Our New England trip Autumn 2007

Way before daylight on Thursday, Mat and I awoke to throw our bags into the trunk of Sara’s car. Our plan was to arrive in Woodstock, CT by 6 or 7 that evening at some family friends, Mitch and Margaret. After 15 hours of driving we arrived in time for a shrimp scampi dinner with homemade butterscotch pudding and Oreo cookies for dessert. After dinner, we watched the Red Sox game. (Since we were in New England, everyone was a fan.) In the morning we got a tour of their wonderful yard and Margaret’s studio…she carves beautiful wood pieces and has started silversmithing. Everything she showed us was beautiful. Their home was built in the early 1800s and about 40 years ago, they moved it to their current location. Then we hopped in the car and drove through Rhode Island to Massachusetts to have lunch with some cousins. It was wonderful to get out and stretch our legs while they gave us a tour of their property before feeding us a great lunch of bbq chicken, salad and brownies. Sheila gave us a tour of their home which was built in the 1700’s and she showed us the most recent addition to their home (circa 1860). Sheila and Dom’s daughter, Diana, came over with her son, Benjamin for a quick visit as well. They were all really excited over the Red Sox win the night before.

After our visit with Sheila and Dom, we headed over to uncle Jerry’s and unloaded our bags from the car and Uncle Jerry took us out to Plymouth, MA. We saw Plymouth Rock, but could not touch it. It is now barricaded in because people were taking pieces of the rock to have for themselves, so the rock was getting increasingly smaller.

We also got a closer look at the Mayflower II which sailed across the ocean blue. It is not the original Mayflower, but one that was built in commemoration and then they sailed it across in the last 30 years or so. Then we ate at a local fish shop. I was daring and had fish and chips, Mat had lobster bisque which was yummy.

Saturday morning we woke up early and drove to the Science Museum in Boston to go on a Duk Tour. It was kind of a rainy day, but we had a marvelous time. Duk vehicles were built during WWII and are designed to be driven from land to water. So we got a tour of Boston with our tour guide, who looked like John Lennon and was dressed up as Sgt. Pepper. It was a great way to get a tour of a city. Then he took us into the Charles River, all the while telling us tidbits of history and also telling us when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 he was driving his rig out in Fenway Field and stuffed his pockets full of sand. Boston is a beautiful city, lots of old homes and character. We found out that there are 94 Dunkin’ Donuts in the 5 mile radius of Boston…one of which has a sushi restaurant as part of it…no, not next door. In a Boston Bay, we watched a whole bunch of guys out kiteboarding. It was great fun to watch, we all determined that we would like to try it out.

 

On Sunday, we went to Rhode Island to pick up Gram. I received a tour of the place she lives. It has a workout room and a computer so that residents can do their emailing, but best of all she has a gorgeous view out to the harbor which has sailboats and ferries going up and down it. After picking her up we headed to New Hampshire to see Josh and Sue and their two children.

 

It was loads of fun to meet them and see their home. Then we hurried home so that we could watch the Red Sox win the World Series. (I was kind of hoping the Rockies would at least pull through and win one game or two, so that it wasn’t over so quickly. Not to be.

On Monday, we went out to visit Gram for a bit and had lunch at her place. We sat at our own table, not at her regular one so her friend, Maria came over and asked please for Marcia to come back to the table soon, without her it was like a morgue! After lunch, Sheila and Diana came for a quick visit.

 

After that, we went into Newport and toured around there. Then we met back up with Gram. Jerry and Marilyn came down and we all went to dinner at Gram’s favorite restaurant.

Tuesday morning we drove to beautiful Vermont. On the drive up to Vermont, Jerry left a message saying that he saw our Duk tour guide driving the Boston Red Sox in the parade celebrating the victory. Barrett and Rose were awesome and immediately took us on a hike up Mt. Elmore to a fire tower where we looked down over the area. It was awesome.

 

We stayed at Rose and Jay’s cabin one night and ate moose tacos for dinner and the next morning enjoyed a lovely walk to the river. The next day after Barrett was done teaching school, we went over to his house and he took us on a paddle around the lake he lives on. Which in the winter time he cross-country skis on. A pretty sweet set up.

