It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month since my last post. The time has flown!
November is here which means many cruisers begin their journey to warmer temperatures. We enjoyed one more day with Tracey and John Mitchell before they headed South to Florida. A couple of hours of pickleball, followed by dinner, a walk to the lighthouse and then a little grocery shopping. On our walk back from the lighthouse we stumbled on a Spirit Tree. Artist Keith Jennings and his son have carefully carved faces into certain majestic oak trees throughout St. Simon Island. The legend has it, the images immortalize the countless sailors who lost their lives at sea aboard mighty sailing ships that were once made from the St. Simon Island oak trees. (goldenisles.com)
November 1st is the signal for boaters that they can begin their journey back South due to restrictions that insurance providers place. The official Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1st and ends November 30th. Since hurricane record keeping began in 1853, there have been 76 hurricanes in November. Since 1950 when names were attached to storms after wind speeds reached at least 39 miles per hour, there have been 37 hurricanes in November.
While our friends headed South, we got ready to leave to go back to Arkansas. Our niece Anniston was getting married, so we needed to be home to see her, and James say their vows. We packed up the dogs and began our 15-hour journey back home.
We had not been home since July 29th. We spent all summer getting the house ready for us to be gone an extended amount of time. We have awesome neighbors who check on it to make sure it is okay while we are away. The trees around the house were pretty but the lack of rain definitely made the leaves less colorful.
I definitely don’t miss the NWA traffic. I borrowed mom’s car for a couple of days so that I could go into the office and Bubba could use our car to go do what he needed to do.
What I do miss is the beautiful views of the lake on my ride into work in the morning and from our house. Beaver Lake is beautiful regardless of what time of year it is. However, the winters are brutally cold.
I was going to miss being in Arkansas for Mama’s birthday, so we celebrated early. We spent that Saturday afternoon driving over to Eureka Springs. We stopped by Martin Greer’s candy shop. I have driven past this location hundreds of times but never stopped. We stopped and Mama picked out various chocolates to enjoy later. We then headed over to our favorite restaurant, Local Flavor.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature has a sick sense of humor. I had been monitoring a system that kind of appeared out of nowhere just before we began our travels to Arkansas. Our trip was cut short by a week as we had to get back to Brunswick to prepare the boat for what would become Hurricane Nicole. We did however sneak one visit in with our friends and family on Sunday night at Gusano’s. We appreciate everyone coming out.
We began the 15-hour drive back to Brunswick with the dogs. I contemplated just flying Bubba back to get the boat ready and then flying him back to Arkansas but the amount of work to be done and the logistics just did not make sense. We attended what would be our second official Hurricane party at the yacht club with the other cruisers.
Fortunately for us we just got a lot of rain and wind. Others were not that lucky; it is estimated she did approximately $522 million dollars in damage in central coastal Florida counties. Daytona Beach area took the brunt of the storm. We had friends who rode her out in St, Augustine on a mooring ball and their video was of the winds and rain was pure rage from mother nature. Our friends that were in Vero Beach left their boat and went to a hotel. Luckily all of our friends came out of the storm with no damages.
Stayed tuned for the next update as we prepare for our journey down South and get our sea legs back.