It’s official! I’m home free. I’ve sold my home on the Outer Banks. The deed was recorded this afternoon and I turned the last two keys over to the new owners, just before hitting the road and heading south.
It was NOT an easy closing. There were glitches and delays, and in the end the buyers and I had to get together and figure things out on our own. But, as I always say, everything happens for a reason. Because of the problems, I got to know the buyers and see how much they love the house. I am so pleased that it was sold to such nice people. Their parting comment to me was, “You’re leaving it in good hands.” I believe that.
I also ran into an old friend, Glen Eure, at the coffee shop the day after the closing was originally to have occurred. Glen is an accomplished artist who, with his wife Pat, owns the Ghost Fleet Gallery, one of the most respected art galleries on the Outer Banks. When I showed him photos from my trip around the world last year, he insisted I speak to Pat about the gallery hosting a show of my work. She seemed to really like my photography and suggested I put together a slide show and presentation which, along with a selection of my best photos, would be featured at the gallery sometime next year. Hopefully, my book will be published by then and it can be a part of the show as well.
And this last might seem a bit trite, but it definitely astounded me. Three days ago, I was leaving home early in the morning. I rounded a corner of the dirt road that runs through the Maritime Forest and came face to face with a gorgeous red fox. Startled, she froze in her tracks long enough for me to take a good long look, before she regained her senses and darted back into the woods. This morning, as I was leaving the Outer Banks for what may be the last time ever, I crossed over onto the mainland and was driving through the barren, swampy stretches of U.S. 64, when a huge bear ran out of the woods on my right, jogged across the highway, and disappeared into the forest on the other side of the road. I’ve always known there were bears out here; indeed, there are yellow warning signs along the highway warning drivers to watch for bears. But I have never before seen one.
None of these things would have happened if the closing had been seamless and occurred on time. Sometimes we just have to trust the Universe to put things in place in its own good time.
So now I am headed back to Sarasota for a few days to open ten weeks of mail, unload my car of the last remaining items I am bringing back, do my laundry, and balance my checking accounts. I will barely have a week before I must be in Key West, where I also have some real estate business that must be attended to. I know I said I wanted to travel all the time, but this is not exactly the kind of travel I meant. I guess I’ll just have to trust that it’s all part of the master plan.
In the meantime, I’m reveling in the fact that my home on the Outer Banks has been sold. Hooray! Yahoo!! Ooh-wee!!! And, as Forest Gump would say, that’s all I have to say about that.
Barbara,
I thought you would want to know, Glen passed away on September 6, 2018. There is a service 9/21/18 at Holy Redeemer which I hope to attend if I am still here. We drove up prior to the hurricane to be here if there was damage as everyone we know has left the beach.
Glen was 86. I remember when my grandmother had the 1st Frank Stick Memorial Show at his gallery. He was a young man then. Time moves too quickly sometimes.
Hi Patti: Thanks for letting me know. It’s hard to imagine the Outer Banks without one of its most legendary icons. He was definitely one of a kind.