technique as I walked, changed the way I walked, and I had to learn how to get my heart rate down on steep inclines.

One thing I learned very quickly was to take breaks and breathe deeply to get my heart rate down. After a steep incline, I could “hear” my heart pounding. I would stop and after 90 seconds of slow, deep breathing, I realized I could no longer “feel” my heart pounding.

As I got better, I learned to rest on switch backs. I finally pared my breathing breaks down to 60 seconds, then 45 seconds. Now I am at 20 seconds to get my heart rate “liveable.”

Thanks to the Apple Watch, I can watch my heart rate decline. On some of the steep inclines I did today, my heart rate would jump to 166. After 20 seconds of rest, it would get down to a manageable 126.

In case you haven’t been following, I was undecided as to whether to go to Stone Mountain State Park today because of the threat of rain. It pretty much rained all night but then Stephen told me at breakfast that it was to clear at 10 am and then be sunny at 3 pm.

I decided to head to Stone Mountain. It’s about an hour and a half from Greensboro in the northwestern part of the state. I wanted to climb to the top of the monolith and the best trail for that seemed to be the Stone Mountain Loop Trail at 4.5 miles in length.

Let me recommend if you decide to do this hike to begin at the Upper Parking Lot and go to your right on the trail.

Go to the right, not left and save yourself some pain. By the way, that’s 1.7 miles to the summit. The loop is listed as 4.5 miles.

The hike started out easy at first and then as you begin to climb, it got more difficult. I would rate the first part a moderate hike. Once you reach the summit, you are a little tired but OK. Hikes are generally rated as easy, moderate or strenuous. There are some other terms out there but these are the most common ratings.

I made it to the summit around noon and ate lunch at the top. There wasn’t much to see since the entire summit was surrounded in mist. However, you could definitely get the feeling that you didn’t want to get too close to the edge.

The next part of the hike was mostly down hill. That’s a blessing and a curse. My knees don’t take to going down too well. Not only that, there were numerous steps leading down and steps can really pound your knees.

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The only thing I can say is I was lucky I didn’t turn left and hike the loop clockwise. That is one very steep ascent (and descent). Not only that, but once you get to the bottom, you are still 3.8 miles from your starting point. I can’t imagine hiking 3.8 miles and then beginning the ascent.

As I was hiking down, I med a couple that was lost. I was able to show them a map and they realized they were only a little ways from their car in the Lower Parking Lot. After they left, I then got turned around myself and had to backtrack in a couple of places.

The loop trail then takes you directly to Stone Mountain Falls, a 200 foot water fall that is the most impressive I’ve seen in a while.

However, the trail leads you to the base of the falls. That means you have to climb 200 feet back to the starting point of the trail.

They provided steps all the way and they were well done and maintained but I was pushing over 5 miles by that point in time and I was running out of steam. I started to rest for 60 seconds every few terraces. My knees ached!

By the time I got back to the jeep, I was beat. My AllTrails tracker said I walked 5.4 miles but my GPS tracker said 5.9. It felt more like 5.9.

The entire hike of the loop is labeled as strenuous. I can count on my right hand the number of times a hike labeled strenuous was really strenuous. Most of the time, they label it that way to discourage people from trying it. In this case, it was truth in advertising. It was very strenuous!

There was only one place you could get a glimpse of the massiveness of the granite monolith and that was the restored Hutchinson homestead. The view was impressive.

A view of Stone Mountain. The couple seemed to be partaking of the killer weed.

Tomorrow I head for Savannah for the night and then the final push to Fort Lauderdale. I’ve had a wonderful time with Jimmie and Stephen and I really appreciate them letting me use their house as my base of operations for my day trips. I’ve already encourage them to come back down to Fort Lauderdale and let me reciprocate.

Greensboro or Bust – Day 6

30 November 2019

What a great day! It rained on me from the time I left Jimmie and Stephen until the time I got back to their house after five day hikes at Hanging Rock State Park. The park is only about an hour out of Greensboro. It wasn’t a downpour but a steady drizzle the whole time I was at Hanging Rock.

Visitor Center at Hanging Rock State Park

I pulled into the visitor center parking lot around 12:30 pm and was immediately captured by the hostess. I found out she was originally from Miami. She and her husband sold everything and bought an RV and traveled the nation serving as host and hostess in the parks. Her favorite was Acadia in Maine.

She lit up when I said I was into waterfalls and wanted to also hike the Hanging Rock trail. She proceeded to give me a detailed description of how best to do the trail, how many “steps” you had on each trail and which waterfall was best for water flow. I didn’t think she was going to quit talking to let me on the trail. She also estimated she had hiked over 2000 miles on trails across the country. I loved the conversation and the advice.