Then we drove to Franklin, NY and stayed with Mark’s parents for the evening. They have an awesome garden which they showed us. Then next morning we got up early and drove 13 hours home. Mat and I were pretty stoked to go pick up Maddy from Mat’s parents. I don’t think Maddy even knew that we were gone…she was having such a great time at her grandparents!

Autumn backpack on the Appalachian Trail

This past weekend Mat, Maddy and I were dropped off at Sam's Gap right off of an interstate. We threw on our backpacks, climbed through a gate and down to another highway, walked along the highway for a minute and then we hit our trail. It was an awesome time of year with the leaves changing.

Here is our trail dog...

 

Maddy finally taking a break...

 

After hiking for some hours, we arrived at the top of Big Bald Mountain, which had a great 360 degree view of all the mountains. We were hanging out enjoying the view, when a family with little kids came hiking up the trail to enjoy the view. I was thinking hey, that's cool, they are out for a pretty good walk. Then Mat pointed out that they parked right down below. Maddy and I are on top of Big Bald.

After being on top of Big Bald we hiked up the next hill and we noticed a bunch of nets were set up for catching birds. A few feet more down the trail we ran into one of the volunteers catching the birds and he told us what they were doing. AND that they had caught a sharp shinned hawk (a smaller forest raptor) which they were going to put a band on and take some measurements shortly. Were we interested in watching? Mat and I were like, uh, of course. Turns out that Maddy and I got to walk up and down along the trail while Mat watched them take the measurements and put the band on. They came back out from their research spot behind a rock with the hawk and let Mat release it. I got to see it it up close. It was pretty cool.

Then we continued hiking for another hour or so, set up camp and then the next day we hiked most of the rest of the way, so that we only had a few miles to bust out in the morning to meet Sara by 10 a.m.. It all worked out perfectly. We woke up and hiked for about 15 minutes or so in the dark and then it was a beautiful sunrise to watch while walking out. We ended up arriving at the Nolichucky River trailhead about 1.5 hours early! But it was fine, we hung out at the hostel right near the trailhead and checked out the Nolichucky River.

Independent Thoughts

Food dehydrator

This morning we woke up to the gentle sound of rain falling on our roof. Can you see the rain hitting the road? At this point it is at the peak of the rain storm.

We also awoke to the smell of pineapple. Yesterday at Goodwill, we made an impulse purchase and bought a $12 food dehydrator (as seen on TV). Our only hope was to get home and actually have it turn on. Which it did. So we cut up some kiwi, pineapple and bananas to try out this new toy. By mid-day today they were at a nice chewy texture, so we took them off and we are going to take them out backpacking with us. I also cut up some apples and we'll see how they do. The manual told us to dip the apples in a lemon juice solution before putting on the dehydrator, so we may be eating dried apples with a hint of lemon. :)

Here is Madera with her cone on, I put it on her this morning, so that I have record of how ridiculous the cone is.

And some photos of our yard...

 

I was so excited for this purchase for our house.

 

Planting grass...again

Today Mat and I planted some more grass where we had dug a 3-foot trench from the road to the house in order for Mat to lay pex to bring city water to our house. We planted grass earlier this spring, but either Maddy ate all the seed or it just didn't rain enough to start it growing like crazy. This time we pretty much followed the directions exactly.  Although we didn't have any straw to throw over top of the newly sowed seed, we improvised by putting some leaves over top...we'll see if it works.Last night in the forecast it was predicted that we would experience 50 mph winds and have a 60% chance of rain. We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of this so called precipitation. (I really thought I'd left the arid western states!) I think it is possible that is has rained more out in Colorado and Utah this summer than in this supposed semi-tropical southern state.This weekend Mat, Maddy and I are going to backpack another section of the Appalachian Trail. Our trail head is just off of Interstate 26 about 20 minutes from our house then we'll hike on over to Erwin, TN.  Sara is being a willing driver for us by dropping us off on the side of the interstate and then a few days later coming to pick us up when we get done.  What will take us a couple days will take Sara about an hour to drive between...I really don't think we are paralleling the interstate we head over some hills and mountains and then veer back to the interstate for the pickup.

