Retreat 2010

Lake Logan, North Carolina, 2010.....gathering place for Lizzies far and wide. A place to come together to sew, knit, laugh, hug, cry, talk, eat, drink, walk, sit in the sun, run thru the rain and even try to get in a little restorative sleep. A time to see old friends and to finish up projects that have been sitting on the back burner, some as long as from Lake Logan 2009!!


I think this year was a bit more important to all of us than in the 2 years past. Cause this year we have had so many health scares amoung our group. It seems our ta-ta's have been misbehavin' all thru out the group. Several Lizzies have had some bad scares, that have led to biopsies. Luckily most have come back normal. But for one of us, the news came back badly, and in a big way.

One of the sweetest souls on earth found out a few months ago that she did have aggressive lobular carcinoma of the breast. And even worse, they also found tumor in her brain. So our dear Jan had both a lumpectomy and a cyberknife procedure to melt away the lesion in the brain. The rest of us have felt a bit helpless, being so geographically far away from south Florida where Jan lives. So being able to see some of the rest of the Lizzies just made me feel like I was almost able to reach out and hug Jan myself. And I am sure many of the other Lizzies felt that way also. Plus it gave us the chance to all wear our "Friends Don't Let Friends Fight Cancer Alone" t-shirts and have a group picture taken. Our catch phrase for saying our prayers is, I am going to the rock. So we found the biggest rock we could, climbed up and had a picture made. I can not take credit for this photo. My people pictures don't always seem to come out that well.


This year we had 14 of the actual Lizzies participate and 1 honorary Lizzie. I think the furthest any one travelled was Martha, all the way from Colorado Springs. But then there were lots from all up and down the east coast, several from the midwest, me from 1 state over and Debbie right there in North Carolina. Dee, the honorary Lizzie is also local. We were able to occupy the lodge at Lake Logan which had room for almost all of us to sleep and plenty of room to sit and visit. A few girls did have to stay in one of the smaller cabins but it was a whole lot closer to the dining hall!! We still sewed in Celebration Hall which is still plenty big enough for all that came. Everybody brought the cutest, sweetest little personal gifts to exchange. I brought the felted pincushions which I think everybody liked. As usual, these girls work hard while they are there. I even got alot done in my 4 days. I pretty much finished my quilt top and did alot of knitting. Alas, when I got home I realized I will still have to add a small border all the way around the quilt before I can send it off to be quilted.

All to soon, it was time to head out for home. I decided to drive south on Lake Logan road until it dead ended into the Blue Ridge Parkway. It looked on the map like it might be an easier way to go, since I can not seem to keep from getting lost going thru Waynesville!! It was a gorgous day and I was hoping to finally see some of those Smokies without all the rain that kept me from seeing them last year.

About 10 miles south of the lake, there was a gorgeous spot where the river widens and slows down a bit. The banks are rocky but very picturesque and peaceful. But somehow, big clod that I am, managed to fall down and really crack my head. I mean hard. Seeing stars and wondering if I am going to black out, hard. I actually laid there for a minute wondering if I was going to be sick to my stomach. Finally I did get up and was able to walk..stagger...back to the car. After a minute or two, I did feel alot better, albeit, with a headache. But I figured I was going to live, unless a slow bleeder in my brain got me later on. I never even noticed that I had also falled on the back of my forearm and it was bruised from wrist to elbow. So what do I do another 10 miles down the road? Get out and take a 4 mile solo hike thru the woods to a really pretty, very remote waterfall!! Oh yeah, probably well out of cell phone range. But hey, if I died, I would have been a good meal for a bear or cougar!! I did get some good pics of the south section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. When I got to where state highway 74 crosses the parkway and goes on up into the Smokies, I turned and headed home. The headache was finally winning and I just wanted to get home. Maybe next year I will finally drive thru the Smokies, and it will not rain on me!!










This is where I fell

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful. My sciatica didn't even get bothersome til I was less than 50 miles from home. The furbabies were of course happy to see me as well as the poor hapless hubby who just wanted some sort of home cooked meal after a week of sandwiches.

I do have several other things to post in the next few days. Pics of the almost done quilt, some pretty stuff out of the garden, several neat knitting projects and such. But for now it is time to take the doggies out for one last potty and then we are all hitting the hay. See you soon