Sunday ...

... Funday Sad day.  

One of our favorite places to visit while we are on vacation here in the Lake Lure area is the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge.  We have spent hours and hours of enjoyable time here enjoying the sunshine, the flowers and the wildlife..  And have taken lots of pictures of the same.

Sadly ... during Hurricane Helene last September the bridge and almost all the beautiful flowers, sculptures, memorial bricks, etc. were destroyed.  Only half the bridge remains today.  Thankfully, some of the structures survived the raging storm ... including a new building that had just been built as a sort of welcome center.   Also surviving was a lovely gazebo like structure with a hanging glass piece.  

Today we made the sad journey to see what was left of this beautiful bridge.  I was getting very emotional the closer we got to the bridge and when we arrived to see the destruction for ourselves I cried at the loss.  The loss is simply devastating.  

But on the bright side there is also new life.  Since the hurricane there has been lots of volunteers trying to clean up as best they can.  And they have also started replanting some flowers.  It's hard to say whether these beautiful tulips were recently planted or whether they are simply coming up on their own.  I like to think it's the latter.  I know it will take years for this lovely Flowering Bridge to bounce back from the destruction but I also know that it will eventually be as it once was.  

In other vacation news ... after leaving the Flowering Bridge we drove toward Rutherfordton as Richard has read that some of the Chimney Rock Village shops that were also destroyed during the hurricane had found a temporary retail outlet to sell their wares... and we wanted to support them.   This temporary retail outlet was at Tryon Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, NC.  

Not only were we able to do some shopping but there were several equestrian programs going on here.  I've added a photo to my Facebook feed of one of the jumping competitions.