Then on my way back, I stopped off at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to visit the family place there (from where I wrote you) and seeing the farms again after so many years, I realized how beautiful and fertile the country was there, but of course the winters would be very cold and had not the equitable climate you wanted.
Last winter I went a number of times to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to see the family, as Mother had heart trouble and was staying there. I went over the peach orchard land and other property belonging to Father and others. This was equitable climate, although too hot in midsummer, but the soil was sandy and not suitable to growing many kinds of crops and had no lake or river.
I remembered your having mentioned Myrtle Beach many times when we were in India and the possible stay of the group here, should you go to the U.S.A.; and Norina and I planned to go down, just when your timely letter (dated November 12, 1943) came from Margaret, which you will remember, again mentioning Myrtle Beach.
We went down last February [1944] and stayed at the house that Father had meanwhile given to Kenneth and myself, adjoining his house there. So many times I had thought, why did Father give me a house that was so nice in every way, except that it was not secluded enough to be useful to spiritual purposes or a meditative life, being right on the beach over which anyone had the right to walk. Otherwise, it is large enough for a group of yours, having nine bedrooms and five baths, et cetera ... We five stayed there for three days before we came out to your center property, where we are now living for the month of June and we have accumulated supplies, et cetera, for our camp life in the woods.
To go on with the story, I inquired about the hunting and fishing preserve last February and Father took us out to see the six lakes. The main highway from Miami to New York goes through the property, but after one arrives, there is only a sandy little road which has shrunk into almost oblivion. It was the Old King's Highway, used by Washington and Lafayette, and detoured near the lakes (as no doubt they camped and fished here) ... We were particularly enchanted by the largest lake, which was long and narrow and had a view of the ocean.