I started out on the Hanging Rock trail. It’s a 1.3 mile one way trail. You start down a paved trail and drop to the creek bottom before you begin to climb, and climb and climb.

The mist pretty much surrounded the mountains.

The hostess had told me the Window Falls trail had 170 steps to maneuver but I think every trail I did today had at least 170 steps.

I hate steps. They are never standard because of the terrain and even though they are a pain to climb, they are even harder to come back down them. They pound you into the ground.

Anyway, after a steady climb, I reached an overlook and one could easily confuse the overlook with the Hanging Rock. There is another trail that leads back to Hanging Rock and it’s worth it.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t go out on Hanging Rock. I satisfied myself with taking photos of it. With all the rain, the rocks were quite slick and all it would take would be one misstep and you would be over the edge.

Just as I was leaving, three very young children – I estimate 4 and 5 years old – headed toward Hanging Rock. I assumed their parents were right behind them but I did caution the kids to be very careful because the rocks were slippery. Their parents were much, much farther down the trail.

Every trail in the park is marked with signs warning you to be exceptionally careful while on the rocks and that injuries and deaths had occurred on the trail. I can’t imagine parents letting their kids run ahead of them on this trail.

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Now, would you let young kids run ahead on the trail?

Another peculiar thing I noticed was doggie poop bags along the trail. They were not empty. Why someone would bother to take a poop bag, pick up the poop and place it in the bag and then leave it on the trail is beyond me. I found three different bags along the trail.

My next hike was the Indian Trail which has two waterfalls. At 0.4 miles is Hidden Falls and another 0.2 miles is Window Falls.

Hidden Falls wasn’t terribly impressive but it had a good stream of water coming over the top.

Window Falls was a little better. I assume it is called Window Falls because next to the falls is a rock formation with a hole in it.

You really can’t see the window too well but it is at the right hand of the man.

From there I hiked to Upper Cascade Falls, a 0.2 out. It’s fairly impressive and is a short easy hike.

I was getting pretty tired by then but decided to go for the fall most recommended by the hostess – Lower Cascade Falls. This was the most impressive of the four. I’m glad I stayed and endured the hike. It’s fairly easy until you get close to the falls and then you have those damn steps again.

All total, I did over 5 miles of trails today. It’ll be an advil night tonight!

This is an outstanding park. The facilities are well taken care of, the trails well marked and wide, and most of the trails are either easy or moderate as far as difficulty. You need to put this park on your to-do list.

Tomorrow is only about 100% rain. If it is like today, I’ll probably drive to Stone Mountain State Park, about 2 hours from Greensboro. If it is a downpour, I’ll stay in Greensboro and visit with Jimmie and Stephen.

Greensboro or Bust – Day 5

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and an even better day to drive to Rocky Top Overlook at mile marker 78 on Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park.

Other than wanting to spend Thanksgiving with Stephen and Jimmie, this was the other main reason to come visit. For years, I thought a photo of me and my brother was taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

As you can see, I was handsome even at a tender age. That’s Rocky Top just to the left of Archie’s head.

Mother and Dad would take us to the Smokeys but they apparently also did the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah. I have several photographs of those trips and I need to reassess where they were taken.

Two years ago, when I visited Shenandoah, I realized Rocky Top was actually in the Shenandoah National Park. It’s been my goal ever since to get back to the overlook and take my photo in the same spot.

In this case (I’m as handsome as ever) Rocky Top is just to the right side of my head.

As you can see, I finally made it! I left Jimmie and Stephen at 8 am and headed for US 29 which cuts up through North Carolina and southern Virginia. Before I hit US 29, I stopped for diesel fuel at the Mobil station on the way out. I filled up and then had to put air in the tires since the weather here has been down in the 40’s. I picked up a sandwich at the Mobil station and as luck would have it, there was a Dunkin Doughnut attached. I have this thing for maple frosted and glazed.

The line was backed up at the doughnut shop. There was one new employee and one experienced one. I think the new guy started that morning from the way he reacted to the work space.

There was one guy who wanted two dozen doughnuts and he became frustrated with the new employee. The experienced employee explained the situation and asked for a little leeway. The customer grew more exasperated until he had to eat crow. He kept naming the doughnuts he wanted and the new employee kept reaching for them and the customer kept screaming No! Turns out the customer had the name wrong. Karma!

US 29 leads you right past Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Liberty University and the deceased Jerry Falwell. Also, the former disgraced Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze. Freeze got caught using the University phone to contact prostitutes at massage parlors.

