A few months ago I struck up a casual Facebook conversation with a “distant” relative about my book, Flea Market Travel, Treasures and Tips. I was sitting at the kitchen table of my daughter’s home in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. Cora was tucked in the tranquility of her Enchanted Acres home nestled deep in the foothills of the Redwood Forest in northern California. Casual exchanges revealed discovery that we are both writers and have a passion for sharing non-fiction based on true stories. It wasn’t long before those early polite electronic exchanges became a catalyst to bind family ties left frayed by time, distance, and circumstance.
Cora invited me to visit her home. I, being one to never turn down a travel invitation, without hesitation, accepted her invitation. Thanks to a Christmas gift of airfare from my husband, together with our shared cousin and my travel buddy Stephanie, we planned our reunion adventure.
Cora’s home is not the typical sprawling ranch that you imagine when you think “California living.” She and her beautiful family have chosen instead to revive and restore a home and property left vagrant by a former hoarding couple, a veritable pickers paradise!
With boots, flashlight, loupe and gloves in hand…I packed my bags and headed for the Redwood Forest. Let this picking reunion begin.
A cold and rainy Day One didn’t deter us. I got a peripheral glimpse of the maze of buildings on the sprawling four acre property. I gazed in wonder at the volume and diversity of treasures littering the forest floor and those which Cora has unearthed in the nooks and crannies of secret passages inside the home. We took a drive around the edges of a majestic redwood park and hit up several local thrift stores. We chatted and shared long held family tales and reveled in the renewed security of our family bond.
Not only is this adventure providing me an opportunity to “pick” among treasures scattered on the forest floors and hidden deep in abandoned sheds, shacks and cavernous hallways of Cora’s Enchanted Acres home, but for all of us, the gift of family ties left raveled by time and now tightly bound through a week of travel, treasures, tales and love.
My anticipation is palpable! My heart is full.
I share my Day One discoveries with you in this post with more to come as our week unfolds. I hope you enjoy my pictorial ride-along.
© 2017 Peggy Losey. All Rights Reserved.
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