Fleeing the Hurricane: North and South Carolina to Tennessee (9.25.24)

When I woke up on the morning of September 25, 2024, Dave said, "The governor of Georgia has declared an emergency because of Hurricane Helene.  I'm afraid flights will be canceled or delayed when we get to Atlanta tomorrow night."  "What do you want to do?" I asked.  "Let's drive home," Dave suggested, and so we did.  We later learned that North Myrtle Beach, where we were staying, was flooded by Hurricane Helene within a day or two after we left.

We joined I-26 and dashed, from the coast, northwest through South Carolina, traveling through Asheville, North Carolina, as rain began to fall.

We then traveled along I-40 from near Knoxville, Tennessee, just out of reach of Hurricane Helene, almost to Albuquerque, where we turned north to Santa Fe. In the spirit of turning lemons to lemonade, I begged David to take a new route home--I-40 instead of I-70.  He agreed to our making one "significant" stop each day at a tourist site, once we escaped from the hurricane.

Everybody's got to eat, so we stopped at a farmstand, in central South Carolina, for boiled peanuts and fresh peaches.

The boiled peanuts were wet, crunchy, salty, and wonderful!

As we stopped at gas stations on our race north, we found lots of fireworks and even more boiled peanuts!

My "one significant stop" of the day was the South Highland Craft Center, just outside Asheville, North Carolina, on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was a museum of crafts from the Appalachian Mountains, with a museum store full of curated handicrafts.  I bought a beautiful, handmade wooden bowl and several pairs of wooden salad tongs.

I was amazed and delighted at the beauty of the handmade, useful items--brooms, walking sticks, toys, furniture, and, of course, quilts.

By the time I left the museum, it was raining hard.

We drove on and on in the dark, till we reached a small town west of Knoxville, beyond the Appalachian Mountains.  We stopped for the night and treated ourselves to the luxuries of the small town cafe, including a mighty piece of strawberry cream cake!

The hurricane was right behind us, roaring into Asheville the next day and decimating the town.

Hurricane Helene even took a bite out of I-40,the freeway we had just driven along!