July 2012

Where does the time go? Our last posting was the end of June and it’s the last week in JULY today. Let’s see if I can catch y’all up with our adventures.

Frank and Joy organized a Patriotic Celebration for the 4th of July.  We decorated the clubhouse, Jim and Frank cooked the hot dogs, and everyone brought something to complete the meal. Of course, Lydia had to make sure we had the appropriate table setting.  We even had some watermelon for dessert among other choices.

As June turned into July, the record heat wave that most of you experienced this summer came to the mountains. Oh yeah! Yes, we are high up in the mountains, but record high temperatures are still record high temps. Along with the high temps came afternoon thunderstorms and a few times we had a little hail. Anyway, we decided that we needed some shade so we could sit outside part of the day, so we bought a fold up canopy. We and our neighbors enjoyed several happy hours under our canopy. One afternoon storm dumped about 2 inches of rain in 60 minutes. The rain puddled on top of our canopy and caused it to collapse.   

Despite the now daily showers and thunderstorms (9 days in a row), we returned the mangled canopy and bought a better one. We returned home tired after shopping all day in Asheville but our neighbors insisted that we put up the new canopy, so we did. (Lydia dubbed it an Erection Party.) It’s plenty big for at least 10 of us to gather and it has a sun shade since we get the afternoon sun. Ken and Joanna liked it so well, they bought one just like it.

 

 

 

 

 

The days passed quickly and they told us about the volunteer appreciation dinner. The Hobnob Restaurant, which operates the café here at the Cradle, catered the delicious dinner and several of our talented volunteers provided the evening’s entertainment. Jim was so excited because he got his official US Forest Service hat. We hosted an after dinner party at our place and 12 people showed up. It kind of reminded us of the VW commercial – how many can you fit inside?

A few days before training for the second session started, the new team arrived and set up their rigs in temporary spaces.  There is an overlap of volunteers while the new team goes through training.  Among the “newbies” are friends from the Plantation in Alabama, Barb and Dan Lopes.  We had them over for dinner and told them what to expect in the next few days of training. We also entertained our new next door neighbors, Jo and Fred Wishnie. We bid Hail and Farewell during a big spaghetti dinner and on the 21st, we sadly said goodbye to Bill and Jan, Deanna and others. Hope to see them “on down the road” and maybe next year at the Cradle.

 

‘til next time ….