You will probably notice that my comments for a given day is usually earlier than the post date but no matter how hard I try I can't keep up with making the posts current. Oh well, it just means that you are reading stale news I guess.
Jean had a jewelry making class previously scheduled today so we were on our own to do with the day as we pleased. This actually worked out OK as we needed a little down time after the rush to get packed and getting on the highway. Jean had left us with instructions on how to walk to downtown Belmont without getting lost so late morning we went for a walk. It was still a nice day but cool. Belmont is really a nice small town in the suburbs of Charlotte with the advantages of being only 15-20 minutes driving time to downtown Charlotte and yet gives the feeling of small town life far from a major city.
(Left click to enlarge)
Our first stop was at a bicycle shop to take a look at bike carriers. We have a four bike carrier that we put on the back bumper of our trailer which gives it a considerable bouncing, action on the highway. It is designed for a 1 1/2 inch receiver that we have on our mini-van and we use a reducer so that it will fit the 2 inch receiver on the trailer bumper. At any rate there is some bounce effect on the back of the trailer and on the trip down I had noticed at rest stops that the horizontal arm that holds the bikes was getting to be not so horizontal and also had developed a slight tilt to the side. It was starting to make me a little nervous and I didn't want to lose all four bikes on the highway someplace.
The bike shop didn't have any four bike carriers in stock so I decided to move one bike to the truck bed and one into the trailer. With just two bikes left on the carrier I decided it would not be a worry about any catastrophe happening.
From the bike shop we went on up town and stopped at an old time hardware store that was probably as old as the town itself. From there we stopped at a couple of antique stores and made one purchase of a book named "Catrimony" that uses photographs of cats with one liners of human marriage situations. Kinda unique.
Belmont has a number of restaurants that look like good places to eat but we elected to stop at one that Jean had told us about. It is sponsored by the Catholic Church Sister's of Mercy and provides a place for persons with mental and physical handicaps to work and gain a sense of worth to their lives. We enjoyed the meals very much and would recommend it to anyone going through Belmont. The name of the cafe is Cherubs Cafe and operates under the Holy Angel organization founded in 1956. They are a committed organization founded to help all ages and degrees of handicapped persons.
We found our way back to Jean's house and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We had began to hear warnings of a major snow storm headed to North Carolina having moved from Texas up through the middle south of the country. Jean's friend Don came over and we enjoyed an excellent dinner and celebrated Jean's birthday.
It was about this time that we received a phone call from Joan's sister back home that Joan's dad had fainted at the assisted living facility where they moved to last year and had been admitted to the hospital for tests. When we leave home we are always concerned with the health and well being of loved ones and not being close in case of problems arising. Mom and dad had been pretty good over the last couple of months and although we are always thinking of them we didn't have a high concern of any immediate problems or we wouldn't have left. Now our concern was high and our thoughts were of dad and if and when to leave for home pending the outcome of the tests and dad's overall condition.
Snow was falling now outside and quickly covering the area and the warnings of a major storm hitting North Carolina were coming true. We went to bed with heavy hearts.
Saturday dawned with about 4 inches of snow cover with the storm continueing. The precipitation had turned to sleet and freezing rain which was now covering the snow. Everything was virtually shut down in the area and no one was traveling on the highways. We couldn't go anyplace today if we wanted to especially towing a trailer.
We got the call that dad had been diagnosed with a couple of very serious problems and in his weakened condition there was little treatment that they could do especially a possible surgery. The decision was now obvious that we needed to return to Ohio but when was the question.
Outside the snow was now covered with about a half to an inch of ice and venturing out on it required you to hold onto something with one hand. The streets had become skating rinks with for some reason the snow and freezing rain turning into solid ice. Observe below.
We decided to wait it out Saturday and see what the roads were like on Sunday.
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