A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to South Carolina

I have not felt the greatest the last couple of weeks, but thought it was exhaustion from my job, which is in a busy time of the year.  I needed a vacation - badly.

Monday, at about 5am, in a motel room in Raleigh, North Carolina, I got a familiar feeling- and, later that morning, I was waiting to see someone in an urgent care the desk clerk in my motel had recommended.

I have to say this - they have excellent walk-in urgent care facilities in Raleigh.  But, between my particular infection, and the antibiotic treatment used for it, I can now write a book called "Many of the Restrooms Along Interstates 40 and 77 in the Carolinas, Rated."


(Sorry if this is gross.  Last on that topic.)

So fast forward (yes, PLEASE) to today, where spouse and I were walking down a street in South Carolina.  Normally we would have been walking fast, but today, I just couldn't.

We were admiring a house when a man, perhaps close to my age or a tiny bit older, came over.  He had been doing yard work.  He said "hi", we said "hi" back, and continued our walk.  Then, after a little bit, I was tired enough where I didn't want to walk anymore. So we were heading back to our car, and the man came over again.

This time, we chatted a few minutes, and then the magic happened. The man invited us into his (large!) yard, and then gave us a tour of part of his house, which has a distinguished ownership history.  Part of his land is also located on a Revolutionary War battlefield.  He gave us permission to take pictures of plants, but not his house.

If it wasn't for that infection, perhaps I never would have seen this tree on his property, or known its story.

This is a magnolia tree.  He told us (which I am unable to independently verify) it is the widest magnolia in South Carolina.  At one time, it was a lot taller, too, but Hurricane Hugo (1989) took care of that.

Several years ago I did a blog post on the Angel Oak near Charleston, SC and this tree reminded me so much of the Angel Oak.

I can mourn the loss of part of a battlefield, but the antebellum house this magnolia belongs to shows that battlefields weren't that respected, even more than 150 years ago.

Sometimes things happen for a reason.  I would rather not have that infection. But sometimes, you just never know what is around the corner from where you may, except for the unexpected, never have been.