VACATION!!!!!!!

After spending all of Spring coordinating and building Homearama, the Cincinnati Home show, Mary & I finally had a chance to take a little time off and head south.

First, a little about Homearama. This year the show included 10 homes, ranging in price from $1.6 million to $2.65M. Needless to say, there were a lot of egos to deal with in keeping the builders moving forward while at the same time building the subdivision and constructing all the amenities. I was accused of being a Nazi because I would not take no for an answer, but somebody needs to take control.


After taking care of all the things that were neglected leading up to and during Homearama, we were finally able to leave town the evening of July, 11. We headed to Etowah Valley in Hendersonville, NC for a couple of days of golf and a little "chill" time before our vacation officially began. I must say the folks there were as friendly as we have ever met and treated us like royalty. Dinner Thursday was "Jacket reqd." for all men, a little return of gentility. Friday we attended a Southern Bar-B-Que at the resort. They had ribs, chicken and pulled pork along with all the accroutements. It was great.

After playing golf on Friday, we headed up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and saw the waterfall shown here, Sliding Rock, where all the kids (and some adults) slid down the rock into an 8' deep pool. The air temperature was about 65 degrees when we were there but that didn't seem to hamper the fun.

Lastly, we went to Devils Courthouse. This is one of the highest points in the Appalacians at an elevation of 5,720 feet. We parked the car and then had to hike about the last 500 feet vertically. Glad to say all the exercise must be working because the ticker worked just fine even at this elevation. It was pretty cool up there with the temperature about 59 degrees. It was really cloudy on Friday afternoon, but the scenery was still fantastic!

One of the most fun things for me this part of the trip was playing the golf course "from the tips". Etowah Valley has 3 nines. On the 1st day, Thursday, we played the North and South Courses. When I looked at the scorecard, these 2 nines added up to be about 6,800 yards (I usually play from about 6,200 yards). I figured I was on vacation and could handle that.

On Friday, we were playing the South and West Courses. I didn't even look at the scorecard yardages until after we had played the South again and were on the 3rd hole on the West. The West Courses 1st hole was a par 4, 446 yards. Number 2, par 4, 439 yards. Number 3, par 4 415 yards. The combined South and West Courses were 7,100 yards! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I can at least say I survived!

Coming next - Kiawah Island.