Heading South

This morning we took a final walk around the First Landing campground, marvelling again at how lovely and secluded it seems, even though it is surrounded by such a dense urban area. Then we headed for New Bern, North Carolina, my home town, to attend the Caton family homecoming. For most of the way we drove on US 17, which is a two-lane road at some points, but is mostly a four-lane divided highway.

As we got closer to New Bern, we saw more and more trees down on the sides of the road and crews out working. It was clear that Irene had caused some serious damage in this area.

When we pulled into my cousin Paul's RV park, we were glad to see that they had been hard at work cleaning up, mowing, and repairing the utilities. We parked next to a fifth wheel and saw that the truck had a State Farm sign on it. Paul stopped by on his tractor to talk. He told us that three insurance agents were in the park. They'll have plenty of work to do around here.

We got set up and then realized that the electricity wasn't working, so I called Johnny. He told me he had just the person to deal with that, right in the park. Within minutes, Paul's old friend, who is an electrician, walked over and got to work. They've had lots of repairs to do since the whole park was under water.

We went over to Shirley's, where she and Beth were working on dinner. They had been cooking for days it seemed. They put up pear preserves, and Shirley gave us some. We had some wine and relaxed while they finished fixing a delicious dinner. Hazel stopped by and dropped Aunt Iris off. Hazel couldn't stay because she had her impatient patient to take care of at home. Mike had surgery earlier this week and was feeling very cooped up. Hazel fixed some plates to take home.

Out in the back yard, a man was hard at work with a chain saw, cutting up the big old pecan tree that was felled by the storm.

We spent some time reminiscing after dinner and then went on home.

This afternoon several Marine Corps jets passed close overhead. Paul said he had noisy neighbors! We didn't hear any later in the evening, fortunately.