Home is the Best

We had spent some time during this trip exchanging anniversary gifts, but also remembering past anniversaries together and looking forward to journeys in the future.  It has been a wonderful journey with my lovely wife Martha, and it continues, day by day and year by year.  As the card I gave her last night said:

Two hearts committed to each other

for the long haul,

through the ups and downs,

no matter what -

that's the kind of love that lasts.

We have had a wonderful time in this special place along the river, and this morning we started packing up to make our way back home.  Bill is an early riser and it wasn't long before he showed up in his office and we settled up with him.  I took some photos of the signs he has posted in the large solar-heated room next to the gymnasium which speak to the kind of example he used to set for his campers and now sets for his exercise partners and guests.

How true I have found those words to be.  Like Bill, I have come to learn the value of hard work (although I am not sure I could keep up with this 82-year-old man all day!) not just in building houses and gardens and stone walls, but in training for and completing races, in building a marriage, in building a life.  It was good to be reminded of this on our anniversary.

Bill had this weed cutter framed and placed in a prominent place near his office, a memento of Camp Deerwoode and its hard discipline that turned young boys into men.  Some might say that I had been rebellious from time to time when I was young, and I imagine I would have found myself often holding the handle of this unforgiving tool.

I think Bill was surprised to learn all that we had packed in during our short stay here.  And if we return, I want to go through his exercise program, which he told me about again.  "We go through 72 stations in 35 minutes!"  Whew!  That would be a workout.  "Where are you headed next?" he asked.
 "Home."  He smiled and said, "Home is the best!"

As for the rest of our day, we took a route we had never driven before through the countryside between Brevard to Hendersonville, through an area called Little River near the Dupont State Forest, and spent the day walking around Hendersonville, having a light lunch, and then driving to our favorite restaurant, Paesano's, in Seneca.  Delicious and memorable!

We arrived home before dark, glad for the journey we have had, but glad to be back home again.  "Home is the best!"