Episode Fourteen—The End

Since our plane didn’t leave until later in the day, Ken and Carol drove us around a beautiful neighborhood before we stopped at—ta-da-da-da—a quilt shop. It was fabulous. Marietta’s was so close and had the best reviews of any quilt shops around—and there were a lot in the Greenville area.

Marietta’s had a decent amount of fabric, lots of classroom space and a large sewing machine sales area. Since Carl got a look at the prices on some of the quilting machines, I told him he’s lucky I’m only a fabric junky. I bought some fabric, just because. Not that I needed any.

Some beautiful pre-cuts, a vintage rusty calico, a little piece of red, white and blue and some orange flannel—because it’s almost time to think about pumpkins and flannel was on sale.

Everyone was impressed with Marietta’s. If you’re ever in the hood, I recommend it highly.

They even put my purchase it in a quite lovely, reusable bag.

All too soon, it was time to make our way to the airport. Thanks again, Ken and Carol, for a wonderful, fun visit!

Greenville has an international airport, but it’s quite small and wasn’t busy.

Our flight was slightly delayed due to a nearby thunderstorm. We actually took off in the rain. We had a bit of a layover in Dallas but were lucky to find a truly fantastic Italian restaurant and enjoyed a leisurely dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy—another recommendation.

I had shrimp scampi and it was divine. I ate the whole thing.

Carl had lasagna. He ate the whole thing.

We got into LAX ahead of schedule. American Airlines did not disappoint on our entire trip.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were waiting at the luggage carousel and your luggage never got off the plane? That was our unfortunate experience. Nothing like that had ever happened to us before. Everything dear to me was in my backpack, but there were those souvenirs—especially the fabric.

This might be a current trend, but I had never seen an airline have a baggage desk right at the carousel. There, we went. Fearing the worst, we showed our baggage claim tickets. No one ever looks at those and I was beginning to think they were worthless little slips of paper. They certainly are not!

Surprise! Our bags arrived on an earlier flight. We could have taken that flight but it didn’t allow much wiggle room if we were late getting into Dallas so we opted for a longer layover. Our bags were waiting for us right behind the counter.

The flyaway bus was on schedule. It started raining while we were on the freeway! I guess we brought that storm back with us.

We arrived home at midnight, 3 a.m. Eastern time. It was a long day and it was good to be home.

I woke up the next morning ready to enjoy our house and garden, but ran out of energy fast. I do believe we’re ready to plan the next adventure.

Our welcoming front patio.

Refurbished pots along the front walkway.

Still on the bucket list: The National Zoo, a guided tour of Arlington House, General Pershing grave site, Gettysburg, Williamsburg, The National Portrait Gallery, Charleston, The National Cathedral, Interior of the Library of Congress, the White House tour, actually getting off the bus in Old Town Alexandria, Lake Lure, Chimney Rock state park, downtown and gardens, Walnut Grove Plantation, and the Battle of Musgrove Hill Civil War site. And those are just the ones I know about!

Happy travels. Wishing you a fabulous and weather-friendly end of summer.