Is It Time To Buy?

We've been traveling a lot, with very little exciting happening. We made a day trip to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Virginia, where we got to see the Discovery Space Shuttle, a stealth bomber, and the Airstream the men were quarantined in after the moon landing, among other things. This one was a huge highlight for Abe, and we were both exhausted and our feet were killing us by the end of a day of walking and standing on concrete, but it was a really good visit.

After the Air and Space Museum, we spent a lovely weekend with some of Abe's ex-coworkers, and had a wonderful time visiting and eating real meals, rather than one pot dishes, cooked in a real kitchen. They took us for a tour of Skyline Drive so we could look out for miles across the treetops. There was a bit of haze in the air which prevented pictures from turning out very good, and the colors were about a week or two before their peak, but was still beautiful. We also went for a short walk on the Appalachian Trail, so now Abe can say he hiked it.

After Virginia, we went to West Virginia where we stayed at a Harvest Host. This time I was in my happy place, spending hours with the pot-bellied pigs, horses, donkeys, and miniature cows.

From there, we went to Tennessee just to mark it off our map, and then we set out to the east where the beach was waiting for us in North Carolina.

We parked at a Walmart and didn't make it to the beach in NC before driving to South Carolina, where we stayed at a Cracker Barrel in Ashville overnight so we could see Abe's wonderful cousins, Stacy and Shauna. Abe hasn't seen them for years, and I'd never met them. Stacey and her husband run Zambra, a tapas restaurant, so we met them there and got to enjoy some of the best food we've had while we talked for a couple hours.

Have you ever had Tapas? I hadn't, and I'm glad I finally got to. My favorite was the beef marrow and tendon. This was a bone with the marrow scooped out, some stuff was added to it, and it was whipped up into the lightest, fluffiest mixture I've ever seen, and piped back into the ends of the bone. I'd take a scoop of the marrow and spread it onto the tendon that had been sliced, dried, and deep fried so it was like pork rinds, only just a bit tougher. I knew that was a dish I'll never see again so I had to try it, and I'm so glad I did. Here's a tip when you're at a restaurant: Always go for the weirdest sounding foods. They wouldn't sell if they weren't good.

(Image from the internet. We didn't take any pictures. DOH!)

FINALLY, we made it to a beach! We splurged and paid for a week in an RV park on Myrtle Beach so we could look for a possible house to buy. We paid for a day of fishing on the pier here.

After spending $23.50 for bot of us to fish and for some squid for bait, I was determined to get my money's worth, so we started before the sun came up, took a break for a few hours, and went back out until after dark. In the morning, I caught an 18 inch Black Tipped Shark and one of the weirdest looking fish I've ever seen. If anyone knows what the weird fish is, please let me know. Other than those two, we didn't even get bites. The third fish is one someone else caught. He was kind enough to let me take a picture before he threw it back. I've never seen anything like it! The fishing was pretty disappointing, but the sun was shining and warm, and we got to look out over the endless waters of the Atlantic, so it was a good day.

Today, we paid for another week while we wait to see if our offer we made on a house is accepted. We found a place in our budget that would be a lot of work, but perfect to fix up and resell. If our offer is accepted, we'll stay at the RV park until the sale goes through, then we'll park at the house and continue to live in Ol' Bessie for a few months while we work on the house. We've prayed about it and it's in God's hands now. He knows better than us if it's the right place for us or not. He hasn't let us down yet when we've trusted Him to work things out.