WAYNESVILLE

 Since we got off the island ahead of Hurricane Debby and were on our way to WAYNESVILLE anyway, we ended up there for a few extra days.

We love to stay at the old Oak Park Motor Inn at the head of Main Street.  Right from our motel we look down Main Street and can easily walk for food and shopping.

We rode around a lot while we were there.  One ride took us up Plott Creek Road to see the house where we lived from the time my parents got married until I was thirteen years old.  Whoever lives there now has done a lot of restoration work on the old house and it looks very nice.  There were toys on the porch indicating family life there.  No one at home, though.

Another day we rode out to Crabtree to visit the Parker’s Chapel Methodist Cemetery.  The little church of my grandparents and great grandparents (on my mother’s side) is no longer there, but the cemetery runs down the hill below where it once stood.

Buried there and many relatives.  In one extended plot lie both sets of  my mother’s grandparents, Williams and Walker, and along with them my own maternal grandparents.  It was nice to see the cemetery being taken care of so well after so many years.

Trish and I realized that these few extra days were a gift we did not plan or anticipate.  They were a connection to love and memory.