hangin' around with some good time friends of ours

An old friend of mine and her husband recently bought a house up a winding, snow-covered, maple-lined, dirt road in my home town. Alex and I went up for a visit and to see the house for the first time this weekend. We were miles up their mountain road when I spotted the classic New England house and barn on the left. "There it is!" I said just as Alex veered a little to the right to make room for an oncoming minivan headed toward us. In a split second we gently drove and tilted into the ditch and promptly got stuck.
Alex tried to use our 4WD to no avail, the minivan approached us and the gentleman rolled down his window and tried to coach us out, also to no avail. I looked behind us and there in a gray Subaru was Mrs. Rochan, my 6th grade math teacher (small town). She drove around us and Alex, Lili and I piled out the driver side of the truck and walked the short distance to Caren and Dave's. They were surprised to see us walk up with no car, and had a good chuckle that we had managed to get stuck in the ditch. Caren pointed out that she has never gotten stuck even in her little 2WD car. It turns out Mrs. Rochan lives further up the road and she went and got her husband who drove his truck down and pulled Alex out (ahhh small town). He took one look at our license plates and said "North Carolina huh?"Their house was just like I had pictured it. Quaint, cozy, worn, and lots of quirks from being built in the 1700's. Caren and Little C were in the middle of painting a kitchen wall orange when we arrived. They took a break to give us a tour and sit down in their living room and have some mid day tea together.
It is a good feeling to arrive somewhere new, and feel at home.