As the song says, “Baby its cold outside!” We arrived back in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains today!

We are opening the Grand River Lodge in Crumpler, NC for the vacay rental season (Shameless plug for the family!). We may even see snow on the first day of spring!

Snow is special to a mountain girl from a beach town. In SoFlo, snow is a once in a lifetime event. Mine was on January 19, 1977, aka The Cold Wave of January 1977 per Wikipedia. We don’t call it that. It is known as “The Day that Snowed!  It was awesome!

Back to my soon to be Spring 2018 update. We are anticipating winter storm Toby in the next 24 hours or so. While the weather is brewing we are de-winterizing the house and the tankless hot water heaters don’t want to work! Dear husband is working on that problem as I write. The question tonight may be “to shower or not to shower…”

We drove into Crumpler with blue skies dotted with white clouds. As the afternoon progressed, the cloud cover increased becoming a light to medium gray color. By evening there was no sunset to be seen just gray settling above the mountains.

The air is crisp and clear. I am beginning to focus as we pull back the covers on our family’s vacation home.  We warm the house and get the water flowing through its veins (albeit cold water! brrr!). We unpack our groceries and gear. Then we see to the needs of the home. We look into what we need to replenish and renew for the vacation season ahead.

This year is a bit different since we are including day trips to scout out the mountain areas with potential for our transition. We are moving from career bound parents to free-spirited adventurers. We are not interested in retiring like bears curling up in hibernation. Like true dyed in the wool Boomers we are looking for the next step in our grand journey called life!

My prayer is we will be able to continue stepping out, finding our way, and contributing. Life does not always give us health, energy, or opportunity to pursue the kind of life we want to live. Life is a fragile thing. It is precious. I wonder if my weaknesses both physical and spiritual will hold me back from my dreams. Will I have to gracefully accept less, knowing the true reward exists beyond this life? Or will this dream be more than I ever thought possible.

When I breathe in the thinner air of the mountains I feel lighter. My senses calm a bit. I begin to feel the dream push up and through my doubts. It springs forth just like the buds forming on the trees in the face of another winter storm. It is possible to bloom again.

Tomorrow we plan to drive southwest towards Boone and Blowing Rock to see what regular life is like in these areas. If we don’t have to wait for the plumber, we will drive for a few hours in our chosen direction. Have some lunch and see if hometown love will surprise us.

We have three years left in Florida. We hope and plan to move to a mountain home of our own in Spring 2021, Lord Willing! What we are searching for is a place nurturing to our love, faith, and pursuits of happiness. For me one of those pursuits is writing!

I breathe deep feeling the cooling air as the pressure in the atmosphere shifts. My head protests the pressure change but, I turn with determination to look up how to troubleshoot a tankless water heater and get some hot water for my shower!

Love from the Mountain Girl!

Milly!

P.S: the answer is….Not to shower.