Jerry Falwell, Jr. is now in charge of Liberty University and there’s a big scandal down in Miami concerning him and his wife and a pool boy. I knew the University was pretty large but I didn’t realize the scope of the place. It’s huge!

US 29 eventually leads to Virginia 6 which leads directly into Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park. Traffic up was fairly light and there was very little on Skyline Drive. Of course, once I entered the park around mile marker 107, with the 35 mph speed limit on Skyline, it took another 30 minutes to reach Rocky Top Overlook.

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If you compare the sign in the first photo with this, you’ll see the NPS is consistent with the elevation, at least.

I took along a tripod to take my selfie, but there were enough tourists who stopped who were glad to take my picture in return for me snapping theirs.

Rocky Top is the tallest of the ridge in the background.

It’s a nice overlook and is one of the more popular ones in the park. While there, I broke out the sandwich and had lunch.

It had been a four hour trip up and it was another four hour trip back to Greensboro. I had the option to camp out but it’ll be easier to leave from Greensboro tomorrow to either Stone Mountain State Park or Hanging Rock State Park – if I don’t get rained out!

The traffic wasn’t particularly heavy returning but Jerry Falwell almost did me in. There were two lanes of US 29 heading south and the right lane was slower because of a dump truck. I signaled and merged left and easily had plenty of room both in front of me and in back of me when someone up near the dump truck virtually stopped dead in the road.

Fortunately, my automatic braking kicked in and I reinforced its opinion with my foot on the brake. The big worry was the line of cars behind me. We went from 55 mph to 0 mph in a second or two. The car behind me managed to not rear end me and the other cars behind him managed to dodge him even though one had to go onto the shoulder.

I knew I didn’t like Jerry but I didn’t know he didn’t like me.

Tonight, Stephen, Jimmie and I headed to Elizabeth’s Pizza. I was Jonesing for a pizza. Jimmie had a stromboli and Stephen had a pizza. We got back to the house and after 9 hours of driving, I begged off and headed to do the blog and head to bed. I’m sure they think I’m the dullest human ever.

Tomorrow, depending on which forecast you look at, has 70-96% chance of rain with approximately the same on Sunday. I may not be day hiking.

Greensboro or Bust – Day 4

28 November 2019

Thanksgiving turned out great albeit a little early. The 14 pound turkey was supposed to take 4 1/2 hours (20 minutes per pound at 350 F). It had a mind of its own. It decided to get done in 2 hours. Instead of eating at 5 or 5:30 pm we ate at 2:30 pm. It’s a good thing I brought my meat thermometer! Jimmie and Stephen were good sports about eating too early.

To join the turkey we had fresh cranberry sauce, green beans, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Very traditional, very filling, very satisfying.

I even managed to get in a couple of walks during the day – one of which almost resulted in a burned turkey.

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Tomorrow, I plan to head to Rocky Top Overlook along the Skyline Drive of Shenandoah National Park. According to my maps app on the iPhone, it’s about a 4 hour drive even though you cannot map Rocky Top Overlook. The Overlook is in the lower 1/3 of the park so it may take more or less time.

My goal is to take a photo at the exact point my Dad photographed my brother and me when we were very young and in PJ’s, standing with our back to the overlook.

If all goes well, I’ll be back in time for dinner in Greensboro. If not, I’ll find some place to camp and perhaps drive over to Hanging Rock for a day hike.

Greensboro or Bust – Day 3

27 November 2019

It’s been a busy but productive day. I made it down for coffee after 7 am, had a bagel for breakfast and then Jimmie and I decided to go for a walk. Then the rains came. We decided to wait until it let up and then Stephen suggested that when he went for more bagels for the rest of the week, we walk in Guilford Courthouse Battlefield Park, a national historical site.

I had walked there before with them and even if it rained on us, we’d be sheltered somewhat by the trees. We then walked a short trail sans rain and then drove through another park I had not been to – Country Park. Both parks were virtually empty and we pretty much had the places to ourselves.

After returning home, Jimmie and I started to get things ready for tomorrow. We worked on the cornbread dressing and the cranberry sauce. By 1 pm, the dressing was cooking the the cranberry sauce was cooling and the pumpkin pie was baking. All that’s left tomorrow is putting the turkey on at noon and warming the dressing.

Stephen treated for dinner which I much appreciated and then I started to fade and after returning home, I headed up to get ready for bed. It had been a good day all around, weather not withstanding.

After the blog yesterday, I got to thinking about family names. Not in the sense of first and last but of what family members called each other. By the way, I think I misspelled my great grandmother’s name in the last blog. It is Laura McEuen, I think, not McEwen.

