Another season ends

Pickin' in the Pines

It has been a very full season despite some cancellations due to weather and a cold. I estimate I've driven the intrepid gal 13,000 miles this summer. While the scenery afar has been lovely, the best part of any of the trips has been the company of family and friends. And this very special season ended with two very special trips.

My son works for the Millstone 4H Camp and Conference Center in Ellerbe, NC. I cannot tell you how important 4H was to both my children, both in terms of developing their skills and interests, and in developing their work ethic and character. It was like having an army of parenting support after their dad died. My gregarious son has friends across the state from his 4H

Chatham Rabbits

involvement and continues contact with many of those good folks through his employment, first at the Betsy Jeff Penn Center, and now at Millstone. It's like one big statewide family. So, of course, I was glad to buy a ticket to Millstone's annual fundraiser for camp scholarships, Pickin' in the Pines. Mark your calendar for the third Saturday in October. Your ticket gets you a meal of the best BBQ I have ever had, as much craft beer as you care to consume, and three hours of local bluegrass from a variety of groups including, this year, the Chatham Rabbits. And if you don't care to make the drive home, you can rent a cabin and stay over. As Ben is the property manager, he wrangled me an RV site. The event is typically outdoor, but rain threatened so it was moved indoors and under tents.

Hungry Mother Park Creekside Entrance

Ben spent the afternoon hanging lights to cheer up the place against a very overcast sky. Turns out, the rain was light and spirits were high and they made enough to send a passel of kids to camp.

My last trip of the year was to Hungry Mother state park in Virginia with my friend, Cathy Holt. We took the boats, hoping to paddle despite knowing that the lake would be lowered for bridge repairs and the weekend promised rain. We've had such crazy weather here, there's not been much color. Virginia more than made up for it. At the last minute, Ben and Sydney chose to join us. We ate well, walked the glorious woods, and ambled home early when high winds threatened. We managed a good visit, though, and

Cathy trying my walking sticks

enjoyed a "found" day of quiet at home on Sunday. So I leave you until next spring with the pictures below. Have a cozy winter, wonderful holidays, and hopeful new year! See you on the road in 2020! (as always, click on any picture to enlarge it)

Deep woods

Old friends are the best

On the lake loop trail

All together

Our neighbor's "pet"

Happy Cathy!

Peace on earth

Hungry Mother Lake from the beach

Fall pallet

Columbus Day?

Tin can banjos for sale

I have mixed feelings about the controversy between Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, but I'm pretty clear that having a national museum closed on a minor holiday when folks might actually have the day off to visit is a really dumb idea. Particularly when the choice to remain closed is not evident on the website. It was Google and Yelp that informed us, not the site itself nor the message on their answering machine. Sigh.

Ruthie is moving and I have had a week of contractors behind me and a week coming up so we decided we'd claim a "found" day and head home. On the way in to Cincinnati, we stopped again at the lovely town of Metamora,

Lunch!

IN to visit the shops, pet the draft horses, shoo the ducks and admire the only wooden aquaduct still functioning in America.

We were hungry and when we asked around we were directed to The Smelly Gourmet. The menu was pretty limited to a ribeye sandwich with caramelized onions which was pretty good. But the real discovery was their "hull-less" popcorn. Apparently Smelly's (we didn't ask) nephew, in deference to folks suffering from diverticulitis, developed and now cultivates hull-less varieties of popcorn. I have

Main Street

brought a bag home to try but if the caramel corn I had for dessert was any indication, I may be mail ordering my popcorn from now on. The stuff was good and my dentist should have no complaints. I took the picture of their wall of tin can banjos for my son who used to enjoy making them and teaching his fellow 4Hers how to make and play them. At $32 a pop, he might should get into making them again.

