I go back to June 1994…

I’m reading a novel called Factory Girls that begins in June 1994 in Northern Ireland. Since the chapters are the dates of the events in the book, it caused me to think of where I was in June 1994. I realized it was our second visit to the cabin in North Carolina, the one built and owned by Jim’s Aunt Joanne and Uncle Dick. Eventually it would become a home away from home, a real sanctuary. But this was just the second visit.

At this time of year, wild rhododendrons bloom in the Blue Ridge mountains, and Roan Mountain in Tennessee is most famous for these flowering bushes. Every year on this weekend they have a festival, and this is where we went that June weekend in 1994. Roan Mountain was about 90 minutes or so from Ashe Country, so it made a nice day trip.

The walk through the woods and up the mountain was not terribly difficult, although I’m sure Joanne and Dick didn’t climb to the top as Jim and I did. At the time I had a nice Minolta camera, and tried my best to photograph the flowers, but it seemed hard to get results. I think the day had leaned toward rain and haze, so the clarity wasn’t there.

Eventually, Jim and I got to the top and I took this picture. It was the only one that had any clarity of the sky and the valley below. 

All in all, it is a pleasant memory—a day spent with people I deeply love. I became closer to Joanne and Dick as the years went on, closer than I was to any of my aunts and uncles. I bless the day they came into my life because it made it so much richer.

 http://www.roanmountain.com/rhododendron-festival/