Tuesday, Sept 29, 2009.

We left Rochester on September 10 and headed toward North Carolina. There was no need to push it like we had been doing on Eos so we took a leisurely two days on the road. We stayed in the outskirts of Weston, WV and were once again reminded of what a small world it can be. We met a couple at the motel's continental breakfast who were on their way home to - ready? - Rochester, NY. And it turned out that Scott and Joyce Heise live about 2 miles from where Eos is sitting on the hard. We have exchanged emails and phone numbers. Joyce said they would kind of keep an eye on her and to be sure and let them know when we were back so they could take us to the grocery store and such. Now what are the odds of meeting someone from Rochester in Weston, WV; let alone someone who lives so close to Shumway Marine. A small world story, for sure.

We got to Bruce's the next day and spent about a week with them getting our selves a little oriented. They are NW of Ashville in Leicester and we are SW of Ashville in Etowah. So we are about 45 minutes a part. With them about the same 30 minutes from Ashville itself, I expect that to become a meeting place as time progresses.

We are now settled in a trailer in the hills of North Carolina. Etowah has a population of 2762. It is right down the road from Horse Shoe where we found a coffee shop with great coffee, lunch and breakfast and free WiFi for Saturday afternoon and Sunday when the Etowah library isn't open. The library, gas station, grocery store, Dollar store and a few other businesses are about a mile from the trailer. The library is a nice new branch of the Henderson County Library system. The two fairly large sized towns closest to us are Hendersonville and Brevard. Hendersonville in Henderson county is about 25 minutes in one direction and Brevard in Transylvania county is about the same distance in the other direction. The first time we drove by the Transylvania Hospital's sign for their blood drive Bill was ready to do 10 minutes on it.

We are slowly learning how to get to both places and as well as get back - a very important consideration with all of these winding mountain roads. Bruce has loaned us one of their GPS units but so far we have succeeded in getting the GPS lost three times. The roads change names constantly and in one case it had us turning onto a non-existent NC county road. You can believe we keep maps in the Bronco he has loaned us and don't take off on side roads thinking we can take a short cut. The roads follow the rivers and the mountain valleys and are seldom straight. They are a far cry from the grid roads we are used to. But we are adjusting and the area is beautiful and will certainly be a lovely and warmer place to spend the winter than Minnesota or Wisconsin.

We have been to two Thursday bluegrass jazz sessions at a coffee shop up Bruce's way and last Saturday, Bruce and Dorothy came down our way to go to the fourth annual story telling festival at the historic Johnson Farm in Hendersonville. It was supposed to be by a campfire but had to be moved to a high school auditorium because of the rain. There were 5 story tellers telling ghost stories that would have been marvelous in the woods by the fire but were still wonderfully enjoyable even in the auditorium.

It rained almost constantly for a week resulting in flooding in Hendersonville but the last couple of days have turned glorious. Now we can look at doing some more exploring in the area. We hope to get to the Biltmore Estate this week. I saw it during a stop over to see Bruce after a business trip but I am looking forward to seeing it again and am sure Bill will be impressed with the house and gardens as well as the ingenious technical innovations that were built into the house. We will end the day with a couple of nice glasses of wine at the Biltmore winery right there on the estate.

We are going to take a week and drive up to the Annapolis boat show. We will be staying with Betsy and Russ Armstrong - cruising friends from the Twin Cities - at Betsy's mother's home in Arlington and driving up to Annapolis about an hour away. We have picked out several seminars that look interesting and will, of course, enjoy seeing all of the boats and paraphernalia that will be on display. Then we will come back stopping in Fredericksburg, VA to see Cathy Hagerty a good friend who used to work at Unisys with me.

We have added a picture gallery to this blog which shows the keel damage. The shots are close-ups so when looking at them keep in mind that the damage at the aft end spans only about a foot and the damage on the lead in front can be hammered out and simply repainted with fresh bottom paint. The titles on the pics describe what is shown. Click on the title of the gallery and then place the cursor on the picture to see the caption.