October 17, 2019 – Carl Sandburg’s House

Another cold morning but the sun was shining.

We rode in the vans for a little over an hour to get to Connemara, the house where Carl Sandburg and family lived from 1945 until his death in 1967. Connemara has 245 acres of land with a house sitting far up a hill. Lilian, his wife who he called Paula, raised goats and they moved here because she needed a warmer climate for her goats. The land includes a goat farm with descendants of the original goats. The family moved out right after Sandburg’s death and left everything behind. They sold it to the U.S. Government who maintain it as a National Historic Site. The tour is excellent and at the farm you even get to pet the goats.

After a box lunch, we headed across the street to The Flat Rock Theater to see “Smoke on the Mountain” which was a musical comedy which was light onstory but full of good folk music.

Back at the Assembly Inn, after dinner they had the “Mysteries” teacher tell scary stories for an hour.

Friday the group is going to the NC Arboretum but Carol and I decided to head back to Raleigh.