Evacuation

September 22, 2017









Evacuation

With Hurricane Irma impacting our home and forced to be away for an unexpected amount of time in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we decided to try and make the most of the family time and made sort of a mini-vacation out of our evacuation. It was much easier after we had received word that our home and most of Key West was safe. It also helped take our minds off of what I call Hurricane Fatigue. 







The fatigue comes from the constant watching of the news and weather channels which always focus on the worst aspects of any storm and we had already literally been watching it for a week before we ever even left the island. You get glued to the TV and end up rushing inside for the official storm updates that are released by the National Hurricane Center every six hours as the storm approaches.
Watching the storm from the time it rolled off Africa to the time it exploded into a Category 5 monster in a single day then set records by remaining at that strength for days as it rolled through the Caribbean.







 It was all pretty harrowing and we had been subjected to it for days on end. So once the storm had passed the Keys, we opted to take advantage of the beautiful early Fall weather in North Carolina and do some exploring.





 



While my sister Marika and her husband Brian have a beautiful condo in the city, their main home is located in Stokes County, which is about a 40 minute drive into the country from downtown Winston-Salem. Kathy and I ventured out there a couple of times during our stay for a nice visit and a couple of swims in their pool since the weather was still beautiful and warm enough to permit it. It was so relaxing and helped certainly take my mind off what was happening at home.







Of course no visit to Stokes County would be complete with-out a stop at Priddy’s Country Store, which is just as described an old-time throwback country store that probably has not changed much in 100 years. They still make bologna and cheese sandwiches (on white bread) to order and sell just about any kind of crazy nick-nak or food item that the average country dweller would need, and they are so nice to visit with as well. 









As luck would have it, the annual Stokes County Fair was happening while we there and loving a fair, we of course had to attend. It was small as to be expected, and quaint, but it had all you could need from a fair including animal competitions from the young farm kids in attendance, a nice Midway with a plethora of rides and games, local civic organizations set promoting their causes, delightful fair food and of course the ever popular pig races.



 



We enjoyed a wonderful Friday night at the fair and enjoyed it so much. Even my favorite pig came home a winner in the pig races, Dale Oinkhart. Watching the people was almost as much fun as anything else at the fair as many dressed up in their finest country attire to be there. There was a great bluegrass band that we enjoyed and we had too much food as is often the case at fairs. We ate so well during our evacuation that Kathy joked that she had gained the “Irma 20” while we were there.



 



That wasn’t the only festival we attended, we also went to the annual Apple Festival at Historic Bethabara Park in Winston. It was a true Fall festival and was jam packed with families enjoying the perfect weather and incredible food and fun that was there. Apples were the theme and we ate apple ice cream, apple pie, apple cider and more. They even had more pig racing at the apple festival with an entirely different pig racing outfit who also raced, ducks, goats and more.