Here I am, feeling a bit jet-lagged after a flight home last night from Atlanta– can you be jet-lagged if you never left your time zone? Yes, because after five minutes of trying to navigate the airport, I was jet-lagged before even jetting.

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to order this fabulous t-shirt for Mr. SFO weeks ago. I can’t wait to give it to him! And of course, we wish a very Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and more, of sons, daughters, dogs, kitties, lawns and everything else the men in our lives take care of! We love you all.

So the purpose of our travel last week was to visit a family member’s second home in what turns out to be a very remote part of Georgia– they’ve had it for seven years, and I regret to say we had never been before. Unfortunately, health problems have cropped up– the in-person meeting revealed them to be more serious than we could have guessed from the frequent Facetime calls. So we traveled down there to encourage, but frankly came back more than a little discouraged. I promised to take you along and I will– I took very few snaps, but it’s as close to traveling as I ever get, so here we are.

I started off by spending a couple of days with my sister on the seacoast of Maine– she’s two hours closer to the airport, so why not make it a jumping off point, right? The first day– what else?– I took her to meet her new grandniece an hour and half further down the coast. No pictures were taken, because I was too busy cradling my little sweetheart and studying her tiny, perfect left ear as she slept in my arms for over an hour. 🙂

I do have this picture of her first trip to Home Depot from my son– it’s a bit of a family joke, because we are all avid home improvers. I don’t know how appropriate it is to take a newborn to Home Depot, but in our family, it’s totally appropriate.

The second day at my sister’s, we went to the beach. It was just a glorious day– not too crowded because the schools haven’t let out yet. This is Oguncuit– a big sprawling beach viewed from the left, center, and then the right. There are some very old “motels” along the beach– it’s kind of a trip back into time– I give the town credit for not knocking them down and putting up ten-story, modern hotels! This was my first “summer” day– you can bet ice cream was involved.

Fortunately, we were there at low tide– if you can tell by the very flat grade down to the ocean, at high tide there is no beach left! It think that’s why no one was putting their chairs next to the water– if you fell asleep, you could end up finding yourself out to sea.

My sister gave me a book to read– she reads, I don’t. I really didn’t want to risk any of my cross stitch pieces getting dirty while we sat. So this was a little light read and I enjoyed it through the whole week– she thought she I would like it because it was about a knitting shop– I just substituted it with “quilting” in my mind, and it worked perfectly. I wish I had more time to read– before you suggest audiobooks, it’s really hard for me to concentrate with anything audio, even music. I’m sitting listening to the ringing of my ears right now!

I did bring a cross stitch piece for the plane– the Appalling cross stitch is back! The quilter in me just feels that these little blocks need some sort of “sashing” between them and what little I stitched in, I love. I may rotate between my horse stocking (no progress this week) and finishing up the Appalling Cross stitch. Cross stitchers make up fun things like stitch Christmas items on the 25th of each month. So I may initiate “Appalling Mondays” and just give myself a break from the horse once a week.

At night, I managed to finish the binding on the Halloween gift quilt. Here’s a parting shot:

Then here is the last picture I took of my Star of Wonder projects I was also gifting.

I’ll skip ahead in my story a bit– so the reaction to my quilt-y gifts was a little muted– I don’t think my niece or sister-in-law really knew what to say. I have friends who won’t gift anything for this reason, but I don’t think we can expect the same enthusiasm for “blankets” from everyone we meet. I gift most of what I make– all the joy is in making it for me, and I already have enough in my closets. I have another J. Wecker Frisch Halloween panel to make, after all, and I don’t have much use for pink in anything, although I’m really looking forward to the next Fat Quarter Shop free Christmas stitch-a-longs that start in July. (The Star of Wonder was a free Fat Quarter Shop stitch-a-long.) So no regrets in giving these away.

