Wilmington, We’ll be back.

tkscovill ♦ April 26, 2022 ♦ Leave a comment

We only had one night in Wilmington, so I didn’t take any pictures on this trip. (I did borrow some from Google though.) I was expecting more of the same hurricane destruction as we saw in New Bern. But, this was a different story.

Wilmington and New Bern are both situated near rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean, so we assumed there would have been equal amounts of damage from Florence. The hurricane sat over the NC coast for several days in September of 2018 and caused $22 billion in damage, mostly due to storm surge.

As compared to New Bern, there was a lot more recovery going on in Wilmington. Power trucks, cranes, landscapers, painters, huge three story homes wrapped in black plastic while the workers transformed what was underneath. Wilmington has a nice waterfront with lots of shops, benches, gardens and piers….

We got there on what was a beautiful day. After some unseasonably cold weather, it was so nice to see the sun and be in a place that seemed on the upswing. We drove through the downtown area and knew immediately that we wanted to come back when we could spend more time. It was like a tease through the windows: nice neighborhoods, well-established gardens, people sauntering from place to place.

“We could live here,” both of us said at the same time. “Except for the hurricanes,” we hurried to add, again at the same time. It’s good to know the person you are spending your life with!

Then there was “the key issue.”

When we were getting ready to leave the next day I realized that I could not find my keys! I can count the times I’ve lost keys on three fingers, so this was deeply disturbing to me. When it is time for us to leave a campground, it is my job to drive the car up behind the RV so we can “hook it up.” Well, that was when I realized that I did not have my keys. I looked everywhere, three or four times, almost cried because “I never lose my keys!” The last place I remembered holding them in my hands was in New Bern. There was a heaviness and a sadness over me like a dark cloud, taking away all the sweetness of the day before in beautiful Wilmington….

I admitted to Sam that I felt humiliated, embarrassed and angry with myself. Of course, he said that was ok. Everyone makes mistakes. I know that, but it was nice to hear him say it. Finally I let it go, sort of. Every now and then I went back to some of the same spots I had already checked. No keys. By the time we got to the next campground we decided it was a good time for a shower.

So, I’m in this clean but very tight shower stall, looking into my bathroom bag for my shampoo, and guess what? Right there on the bottom of the bag, underneath my pretty pink glasses case, were my keys. Just sitting there, like that was where they belonged. I might have cursed at them for a second and then gave my forehead a light thump.

Truly letting it go now I got my shower and all was well in the world again. I no longer felt like I was having premature senility, or just plain clumsiness.

Life sure does give us plenty to work with, huh?