My grandmother Burnside's family came from Metamora, the Gordons. Any history of Metamora starts with their incorporation in 1838. My late friend and

Little Free Library

amateur historian, Bill Dow, years ago sent me an article about a Scottish experimental community by the name of Metamora. Wish I could find it. My Gordon ancestors were mentioned. Indiana, at one time, was full of experimental communities--communes long before the age of hippies. Residents shared property and all worked for the community good, until they didn't and my great something grandparents moved away

Horse drawn canal boat

and in 1835 build my grandmother's house. I have asked several times, and searched the Internet for the history of Metamora before 1838. Either the town is ashamed of their hippie past or the Scottish community was located somewhere else, but family lore has it as the Metamora we visited. The shops and scenery are fun and we make a point to visit whenever we are in the area. That said, the state of the buildings and the merchandise for sale indicate the difficult economic situation of the local farmers that might visit for a Sunday afternoon to ride the canal boat or the

How a canal crosses a creek

steam train with their grandkids.

We did enjoy the good food. And we bought some stone ground cornmeal from the water-powered grist mill. We didn't buy any chatchkas this trip but I suspect we'll be back to support them as we can. They are working hard to keep this town of 188 going. And they do bother to keep the correct hours on their website...

Mill dam at the start of the canal

Searching again for Fall

Jordan Lake courtesy Flickr

You may recall our search for fall colors last year. My ordinarily lovely maple trees went straight to brown last fall. We'd had flooding from hurricanes last year. This year, it is wicked drought. It's a little early for fall color at home but many trees are just brown. It's disconcerting.

Ironton Bridge

Last weekend, I booked a campsite at Crosswind Point at Jordan Lake. I was hoping to catch up with the Randolph Ramblers club. Apparently, no one but me booked for the meetup so folks went their different ways. I don't regret the weekend, though. On Friday night, I paddled at sunset with my friend, Cathy who lives nearby. Ruthie joined us after dark for supper. And Ruthie and I hiked and paddled on Saturday. Ruthie is in the middle of moving, Cathy was just off traveling and then having company for a week, and I have been dealing with contractors and we were all three exhausted. The peace of the woods and the water is always healing, something we depend on. It was painful seeing the woods around us so

Near West Union, OH

stressed by the tremendous heat and dry weather this late into the fall.

This past Thursday, Ruthie and I headed up to the Fiberglass RV Rally we'd attended last year in Brown County State Park. We left town on the heels of Hurricane Matthew last year. This year we arrived in Indiana in gentle rain, but the drought has affected the midwest, too. Despite the rain, the fire risk remained elevated. That

Rural Ohio church

said, we are seeing the beginnings of fall here.

We raced up to Huntington WV to spend the first night. The trip really began for us when we crossed the Ironton-Russell Bridge at Ironton, OH on the Ohio River. My favorite route to Indiana is on US 52 which runs along the Ohio River through old river towns from near Huntington into Cincinnati. In addition to the river views, the towns are full of historic buildings

Grant's Birthplace

and old homes we so enjoy. This year, there was a lengthy detour which took us away from the river but through other old communities we'd not visited before. It also took us past the entrance to Edge of Appalachia, a private nature preserve of 20,000 acres protecting  the biodiversity of fragile ecosystems at the base of the Appalachian escarpment. And we passed President Grant's birthplace.

Grant Memorial Bridge

We had lunch at a Frisch's Big Boy, a memory from childhood. The rain started after that and continued into the night. We had a small panic at the camp site. The electricity did not come on when we plugged in. It was after 5p and getting dark and expected to drop into the 30s. Kudos to the Indiana State Park system. We called the ranger station and an electrician appeared and replaced the circuit breakers in the park's electrical box serving our site. Our relief at having heat was considerable. To celebrate, instead of cooking,

Guess who?

we headed up to the Abe Martin Lodge for their fried chicken buffet and amazing cobblers. We slept warm and well last night.

