A trip down Memory lane

My sweetie and I took a short trip down memory lane this week visiting the town where we met.  One of the FAQ’s from our friends is how did this Jersey boy meet and marry this girl from Maine?  Well in something of a common way in our world: we met at HFHI in Americus GA.  Wow has this town changed over the years.  Due to a tornado the hospital moved and grew.  HFHI moved for so many reasons and we moved.  Volunteers have a tendency of moving on.  Times change.  We checked out as many of the places that held memories as we could.

This is the house I lived in first.  I have some really fond memories in this house.  It’s been painted but pretty much looks the same.  Next door were the college kids who were figuring out their way in the world in some not so pleasant ways.  We stopped by my sweetie’s place too and a few other places, including the spot on the street where the dobie bit me.  Those pics are in his camera.

This quilt is in the Visitors Center across the street from the Windsor Hotel.  The center is something in and of itself.  The Carters have their own area including books written by their daughter Amy.  It was sometime after we moved that the Windsor was rebuilt and later that the Best Western took it over.  The building looks beautiful.

We didn’t get to visit Koinonia Farms or Yoders and both hold special memories.  Pam, Marge and I were invited on more than one occasion to spend time with the young people from the Mennonite community playing volleyball and on the hay rides.  It’s been more than 20 years since I lived there and the memories just flood back in such a pleasant way.

While still in town we had coffee at Cafe Campesino started by one of the volunteers who was there at the same time we were.  My sweetie had coffee and I had a cappuccino and some free wi-fi. I didn’t get a photo of this building.  It’s next door to what would have been the HFHI Media Center.

On our way out of town we stopped through Andersonville.  This always makes my heart a bit heavy but it’s one of those places that has to be experienced.  The memory of a brutal war. a country divided and the beginning of the phrase “deadline”.  I think personally I’m changing my phrasing to “due date” or something else along that line and leaving “deadline” with the meaning it earned here.

The town itself is having all of the challenges of this modern day.  They truly need the tourism and the interest in our own history.

 

The next stop on this journey was Lake Blackshear.  Great memories here too.  I’d love to come back to this area and spend a few days enjoying the sun and fun.  There are some new cabins and a restaurant.  The first year I was volunteering I would write letters to one of the other moms and wrote this elaborate tale of a date night with some guy there.  My imagination is quite something and I remember some of the details written in that missive.

 

 

And before you ask, no, we did not drive the car into the water.  Made you think though, didn’t it.

 

My sweetie drove right to the waters edge and the hood of the car is sloped.  It freaked me out a bit.  No it freaked me out a lot.  You’d think after 20+ years with this guy I’d KNOW that he wouldn’t drive it into the water.  My panic level goes right up and I have a particularly funny Bill the Cat move.

 

 

 

The light at this time of day was just perfect for capturing the spanish moss on the trees.  As the tour guides in St. Augustine told us it’s neither “Spanish” nor “moss” it’s a relative of the pineapple family.  It sure is pretty.

I’ll be posting photos and more of the trip in the next few days.

Happy Quilting!

Teri