We loved our time in Aspen, had a great time, met a lot of people and were exposed to a lot of new things. But at that altitude you have 8 months of winter, 2 months of mud, and 2 months of summer. So one day we decided we'd had enough of winter so started looking for a new home.
We had the opportunity to take a little time off so spent a month driving from Aspen, to Scottsdale, San Antonio, Galveston, New Orleans, Florida Panhandle, then the Keys. We decided to spend the winter on Big Pine Key, just a few miles from where Michael proposed to me!
We were fortunate to fall in a with a group of folks that had been going to the keys every winter for years. They adopted us as family and became great supporters of my work. There is only one couple left from that group and we still keep in touch with them.
I now wish I was painting more when we were there, the flora and fauna are amazing as are the birds! It wasn't until we got to New Bern that I really started painting.
After talking to a lot of people we had decided that we would look for a new home in the Carolinas. It had to be on the water, have something for me to paint, be big enough we could make a living, but not too big, and it needed to be "on its way but hadn't gotten there yet."
A gentleman from Currituck, said "You need to look at New Bern, it's just the kind of place you are looking for."
So we did.
We have been here in New Bern for 25 years now!
Thank you Fred from Currituck!
- Jan Francoeur
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