Life's a trip!: Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day Six – Jordan Lake, NC. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day Six – Jordan Lake, NC. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This is the seventh entry of a multi-entry series.

First installment: On the Road Again: Going East Intro (http://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/on-road-again-going-east-intro.html)
Second installment: Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day One – Moab, UT. Red Rocks (http://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/eastward-bound-ut-to-nc-day-one-moab-ut.html)
Third installment: Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day Two – Albuquerque, NM. High and Winding Roads (http://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/eastward-bound-ut-to-nc-day-two.html)
Fourth installment: Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day Three – Elk City, OK. Get Your Kicks on ... the Windy High Plains (https://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/eastward-bound-ut-to-nc-day-three-elk.html)
Fifth installment: Eastward Bound: UT to NC – Day Four– Little Rock, AR. Trees! Trees! Trees! (http://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/eastward-bound-ut-to-nc-day-four-little.html)
Sixth installment: Eastward Bound: UT to NC - Day Five - Nashville, TN. On the Music Highway (http://wander-world.blogspot.com/2017/10/eastward-bound-ut-to-nc-day-five.html)

“You only hate the road when you're missing home ...” (Mike Rosenberg - “Let Her Go”)

What a long day! What a work day, too! We knew the last leg of this trip will be the longest and toughest, but we were not prepared for this! We knew that there will be the most miles to cover, that it will be through The Smoky Mountains which will be hilly and winding, we knew it would be on a Monday and we would have to drive through the most populated stretch of our trip (from Nashville,TN to Raleigh, NC), dodging rush hours everywhere. These things we knew.

But we did not know we would have to drive the whole trek in a total and consistent downpour, which lasted for most of the trip, minus maybe 50 miles when the sun peeked through the clouds a bit. We had about 2 feet visibility, if that at times, for driving almost the entire way. We were hit by record amounts of rain (the news outlets said as much the next day), we drove through flooded areas, and we dodged eight tornadoes! 78,000 people are still without power in the areas we drove through the next day. We had to drive around trees snapped in two and lying on the highways, with exit roads turned into dirt roads from the mud slides and the millions of leaves torn from trees. We hardly ever made the speed limit.

When we made it to our camp site on Jordan Lake, several minutes before they closed it at 9 PM we thanked the Lord and kissed the NC soil for making it out alive. It was quite a memorable drive, for sure. We probably saw more rain yesterday, during the 12 hour drive, than what we saw in the seven years of living in the desert. That is no exaggeration, really!

One thing was certain, though: well, maybe two things:

The sight of the Smokies and the familiar landmark signs like Asheville, Linville Gorge, Chimney Rock, Greensboro was sweet as ever, even in the horrible storm we were driving into.
North Carolina was happy to see us! From what I remember, rainbows are a rarity here – they are not in the West, but I don't remember seeing more than two during my previous 12 year of life here. Well, we saw at least three rainbows yesterday, just as we crossed the state line into our state! Rainbows are our lucky signs that things will work out all right.

We're still ironing out some home closing details, but we now feel better about making it across and as the rainbow promised: things will (hopefully) work out OK in the end. We keep that faith!

Glad to be back. In the land of steamy windows, green trees, squirrels, and sun-dried tomato bagels! And heavy rains! Let the fall begin once more.