Oh my, has it ever been a busy month! Exactly one month ago we closed on our Jacksonville home of 17 years and headed out of town just before the arrival of Irma. We watched intently from our Beech Mountain home as Irma impacted nearly the entire state of Florida, keeping track of family and friends and their progress in dealing with the storm. We took about ten days to enjoy the cooler, pleasant weather on Beech and the surrounding area, while preparing for our second home sale. Then we returned to Jacksonville Beach for our youngest grandson's first birthday and our first use of the Navion.
Our initial setup wasn't flawless, but it went very smoothly, and our first evening, as we sat at the dinette with the local nightly news on TV, we looked at each other and said, "This is going to work.". We spent the next week trying to arrange all our belongings between the Navion, our storage units, and the vehicles we were using to travel back and forth to Beech Mountain. Organization in the Navion is key, and we made great progress finding the proper bins and containers. We realize, however, there will be lots to learn and fine tune as we travel. We enjoyed our stay at North Beach Campground, getting in some visiting time with friends and family, walking the storm damaged Vilano Beach, and watching stunning sunsets over the intracoastal. It was a successful christening of our new home away from home, now nicknamed "Jessie".
Now, we're back on Beech awaiting the closing on this house. Since our home here, Blueberry Junction, has primarily been a VRBO rental, October is usually fully booked and only rarely do we get the opportunity to be here for the fall foliage. This October, without rentals, we've been able to observe the fall colors emerge, a beautiful metamorphosis from shades of green to autumn's palette of yellow, orange, red and all the combinations imaginable. We've made a point of visiting some of our favorite spots: Grandfather Mountain, Roan Mountain, Blowing Rock, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Crabtree Falls. This will always be one of our favorite places, and we will return, but first, new adventures await us.