We currently live in a little community named Valle Crucis located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. We are 1.5 miles from the famous Mast General Store, and about 5 miles or so from Boone, NC. In 2012, Boone was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by U.S. News. Its population was 17,122 in 2010 and is the home of Appalachian State University. Boone is named for the famous American pioneer and explorer Daniel Boone….enough about Boone.
My wife and I moved to this area upon retirement in the summer of 2011. There are a number of ski resorts about 20 minutes from us. We love the area and had been coming up on and off for 8 years while we were working to visit our home here. For a while, we had the home on a vacation rental program to help defray expenses. After moving permanently, we sold our small horse farm near Raleigh, NC but kept an old 1905 farmhouse that was actually next door to the farm we sold. We use the old farmhouse to go down to visit our 2 children and 7 grandchildren. Our son is in IT with a small software company, and our daughter is a teacher and a PhD candidate once she finishes her dissertation.
So, our home in Valle Crucis is a log cabin on 8 mountain acres. The square logs part of the house is the top half with stucco walls down and a wrap around upper deck. It has a metal roof that covers the deck and which keeps the rain/snow off the logs and us. The small lower deck has a hot tub that you had to have for vacation folks, but we love it too. The interior is in a southwestern style with stucco style painted walls upstairs. Square footage is about 1,500 including a loft with two log beds…plenty big for us two. My wife and I have 5 Alaskan Malamute dogs (I’m free kennel help). She/we trained the dogs and were in the dog show circuit for about 13 years. Most shows were within 4 hours drive from Raleigh, NC except two Alaskan Mal nationals we attended. Our kennel name “Inukshuk” is an Inuit Indian name that is also on our vehicle tags. I get asked a lot: “you gotta tell me what your tag means”. Life is good in this area, kind of laid back. Some stores don’t open until 10a and close at 5p. We really love it here. I asked God before we moved here to please give us just a couple of years of good health in retirement. Within 2 years we both were diagnosed with cancer – her breast, and me, you know. Our pastor said I didn’t ask for enough, so go back and correct itJlol.
I have moved a lot in my Human Resources career. We lived in Macon, GA where I was born, then, north GA, eastern NC, west TN about 70 miles from Memphis, and finally back to NC. My wife and I met in Germany. Her father was a fighter pilot in the USAF, and I was in the service too at that time. When I came back to the states, my wife and I were married in New Mexico at Alamogordo AFB. We headed out on our honeymoon across the states driving back to Georgia where I finished my last 2 years of college with the GI Bill while she worked. We both love animals. She is into our dogs and all the birds here in the mountains. She knows all the NC birds. I love music and played in a little band in high school and college to make extra money. I dabbled at recording in Nashville a couple of times. So, that’s most of our little bitty story after 43 years together. To recap, we live in a little bitty town, in a little bitty house, and drive a little bitty car….there ain’t nothing wrong with being little bittyJ.
David, this was an excellent idea to get to know each other better!! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the posts. Thanks for the memories!!
Robert