Anyway, that got me to thinking. I mentioned the idea of death’s occurring in three’s and I remembered it was Uncle George Searcy who was the third person to die in that trio. Uncle George was no relation to the Searcy family on my side. He was a pilot with Eddie Richenbacher’s squadron during WWI and we kids were always told we couldn’t set of fireworks because Uncle George suffered from shell shock – today we call it post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A part of me thinks it was simply our parents not wanting us to shoot off fireworks.

I digress. On the Agnew side of the family (my mother’s side) my great grandfather was James B. Agnew, Sr. We called him Pawpaw. That isn’t so unusual but we called my great grandmother “Other Mama”. Where that came from I have no idea.

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My grandmother (mother’s mother) was named Ruby Lee Agnew. When I was little, I couldn’t pronounce Rub. The only thing I could get out was Ru-Ru. That was her name to me until the day she died. My grandfather (mother’s father) was Hollie William Agnew. No one in the family called him Hollie except Ruby. Everyone else called him Datee. I have no idea where that came from.

My great aunt was Velma Agnew Shepherd. No one called her Velma. She was always Aunt Sister. When the Viet Nam war was going on, she and Uncle Shep (again the nickname) had a tenant living below them in Jackson, Ms. It turned out he was a recruiter for the Coast Guard. She put him on me since I was draft eligible and was # 19 in the national lottery and # 2 in the county rolls and they were drafting the first 7.

I went down and interviewed with him and I asked him how he knew about me. He told me if I enlisted, he would tell me. Much later, as I was signing the papers and being sworn in, he asked me if I wanted to know who gave him my name. I’d forgotten about that but said sure. He said my great aunt Mrs. Shepherd. I promptly told him I didn’t have any aunt by the name of Shepherd. He looked at me quite funny and asked was I sure. I said I knew all my aunts and uncles and I begin to think he was crazy. He then said, “you know, the one who lives in Jackson. I rent the apartment from them.” Still not a clue. Then he finally said “Velma Shepherd” and it dawned on me it was Aunt Sister.

Another example is my great aunt Deliah. We pronounced it Deelee. However, she referred to herself as Aunt Neak. I loved her (her husband was Uncle George) but after Uncle George died, I learned to not let her kiss me. She had a habit of kissing everyone on the lips and with the boys in the family, slipping them the tongue.

My great aunt in Alabama was Ernestine Johnson, another Agnew sister. To me, she was Aunt Teeny. Again, no idea where that came from other than that’s what she called herself.

There was one great uncle – Uncle James, and two more great aunts – Aunt Alice and Aunt Edna Lee. We did called Aunt Edna Aunt Eddy but Aunt Alice was stuck with her real name as well as Uncle James.

As I write this, I realize all these pet family names were on my mother’s side of the family. I’ve always realized my mother’s side of the family was, shall we say, unique to the extreme, but I wonder if anyone else’s family had pet names used instead of their real names? Or is it just the Agnew’s or is it all southern families? I don’t know of a single pet name for members on my dad’s side of the family.

Tomorrow is over-eating day. On Friday, I plan to head to the southern end of Shenandoah National Park to get a photo at Rocky Top. More on that in the next blog. Happy Thanksgiving!

Greensboro or Bust – Day 2

26 November 2019

Meet my new cooler! REI had a 20% off sale and I had been using a vintage Igloo “Little Playmate” for too many years.

It has been a great cooler but all you can do is put about 4 sodas/beer or 4 bottles of water in it plus an ice pack. Try stuffing a subway sandwich in with those and you have a squashed sandwich.

So before I left home on this trip, I ordered the Yeti from REI to pick up in the Greensboro store. I preferred the green version but the one they had in stock was the charcoal gray. It’ll certainly hold more than 4 bottles of water. It also fits neatly in the passenger seat footwell. I’ll keep the Little Playmate for emergencies but it’s time it had some retirement time.

I found out why the Hilton Garden Inn provided ear plugs and a white noise machine. It’s not that the hotel is noisy with people although you can hear people open and close their doors. The construction of the hotel seems to have established a wind tunnel effect on the fifth floor. You could hear wind blowing up from the first floor carrying the street sounds with it.

I tried for a while to ignore it but finally around 11 pm gave in and turned on the white noise machine. I drifted off around midnight. I don’t normally sleep well the first night in camp or on the road so that wasn’t too unusual.

I pulled away from the Hilton at 9 am. Traffic wasn’t bad until I got to South Carolina. It was then the interstate looked like everyone was headed north for Thanksgiving. The good news was the traffic moved smoothly and there were no slowdowns. It took me approximately 5 1/2 hours to get from Savannah to Greensboro.

