At Home in North Carolina

Lest you think that all we did on vacation was ride on the train, let me assure you that is not true: We also stayed in a house. I promise that I will not take you through the same kind of minute-by-minute commentary on our three nights in this house that I dragged you through behind our train, but this experience also was a first for us.

No, no, no. We have stayed in a house before (and if you thought we were yurt-dwelling Kazakhs, you may be new to this blog). This was the first time, though, that we have rented a house sight unseen from a vacation rental company and you may be wondering what this is like.

Well, first of all, if you end up renting this particular house, be sure you have Boy#2 available to drive you up the mountain. He is an unerring navigator, unlike his mother who was safely stashed in the back seat of the rental car where she could do the least harm to chances of arriving at our actual destination instead of in another state.

You will hit the road for the four-hour trip after Two gets off work, and drive for miles and miles in the dark, but then you will arrive at a red house clinging to the side of a mountain and the porch light will be on and the key will be in the mailbox:

Photo taken in daylight. The porch light was not this bright.

You will be very, very tired and will drag your heavy suitcases into the house prepared for almost any kind of disrepair and/or nastiness, but instead of disrepair and nastiness you will find this:

Fresh flowers and books everywhere, plus quirky decorating choices that will make your face smile and your heart sing. 

When it turns out that the house owners live right next door and that he was a college professor (in computer science) and she was one of the very first Peace Corps volunteers (in Colombia, in 1964) and that they love a country diner breakfast almost as much as you do, you will know you have found your people here in the mountains.

So you spend three days tooling around the area and come back  each night to World Series baseball and cheering on the Royals (we still love you!) with these guys, 

and you will know that there is no place like home, and that home is where your heart is, and that for these three days, your heart is right here. 

It's good to be home.