We did see some fall color. Brown County's moniker is "The Little Smokys" and they do resemble our Appalachian mountains back home. Most of Indiana is flat--a gateway to The Great Plains, but the glaciers stopped here in southern Indiana, leaving this ridge of hills with impressive vistas and intimate winding roads. There are lots of log cabins--old and new--including old barns and newer vacation homes. The town of Nashville, IN is a resort and artist's community. We poked around Nashville in the morning. After lunch we enjoyed an engaging visit with some of the

Abe Martin Lodge

fiberglass campers gathered here for their small, annual rally.

There rally organizers planned a pot luck supper at 5p which left us just enough time to go hunt down a couple of covered bridges. Indiana is home to 98 covered bridges, including 14 built before 1870. There is an unusual two lane covered bridge at the entrance to the park (RVs go in through another entrance). We located that, then set out to find the

The Little Smokys

1808 Bean Blossom Covered Bridge. I was glad for the practice driving Lemhi Pass last month, the road was steep and narrow. We made it just fine, though I wondered at the effort a horse would require pulling a wagon. And I guess those old Model Ts were pretty tough, but I was glad for a modern truck and did use the 4WD down the grade.

You may recall Decision Point on the Lewis & Clark Trail. It's a national historic site where the Marias River joins the

Log barn

Missouri, so named because the boys had to make a decision which way to go (apparently a common problem throughout their trip whenever a new river joined up with the Missouri). Many of our stops on the Lewis & Clark trail were these river confluences with historic markers playing up the drama. Somehow, our intrepid heroes always figured which way to go. So we were tickled to see a sign to Hesitation Point inside

Door to the Nashville Arts Guild

Brown County State Park and had to see where it went. It's actually a trailhead to a vista on Kin Hubbard Ridge which we may hike tomorrow. Kin Hubbard was a humorist who created cartoons and sayings based on his old mountain man character, Abe Martin. Brown County State Park and the Abe Martin Lodge were dedicated to the memory of Kin Hubbard whose dry wit entertained Hoosiers for years. I have enjoyed my grandfather's old Kin Hubbard books and though it's been a while since I read them, I vaguely recall Hesitation Point being the vista where a fella took his girlfriend to propose. We can only hope their success matched that of Meri & Bill.

The pot luck was great. TOO much good food, lots of friendly folks, including a

Sidewalk at the Arts Guild

woman who reminded me last year she wanted to buy my Scamp when I was ready to sell and made sure I had her phone number again. The heat is on, the trailer is cozy and we have had our bit of fall color.

Tomorrow we head down to Cincinnati via Metamora, IN. We'll poke around the old shops and viaduct in Metamora, set up camp in North Bend, OH and spend Monday exploring the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincy. Levi Coffin, a member of New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, just up the street (Friendly Avenue, no less) from First Friends, where I now attend, was called the President of the Underground Railroad. The museum in

Brown County State Park North Entrance

Cincinnati is located near where slaves crossed the Ohio River to freedom until laws were tightened and the Canadian border became their goal. I know a little of the history but am looking to learn more. Max Carter of Guilford College gives walks and talks through the New Garden Meeting and Guilford College campuses pointing out where the railroad passed through there and how escaping slaves were hidden and directed on to the next safe place. We'll make the trip home from

1808 Bean Blossom Bridge

Cincy to Greensboro in the course of a day and be grateful we don't have to make it by dark and on foot. That said, I look forward to reporting on what more we learn on Monday.

Hesitation Point

Postscript

Texas Panhandle

Just a last word on the Lewis and Clark trip. In 23 days, we have covered 7400 miles this trip, much more than I ever imagined.

We really have cannonballed home since picking up I40 south of Santa Fe, driving 600 miles each day on Thursday and Friday. And remained friends, probably the biggest

Cadillac Ranch

accomplishment.

We did make one stop at Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, TX. It is a public art installation set up in the 1970s by a couple of architecture students commenting on the evolution of Cadillac tailfins. Actually, my dad had one model they used, and my grandfather drove us to Seattle for the 1960 World's Fair in another. The public is invited to add

Public Art

paint to the project so it continually evolves. Despite the fact that there is NO signage and it's in the middle of a plowed field, there were lots of people there, some painting, some admiring as we did. Apparently enough come to paint, there are two dumpsters by the road for empty paint cans.