After a couple of days at my sister’s, it was time to head off to the airport and meet up with Mr. SFO in Atlanta. I didn’t pay extra for my seat assignment– I guess I saw fabric money going out the window– and ended up being assigned a window seat in one of the back rows. I’m neither a fan nor an enemy of flying, but it was fun to take a few cloud snaps as we landed, without wishing too hard for a parachute.

We taxied in Atlanta forever– the chances of finding Mr. SFO became a serious consideration in my mind when I saw the size of the airport. We passed row after row of jets upon jets. It took me an hour to get off the plane, through the airport, and out to the curb, where Mr. SFO zoomed in like a champ to get me. Thank goodness for cellphones.

We were then thanking goodness for phones, again– Google Maps, this time. The drive should have been 2-1/2 hours. but we started off at rush hour– THEN, the entire highway we were on to get out of Atlanta was closed due to some sort of horrendous accident. In these situations, although you are stopped, you can comfort yourself that the accident wasn’t YOU.

As it turns out, there is no highway that went where we wanted to go, anyway– so it was back road after back road for 106 miles. We do enjoy scenery, and we passed through some pretty homes and little horse farms, pine forests, and more than one ghost town. All the way, I was crossing my fingers we would just get there before dark and the threatening thunderstorms. No pictures were taken– my fingers were glued to Google Maps. Every mile and a half, it was another turn. Four hours later, we arrived.

It was great to be able to hug and talk in person, but it was apparent things were not that well. We were only staying for two nights, thank goodness– it’s a wonder they were able to prepare the house for us the way they had!

Not too many pictures– I really just wanted to stay in the moment as best I could. The home was expansive and on nine acres– it had some really nice things like a pool and pool house, beautiful landscaping, and a gorgeous house, but underlying it all, the sense that our family was in the process of giving up on it all. I think this picture of the little guest house, while charming, kind of says it all– the heat and humidity down there had everything overgrown.

The next day was our only full day together, we mostly drove around the area– walking would have been impossible. 😦

This is the nearby town of Elberton– we had lunch at a vintage hotel on the town square that was really enjoyable.

Then we drove out to the former site of the “Georgia Guidestones.” You may or probably won’t remember this statue was bombed in 2022. Here’s a picture I swiped from the internet of how they looked before they were destroyed. Some mysterious group erected a “Stonehenge” for the future with inscriptions in dozens of languages, about 40 years ago.

What did it say? Either Satanic instructions for future eugenics and social engineering– or a guidepost of reason and order for a coming apocalypse– you decide!

One night in July of 2022, someone came to the former conclusion, drove a car in, and blasted the bottom of the sculpture. Not much damage was done– the stones were still standing, but the very next day, the town came in and removed the whole thing. The bomber was never found or prosecuted. Very strange! All that’s left is Georgia’s famous red clay.

We drove a little further and visited a dam– it was impressive. The boardwalk below used to be open for walking but it wasn’t today. We would have been able to walk it anyway– the visit was just getting to be too exhausting for my sister-in-law and we headed home.

Later, we went out for dinner, and everyone was just too tired for it to come off well. We should have just stayed home that night. I’m sure you’ve been at this place with someone in life– how much do you lecture someone about taking charge of their health, when they swear they are? When you have the nagging feeling it may already be too late, why torment them over it? The next morning, we were up and at ’em at 6:30am to head back to Atlanta, so there was no time to restore good feelings. We accomplished the drive back to the airport in 3-1/2 hours, with a stop for breakfast. The rest of the travel went reasonably well.

So that was my trip– should we have cancelled it and just waited to see if the health situation improves? The fear is, time is running out. I am still reliving the entire week in my mind– one take away is– I need to lecture myself about my health, because once you start cycling down, there may be no coming back.

I always try to end the blog on a positive note, so let’s try. In twelve days, I leave for the “Moonbeams” wedding. Moonbeams still needs a binding, the Year on Sugar Meadow block is a priority, and I can’t wait to start my Carefree Highways flying geese– all the pieces are cut. Thank goodness for a nice hobby to throw myself int0– to restore a sense of peace.

xox
Carol