Thank Our Lucky Stars: Hurricane Matthew!

October 2016

We headed into North Carolina to visit Larry’s brother, Jerry watching the forecast the whole way. Hurricane Matthew was headed there but expected to veer off before it got to the North Carolina Coast. I had never seen a forecast map like the one they kept showing on the news for days. It showed most of the east coast with about 30 possibility lines where the hurricane might go. 1 line when through Raleigh! ONE! Thirty possible directions and ONE through Raleigh!

We should have bought a lottery ticket!

We camped at Falls Lake State Recreation Area. It’s really beautiful with trees all over the place and Jerry and his wife Sharon live just 15 miles away.

There were these bizarre spiderweb looking things that kind of gave me the creeps!

I kept wondering about the giant spiders that made them then I heard it wasn't a spider web!

Trees! Trees! And more trees!

The mushrooms in

this place were colorful, huge,

and awesome!

And more trees!

And more mushrooms!

Look at the size of that thing! It makes Jenny look miniature!

The big yellow one is the sun! (for all you Brian Regan fans out there)

And more trees!

We had to have the oil changed in the truck so we set up camp and met Jerry at the dealership in Raleigh. He took us for a little tour of the city so we wouldn't have to just sit there and wait. It’s really a beautiful city. He showed us the places where he has worked and where his son has worked and a couple other places of interest. I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of the city while we were there except that

I really wasn’t thinking of “before” pictures.

When we realized Matthew was going to hit Raleigh worse than they thought we got a little nervous. The campground is right next to a lake that “might” have storm surges. And the trees!

All I could think of was those beautiful trees falling over on top of my home!

We spent the worst of it warm and snug in their house! Sharon loves dogs but they don’t have one so my puppies got lots of love there. We had a great visit, got to know and love Sharon then headed back to the trailer. There were trees down all over the place and yes the lake was rising! The closer we got the more nervous I got. It was great to turn the corner and see Stella still in one piece!

A couple of trees fell over but none on her! Whew!!!

We watched the news that night and a bunch of the places Jerry had shown us the day before were completely flooded! One little strip mall in particular I remember seeing looked like a small lake after Matthew. There were some deaths and some people lost their homes which was so very sad, but it made us all the more grateful to have made it through! The only problem we had was the road we had planned to take into Savannah, Georgia was blocked so I’ll have to visit Juliette Gordon Lowe’s House some other time.

She’s the founder of Girl Scouts and as a former Girl Scout

and former Girl Scout Leader one of my personal heroes!

Other than being rerouted by Matthew, North Carolina was pretty great.

Especially visiting with Jerry and Sharon!