I have had a ball this trip and I have one big trip in mind for next year, but my  happiest times with the trailer have been in the nearby state parks with friends and young'uns. That might just be my focus from here on out. The equipment has performed admirably and we've been comfortable the whole trip (except for the brief evacuation during the storm in Iowa), but there's no place like home among loved ones and that seems to be where we are

both happiest.

I've got a few more short excursions still this fall while the weather nice. So Happy Trails. May we meet again soon.

South by southeast

We are ready for home. But not before taking in some southwestern color. Two

Estes Park, CO

days ago, we camped at Ft. Collins, CO and spent a day driving the Trail Ridge Scenic Highway from Estes Park west through Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the highest highway in the US and we topped out over 12,000 feet. My grandparents brought me through the Rockies when I was about 6 years old and I vividly remember frolicking in snow in my summer clothes. Precious little snow here,

Two miles high

even at the highest elevations.

We had lunch in an open air restaurant in the resort town of Grand Lake then we took another, equally beautiful route home through national forest land back to Ft. Collins. We have loved all of this but are getting saturated with it and running out of ways to photograph what we really can't capture.

Oh, those Rocky Mountains

We headed out of Ft. Collins down through Denver then down, finally, through more endless plains, interrupted by tree-covered buttes--something new. We'd seen lots of buttes, but always nearly barren, especially towards the tops. These were covered with thick trees all over. A pleasant change, but still endless. Yes, we are ready for the Uwharries.

Grand Lake, CO

Most of the places we've been so far have been pretty isolated, and in areas of very low population so we haven't had much traffic. We expected a lot at Rocky Mountain National Park as it was Labor Day and it was heavier than we've experienced, but still pretty mild. So we were out of practice navigating heavy traffic when we hit Denver.

Welcome to the Mile High City

The Coors Stadium was pretty impressive--loved the moving lines. And I have never seen a tractor pulling three trailers. It did get a little dicey at moments with 5 lanes of heavy traffic. I was pleased to see that they had an excellent system of electric trains. The tracks paralleled the interstate and the trains were frequent, full and fast--fast enough I wasn't able to get a picture, but you get the idea.

Denver Coors Stadium

From Denver, we continued south, through endless prairie to finally arrive at Santa Fe. We are staying in a hotel for two nights as a treat before we start the long haul home. Early this morning we got the oil changed and tires rotated on the truck and then spent a lovely morning and early afternoon in Old Santa Fe visiting galleries, jewelry stores and rug merchants. We had a great lunch and some Hagen Das sorbet and felt fully satisfied that we had completed our trip.

When we got back to the hotel to hook up the trailer for an

Be careful passing!

early exit in the morning, I saw my Check Engine Light. Our morning exit will depend on the dealer's ability to get us worked in today. I'm not too worried, but I'd sure rather be packing up to go. That said, this will be my last post for this trip. I may add a picture of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX if we are able to stop, but this is pretty much the trip. We will be cannonballing home just as soon as our cannon can fire properly.

So enjoy this few pictures of Santa Fe and send some good thoughts for our machinery on the way home. Very much looking forward to seeing you at the end of the trail.

I now have a dog...

 

The work was fabulous!

 

SO much to see, we almost didn't get downtown!

 

Restaurant Old Santa Fe

 

Palace of the Governors with natives selling their wares in the shade. Did I say "necklace"?

 

Center for Performing Arts

 

Wine Bar

 

Museum of Art

 

Public Art

PS. The truck is fine. A shout out to Fiesta Nissan who checked the codes, updated the software, assuaged my worries, paid for Uber to and from our hotel while we waited and didn't charge us a thing. Kudos to kindness.

PPS. My friend, Linda, gave me a journal to log all the states I've visited with my old girl. When we get home, LibraryAnn will have rolled through 31 states and 3 Canadian provinces. A shout out to the Scamp folks as well.