Tracy E. of Paranormal, Magic and Mischief wrote an awesome review of In All Things, Balance (Daughters of the People, Book 4), calling it a "wonderfully written story filled with amazing details that has the reader glued to their seat waiting to find out what happens next!" Many thanks to Tracy for taking the time to read and review the Daughters of the People Series as each title is released.
***
We had some rough weather here over the past couple of weeks. Earlier this week, it was three inches of ice that looked like snow. That hadn't even melted when we got about eight inches of snow on top of it.
Now, folks who live in other parts of the country where it snows regularly will pshaw, but that kind of weather is a little rough on us. While we're in the South, we're also in the foothills of the Appalachians. Our mountains might be small compared to the Rockies, but they're steep and don't see a lot of sunlight. The landscape on the left is the result.
Now, another thing folks do when Southerners get snow is laugh at us, 'cause the first thing we do is get out in it. Snow is fairly rare here, so of course we want to take a good look-see. Our local road crews are really good about keeping the main roads clear, but what would a winter snow be without a drive along the back roads that aren't hardly accessible during the dry months, let alone after a good snow?
So out we went in Richard's Jeep. After a nice, winding drive along Blue Ridge Gap Road toward Persimmon (on perfectly clear roads, mind you), he decided he wanted to show me the Lovey Dovey out on Coleman River, an isolated cabin that used to be used by newlyweds. The road is steep, narrow, and has no turn around spots during the first couple of miles. There's a steep bank on one side and an equally steep drop off on the other.
He started up it, and I said, "You realize there're no turn-arounds up here, right?"
He grinned real big and said, "Oh, yeah."
"We're gonna get stuck," I told him, and he shook his head and said, "Naw."
Did we get stuck? Yup, we did. A small pine tree had fallen across the road. Whoever had come through ahead of us (looked like a couple of other vehicles, on a road that nobody lives along) had gone right over it with no trouble. We didn't make it, though, so Richard got out, took an ax out of the back, and hacked away at the tree, grinning like a dang fool the whole time.
Meanwhile, me and my son are sitting in the Jeep looking out the window at the drop off right on the other side of my door.
We finally made it to the Lovey Dovey. I snapped a few pictures. We had a snowball fight and got a little bit too cold. Another vehicle came along, so we packed up and headed home. I'd say that was the end of our adventures, but we still had to drive back out in the snow and mud.
The moral of this story is never let a Southerner with a Jeep take you out driving in the snow, or something like that.
