Days 57 - 60

We drove from Maryland into Virginia. I guess this is when we officially transitioned from "the North" to "the South." We continued on through Virginia, which was very pretty, especially this time of year, and on into North Carolina. We stayed at a campground that is about halfway between Durham and Greensboro.

There has been a low-pressure area over the southeast and we have been having off-and-on rain every day for a few days now. I guess this weather situation has been building and we have been hearing about Hurricane Helene building off of Cuba and heading towards Florida and the Carolinas. It won't affect us - will it?

The next day we cruised around the Durham area. We visited Duke University. Due to the rain we just saw the campus from inside our truck.

Next we headed over to a historical site - Bennett Place. This is a farmhouse that General Sherman and General Johnston used to meet, negotiate and sign the surrender of the majority of the confederate troops. This process didn't go smoothly and they had to meet a couple more times and negotiate a new treaty to finally accomplish the task. It was all very interesting.

The next day the sky was clear and sunny. We headed to Winston-Salem, which is the home to some of my cousins. We had a very enjoyable Sulich Cousins reunion at their childhood home that is still in the family. It was great catching up with everyone and getting to further know these nice people.

Tomorrow we head to Mark and Loni's home on Lake Murray in South Carolina. They have been without power for two days and tomorrow will be the third day. If the power's still out, then the generator we're delivering will prove to be very useful.

A replica of the table where the two Gnerals met and negotiated.

It rained that night and on into the next morning, at times quite hard. This was Hurricane Helene, now degraded down to a Tropical Storm, moving though on its way North.

We had discussed visiting the Asheville area and visiting the Biltmore mansion, but this area had received enormous amounts of rain and was flooded. Signs on the highway indicated that all roads to western North Carolina were essentially closed. We tried to visit a local Revolutionary War battlefield site - Alamance, but due to the storm it was closed. (From the internet: )

As we drove back to our campground we received a call from our friends, Mark & Loni, whom we will be visiting next. Even though they live in South Carolina, they are situated towards the center of the state and usually avoid the annual hurricanes. Well, not this time. Hurricane Helene seemed to follow a different path than normal and really battered them pretty hard. Since they don't usually experience harsh winds, their trees are all ripe for falling over, and a lot of them did, taking down power lines and power poles along with them. They called to say that they don't have power and doubt they will have it restored for up to a week!

They own a 2000 watt generator, which can power parts of their house, but really need a more powerful one that can power a lot more of their house. Well, all the generators in South Carolina were immediately sold off the shelves. So we headed to a local Costco and bought them a 3200 watt generator, which was still on the shelves in North Carolina. We'll be able to hand-deliver it to them shortly!