I pulled into the REI store around 2:15 pm, picked up the cooler, and headed to my cousin’s home. Stephen met me at the garage door. Several years ago, we synced our IPhones to keep tabs on our location so they knew when and where we are. That’s a nice feature of the IPhone, particularly when you are on a hike and you know they can track you.

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I took my luggage upstairs and came down with three baggies of tea cakes. This is my great grandmother’s recipe. Jimmie and I used to “help” Grandma Laura make the tea cakes when we were kids. Mostly, we ate the raw dough as she rolled it out for the cookie cutter.

It’s an inexact recipe. It states to make a stiff dough, not how much flour you add. Let’s just say everyone’s idea of a stiff dough is different. For some reason, I figured out a pretty good ratio of flour to wet ingredients and periodically, I get the urge for the things and have a bake.

I have yet to eat another cookie that tastes as good. It could simply be nostalgia but I like them because they are not too sweet and have just the right hint of vanilla. The recipe also makes a large number of cookies and they freeze well so you can eat cookies for a few weeks.

I don’t remember much about Grandma Laura except working at her side, learning how thick to roll the dough, how to cut out the cookies, and especially how to eat them hot out of the oven. I do know she must have loved me and Jimmie because whenever I came to town, she made those cookies for us. Her maiden name was McEwen and she married a Tadlock.

My other memory of her was when she got ill and was hospitalized. My brother Archie, who is 6 years older, answered the phone one night late. It was one of those old rotary bakeolite phones that you could beat someone to death with, it was so heavy. You still had to dial “O” for long distance and you only dialed four digits for local calls. Also, if you dialed long distance, you had to go through my aunt at the switchboard on the second floor of a store on main street.

It was someone calling to see how she was. I remember distinctly him saying “she has taken a turn for the worst.” She died the next day. There’s an old Southern saying that deaths occur in threes. She was the first, then my Great Grandmother on my mother’s side. I forget who was the third death but there were three in the family fairly close together.

I always try to make cookies for Jimmie when I travel to Greensboro and her sister Jo when I visit in San Antonio. Oh yea, also my brother in Brandon. Really, I don’t. I make them for me and give them some if there are any left over.

Jimmie and I cooked her chicken curry recipe. I had that the last time I visited and I really like it. It’s a simple recipe, quick, and good. I think the last time Jimmie and I cooked together was when we were kids trying to make home-made doughnuts. It was a disaster. The dough was much too thin and as we tried cooking them in oil, instead of the doughnut floating down into the oil in a doughnut shape, they ran off the spoon more like strings of intestines. We promptly called them “gutnuts” and ate them anyway.

I think tomorrow we plan on cooking most of what can be cooked ahead for Thanksgiving so on the day, all we have to cook is the turkey. Fortunately, our cooking skills have improved since the gutnut days.

Tonight’s low is predicted to be 48F. A heat wave compared to Savannah last night!

Greensboro Day 2

1 May 2016

I awoke to the sound of rain on the roof. It was a dreary morning, but I like rainy days. Breakfast was biscuits (prepared by Jimmie) and scrambled eggs (by Stephen).

I think Stephen and I have always related because of his work with computers and technology. We’re both gadget people. He’s also worked in publishing of computer magazines and journals and I asked him advice about the first computer I purchased, the Amiga by Commodore. We both agreed it was far ahead of its time. We also relate because he’s a real nice guy like yours truly.

After breakfast, we did a mile walk in the rain – something else I like to do and they were kind enough to humor me. Jimmie made tuna fish for lunch and the we packed off to Elon University to see the play “Working”, a musical based on the book by Studs Turkel of the same name. I had read the book years ago when it was first published and enjoyed it. It’s a very powerful journey through the lives of working men and women as told by them.

I admit the idea of a musical based on the work was a little strange but it worked and the cast put on a very nice production. Thanks to Jimmie and Stephen for my ticket. The play was performed at Scott Studios, part of the fine arts complex on the campus.
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We then toured Elon University and I finally got to see where Jimmie taught all those years before retirement. It’s a beautiful campus and in many ways reminds me of the Ole Miss campus.

From there we traveled to downtown Greensboro and ate at Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewery. You may have read where Anheiser-Busch sued them for their name and the pub beat them in the courts. The food was ok but we had a new kid on the block as our server and he was pretty lost – at least as a member of the service industry.

I leave early tomorrow for Hilton Head Island to visit friends from my French Country Waterways Tour in 2012. I hate leaving Greensboro and Jimmie and Stephen, but you know what they say about company.