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Checking Out Nan & Rudy's New Digs23 Oct 2011
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Driving down their driveway, their paddock is on the left of the...
Aha, their new digs
Just loved this sign outside their front door.
As we have said numerous times, another fun part of our lifestyle is the ability to see friends from various assignments where we lived during our military and civilian careers as well as new friends we have met “on the road”. This revisit to Alabama, and the Huntsville area specifically, was no exception.
Our first visit was to Hazel Green (north of Huntsville) to see Nan and Rudy who recently moved here (Rudy is now retired) due to Nan’s reassignment from the Washington, DC area. Their transition down to this home has been on-going and she officially reported for duty here at Redstone Arsenal in mid July, so they are still living among boxes but have made their main living area cozy and comfortable.
The town of Hazel Green was named by US President Andrew Jackson. He named the town “Hazel Green” because the hazel bushes along the road were of a vibrant green color. Several farmers from Georgia and Carolina moved to the area when they discovered the area had some of the richest soil in all of the South. A post office was built in 1819 and grocers and rest stops followed and became a bustling community and incorporated into a town in 1821 with a population of approximately 400. After the rich soil had been used by the farmers, everyone suddenly moved away and Hazel Green was then unincorporated. Subsequently, and decades later, Hazel Green has grown from a rural farm area to a thriving suburb of Huntsville, thanks primarily to Redstone Arsenal and is once again incorporated. And an interesting sign of the times, I read “Hazel Breen broke the record in 2011 for the only town with less than 4000 residents to have a Facebook page with over 2,000 likes.”
We thoroughly enjoyed the drive up to Hazel Green going past fields and fields of cotton and then finally saw the cotton gin at the edge of Hazel Green before reaching the turn-off to reach their home. The drive down their shared driveway was just beautiful as is their home. The house is very deceiving from the outside how large and spacious it is once inside; not to mention gorgeous with fabulous views. They’ve already added a lot to it with hardwood floors, painting and have multiple plans on future changes or modifications.
After the “tour” and the fun of seeing familiar pieces in new settings we started the process of fixing our brunch. Nan, with my “sous chef assistance”, fixed these wonderful lemon poppy seed ebelskivers (pronounced like able-skeevers), a Danish delicacy that were incredibly light and delicious to go along with our scrambled eggs, sausage and onions and the fruit salad Rudy prepared – we dined al fresco on the upper gazebo and enjoyed the champagne we brought along to enjoy with the brunch.
We spent the afternoon enjoying getting caught up with one another and walking around their property, going out on the ATV, and just generally enjoying the beautiful autumn weather and one another’s company. Had a yummy venison chili dinner and were all ready to crash around 10:30 to be well rested for planned day of driving to Lake Guntersville and seeing more of the locale and the possibility of seeing another pal from the past!
Till the next time . . .
