Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas without Snow?

Mary and I finally took a day trip. It has been awhile as we have been around the stick building since returing from our maiden voyage in July.
We traveled to McAdenville North Carolina which is just west of Charlotte. Our destnation was Christmas Town USA. It waa a great trip. We left the 5er at home since it was a short trip. The town has something like 3 million bulbs and 500 decorated trees!
If you drive, beware it is a LONG line of cars. We entered from the I85 side of town. You can also come from the NC 74 side and the line can be equally as long. The road is a 2 mile drive into downtown McAdenville and winds past the "lake" and out through a newer development of homes. The elementary school is also decked out as the children have EVERY window facing the road decorated.
We had dinner at the Hillbilly BBQ in Lowell just the otherside of I 85 from McAdenville. They had some great prices and excdellent smoked pork with tomato / molasses sauce that is popular in western North Carolina.
Our advice is to walk Christmas Town USA, if nothing else than for the ambiance of the season.
But as good as Christmas Ton USA is, a little snow would have been nice...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Winterized and holed up

We have been doing the hibernation thing here in North Carolina. Though the temperatures have been above 50° most days and the overnight temps have stoppes at 35° or so, it hasn't really felt like winter.
Our transition to less is an ongoing operation. We have hauled nearly 8 boxes of stuff to the Western Harnett Thrift Store in Olivia, North Carolina. We will take another 5 boxes this Saturday. We thought of selling the stuff (books, knic-knacks and more books) but the chore of listing on Amazon, dealing with cheap shipping and packaging just wasn't worth the effort. And garage sales here are about as much fun as root canals.
Besides, there is a deeper cleansing to be found in donating a lifetime worth of stuff. It is a type of ultimate acceptance that the stuff is nothing more than that---stuff. Somethings you had for awhile, enjoyed them and finally set them free.