Snow in Waynesville North Carolina

Saturday afternoon

I have missed a few days of writing. Thursday, January 11 was taken up with packing up the truck after a nice stay in the Candlewood Suites near Knoxville TN. Highly recommend the hotel for folks that like to get some laundry done and enjoy a room where you can cook your own food. I finished packing around 11 am just as the rain started.

My next stop was to visit Robert and Tammy Lathrop in Waynesville, NC. My 7 pm arrival  would coincide with Rob's estimate as to when he would be home from his job in SC. The drive was about two hours and I thought maybe I could find a place to ride if the weather cleared up. The scenery is incredible through the Smokey Mountains. I followed the Pigeon River and had plenty of places to stop if I wanted. The sun would poke out occasionally to the North but I would look South and see dark, dark clouds. So, I kept driving and thought it would be a good idea to drive past the Lathrop's house during the daylight.

Holy moley! I am glad I did. The house is located at 3500' and it is on a mile long private road through the development. Let me just say that New York would not allow houses on a road this steep and narrow and actually wouldn't allow the road to be built!

I texted Rob and asked him if his house was the one without a number or name on the mail box and on the road that had all the tow truck advertisements along the deep ditches on both sides of the road! Rob said that was his house. I drove to Asheville which is about 30 miles away expecting a sleepy little town the size of Binghamton or smaller. How wrong I was! According to the web there are only 89,000 people but there must be lots of smaller communities surrounding the 89k folks because the roads and interstates are extensive and crowded.

I went to the Liberty Bicycle Shop to get some information on what trails to ride after the rain stops (ha ha an optimist). Hunter suggested Bent Creek and Dupont. Time was now 3:30 pm, raining steady and traffic flow was increasing. I texted Rob and asked if he would get a hold of Tammy and see if I could arrive around 5:30. Affirmative. I drove slowly and safely back towards Waynesville and pulled into the Lathrop castle on top of the mountain. Tammy, Tucker and Emory met me as I walked towards the house. Emory is a beautiful Schnauzer and Tucker is a West Highland Terrier.  Both are very energetic 5 year olds that love to bark and be petted.

I had never met Robert or Tammy. I have talked to Robert for over 4 years playing iRacing. He knew I was traveling the South east and invited me to stay. Tammy and I bonded immediately (or maybe she is pretending). We shared our grief over the loss of Sandy and her daughter Caroline. Our stories were sometimes sad, detailed, funny, happy and always full of love and loss of two wonderful, intelligent, adventurous, beautiful women who left us before we were ready. Although my friendship started with Robert, I will cherish the open and healing conversations I had with Tammy. I count her as a friend.

Robert arrived home after 7 and Tammy served us a delicious dinner. We had a nice time but Rob had to get to bed because he had to get up at 4:30 am to go to work.
Friday morning I awoke around 7 am. Rob had already left for work and was hoping to be home a little after 2pm. Tammy and I had coffee together and continued our sharing from the previous evening. I left around 10 am and headed towards Bent Creek to scope out the mtn biking trails Hunter from Liberty Bicycle recommended. There was only a slight rain when I left the house. When I arrived at the trail head the rain was steady.

Hey, I have hiking boots! Why don't I walk the trails instead of ride in the mud? What a revelation!
And that is what I did!

When it rains -- hike!

I took my camera along and I have yet to down load the photos. Here is one from my phone.

The hike was great and exactly what I needed to be doing. Temperature was in the 60's.

I arrived back at the Lathrops around 5:30 pm. No word from Robert. Tammy and I chatted some more and waited. And waited. Rob eventually arrived home at 8:30 pm. We had another nice dinner. Rob and I stayed up until 2am talking. How he was able to stay awake that long was beyond me.

Saturday morning I woke up around 8 am. The temperature was 14 degrees and there was snow!

Saturday morning Jan 13, 2018

Hmm, what to do? Both Tammy and Rob were still sleeping and dirty dishes were in the sink. I channeled my inner Sandy and started doing dishes. The task was completed before the T&R team awoke. I started this post  after the dishes but stopped when the team awoke. We shared some coffee and came up with a plan for the day.

Driving was not recommended because the road is so steep and the unexpected snow. Tammy broke out the Instant Pot recipe book and decided that today was a good day for a pot roast. Rob wanted to install a TV in the kitchen for Tammy. This required running an ethernet cable from the cable box in the living room and using a HDMI splitter device and an ethernet to HDMI device that sends the cable signal over an ethernet cable and then back to HDMI for the TV in the kitchen.
Tammy was successful, Rob and I were not. The splitter had a bad port and we couldn't get it to work. We thought about a trip to Best Buy but they only had a $70 model when the splitter normally costs $25.

Dinner was excellent. Thank you Tammy. Best pot roast ever.

Had two helpings!

The rest of the evening was spent watching the Patriots. Rob said the only reason we are watching the game is because Tammy likes me. She is not a Patriot fan.

I did have a cuddler next to me.

Tuckered out.

It is now Sunday morning at 10:30 am and it is was 6 degrees out half an hour ago. We are now at 14 degrees. Time for me to head home. It is going to be cold most of the week so I might as well get some cross country skiing done back in Ithaca. Will keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for reading.