The plan for October was to spend several weeks in the mountains of North Carolina. Our first stop was our property in Lewisburg WV. We needed to do some work on our garage where we store all of our household stuff. We rushed to finish this task because we were informed that Pat’s mother had a minor stroke. We headed back to York, PA and spent the next nine days there. Her mother was in York Hospital and the doctors were running tests to determine if it was a stroke or a tumor. The doctors have tentatively decided it is a tumor deep in her skull. It is too deep for a biopsy. At times the family was providing 24 hour coverage to insure she didn’t get out of bed and fall in the middle of the night. After about 9 days at York Hospital she was transferred to a rehab hospital. Her condition stabilized and visiting hours were limited.
About the same time that this was going on, my father tripped and landed flat on his face. He broke his dentures and bruised his face. He spent several days in the hospital undergoing tests, then a few days of rehab. He is doing fine now.
With the family health situation stabilized, we decided to resume our trip to the mountains. After a two day drive we checked into a timeshare in NC, just north of the GA/SC line. It was a great location to check out the three state area. We drove south and explored Tallulah Gorge SP in GA. Scenes from the movie Deliverance were filmed here. The following day drove into SC and we hiked into the Ellicott Rock Wilderness area, down to the Chattooga River, which was made famous by Burt Reynolds’ infamous canoeing trip.
We saw lots of waterfalls during the week including the 411 foot Whitewater Falls. We discovered Panthertown Valley, called “The Yosemite of the East”. Despite this overstatement, it was fun to explore this wilderness area with no signs or trail markers. On our last day we climbed to the summit of Whiteside Mt., and enjoyed the great fall colors.
We left NC and headed back to York to check on Pat’s mother who was still in the rehab hospital. There was little change in her mental condition but physically she has regained some use of her right hand and is more mobile.
