Flowering Bridge Update

Today started off a sad day. Geisha, my CA chow girl will be 15 in October, if she makes it. She has a cancerous tumor on her knee that has finally started to give her problems walking, I can tell she's in pain and we are trying to manage it. Timber, who will be 14 this year, if he makes it, has gotten very weak, falls a lot, and last week a tumor started to grow in his mouth, his jaw is swollen and it seems to be aggressive. I was glad there was a talk today on the Flowering Bridge to get an update as to what was going on. I thought it would be a happy lecture on the progress being made.
 

  It was held at the Polk County Ag office, was an off-and-on rainy day, but a nice little group of gardeners did show up. 

The speaker has been a volunteer for the bridge for 14 years. She lives above the lake and bridge on a mountain and could never see them down below, but the hurricane took out so many trees the bridge and lake are now visible. They have found 160 plants and trees which are now at her home trying to be revived. The Rainbow Bridge was completely lost, and sadly I was expecting to hear about the "new" bridge and was ready to volunteer to help replant, but it doesn't look like a new bridge will be built. Not what I wanted to hear.

Learned a lot of things I had not heard of. All this debris is from Chimney Rock, the houses that were lost and it all piled up at the bridge causing the water to go a different direction and now the river is not in the same place. Morse Park where Bob and I saved turtles one day, is coming along and we will go back to see the progress. The speaker said the one thing she remembers the day after the hurricane was the smell of propane. There were propane tanks everywhere and so many in the water. The lake is closed for the next year, no one can boat or swim there. The water level is now 12 feet and will be lowered even more to remove debris deep in the lake, vehicles, refrigerators, propane tanks and everything else. The sewer and power systems are now being worked on. Two garden volunteers in Chimney Rock lost their lives when their houses washed away. There was four feet of sand that came from 40 miles away and covered parts of the bridge, the plants were underneath all of the sand. What a horrible mess in such a beautiful area, a place I visited frequently only 20 minutes from my house. 

I am so thankful I went to the bridge many times and enjoyed it, but it is so sad to think it will never be there again. It was so beautiful. It will take years to even get the area cleaned up and somewhat presentable, but I will still go out and remember the Flowering Bridge.

One bright spot. The mountain laurel is in full bloom everywhere and I stopped to pick a bouquet to take home.