The Holiday Season (II)

Por

Ricardo W Carrano

Carolina do Sul - USA

Christmas in the Mountains 2010-2012.

By early December 2010, my son-in-law Eduardo came up with a very interesting idea. Eduardo is a very intelligent and successful young man, a PhD Chemical Engineer, born in the south of Brazil. His family and ours get along pretty well ever since he and my daughter Dani were only just friends at Clemson University, South Carolina.

So, it came about that Eduardo rented and invited us (I and my wife), his parents Vicente and Marisa and brother Victor Hugo to spend the Christmas holiday at a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, a place located in the city of Saluda called “The Blackberry” (only about 50 minutes from our house). My wife Celia and I were off course delighted with such great Christmas present and started wondering about this weeks before. In fact there was among this unique group of individuals the common desire of having a “White Christmas” or a snow fall on Christmas Eve or during the day. For us or at least for me, a Brazilian from the beach, it was absolutely a lifetime first.

Marisa, Dani, Celia and Eduardo in front of the cabin

The excitement got bigger when by December 20th we learned from the news weather forecast that there was a big possibility of Snowing that Christmas Eve. In fact snow in the Appalachian Mountains is not uncommon in winter time; however it doesn’t happen all the time.

As we all know, be careful with what you want, because you might get it!

By December 23rd we packed our presents, food, lots of good wine and beer and gathered at the Blackberry. We were all having the a great time, and as predicted it started snowing by Christmas early morning.

White Christmas

Well, but there was just a little catch: That year we got the strongest snow storm since 1993 in South and North Carolina and the Mountains got about 25 to 30 centimeters of snow which pretty much made impossible for us to leave the Blackberry and drive home not only because of the snow itself but because the road to access the cabin is unpaved.

Snow fall starts

Well, it was not so bad, because we had plenty of food and supplies, so we all accepted the idea of staying there for another couple of days waiting the snow to melt. But trouble is, that we lost electrical power by the 26th of December and there was no fireplace at the house and the internal heating system was electrical. We never felt so cold in our entire lives. It was about -5c and it turns out the situation was then, complicated. So, we made the only possible choice: We abandoned our cars with most of our baggage inside and walked on that cold about 4 km to get to the main road where and from there, returned home in a rental car.

                                                                                      
The aftermath at the Blackberry.

But as I mentioned before, this unique group of individuals, has again accepted Eduardo’s idea of having another Christmas at the mountains this year. So my son-in-law has already rented another cabin in the Appalachians, North Carolina.

Therefore, since we all believe that everybody deserves a second chance, we are going this time to another place in North Carolina about 2 hours from our house a place named as “Eagle Ridge” close to a Cherokee reservation (very Indian!).

After fourteen years in the USA, we learned that Mother Nature is more aggressive here at the north then is on my birth place. I also believe the two major storms may not happen in such small interval of only 2 years. But as I mentioned, is not an uncommon event.

So, this time we are making the necessary preparations, not only taking with us things like tire chains, but this time the house has a wood and gas fireplace, and, there is the possibility of getting someone with a tractor to help us, just in case.

Well, in the end I promise to all the readers of this post that I will let y’all know about our new experience as soon as this Blog reopens after New Years. For now I must say that we are all excited again, because of the adventure and the possibly of this new get-together, and have a nice family holiday, so Merry Christmas to everybody!

PS: 1) Pictures source is myself ; 2) This post was written in English due to a suggestion of this Blog Manager, my beloved cousin Jorge Carrano. Thanks!