Joys of Gardening...

Currently, this area that we live in is experiencing a drought (along with many others across the country). Our grass is pretty brown and hurts to walk across barefoot. We had been hosing our garden down but recently we purchased a couple of soaker hoses.

Wow! What a difference it makes. Our garden seems to be getting bigger every time we check on it. Our bell peppers are growing like crazy. I saw a mini bell pepper (the size of a thumb nail) and then next day when I checked, it was the size of a child's fist...now I am looking forward to the day they turn red! We have so many tomatoes that if they all survive until they are ripe, we are going to be hoping that all of our neighbors love tomatoes as much as we do!

Yesterday, in our perusal of the garden to see what new has popped up...we found that a zuchini was growing. It is tiny right now, but I am really looking forward to having zuchini (from our garden) for our stir-frys and for zuchini bread. We have four plants, do you think we'll have enough zuchini?

At the moment, our biggest fear is that we are going to wake up one morning or come home from work to find our garden trampled. There is a cow next to us that has figured out how to get out of her electric fence. It is pretty interesting to watch her (a cow) slide one of her front hooves between the wire of the fence, then slip her head under, then the next front paw and then the two back legs!

We have been enjoying our garden, if you couldn't tell. As all people know who have grown anything, it is pretty satisfying to plant something and then eat it later!

Shindig on the Green

We went down to the Martin Luther King Jr park in Asheville to listen to some local bluegrass music. It was sweet...they allowed us to bring our dog and a picnic if we wanted plus it was free! What a great date night. It was a pretty nice setup...off to the front were actual bands playing and then you could walk around the perimeter of the park there were groups of 3 to 7 people jamming together underneath tents. Some of the guys looked like they might have been the originators of the bluegrass movement...but they probably just picked it up from their parents.

 

At the Shindig on the Green, Maddy was a friend maker, lots of little kids and even adults wanted to come and pet her. It was awesome that everyone was so friendly and that they even allowed dogs to come hang out. This vet was enjoying the show. If you can, check out his pack on the back of his rig.

Our walk this week consisted of going up the Parkway to Craggy Gardens and then walking down to Douglas Falls. It was a wonderful hike, if a bit on the humid side, but we hardly saw anyone. We were able to eat our lunch at the falls in solitude. Along the way we saw lots of mushrooms and a different type of rhododendron in bloom.

 

Madera had a grand old time, she was much better behaved than last weekend, when we attempted to go for a bike ride, but she jumped on the first person she saw. We are trying to nix that bad trait of hers, so we turned around and went back to the truck. On this hike she was more distracted by the stuff around, so she didn't jump on the backpackers and hikers we saw until the very end. We keep hearing that 3 is the magic age when dogs settle down...only 17 months to go...if the vet who guessed Maddy's age is correct.

Walk in the Rhododendron - Roan Mountain, TN

Mat had heard from a co-worker that the rhododendron was suppose to be a big thing out at Roan Mountain in Tennessee. So we decided to go check it out. After a couple hours of driving in the car, we arrived. There was hardly any parking at the trailhead, it was so popular, but we got a spot as someone pulled out. It was a beautiful sunny day to be out for a ridge walk. We definitely hit the catawba rhododendron at peak blooming time and the orange of the flaming azalea was cool to see all mixed into the view.

Not only was this hike very beautiful, but Maddy was a perfect trail dog, even with all the people. She didn't jump on anyone and she listened to us when we called her. One of our better hiking days with our dog!

This flower is Gray's Lily which would be listed as Threatened/Endangered if the Fish & Wildlife Service were allowed to add any more species to the Threatened/Endangered list. Roan Mtn is one of the few places to catch a glimpse of this flower.

Look how tall the rhododendron is?  As you can tell I am having a ball!

grocery shopping in the south

I needed a few things at the grocery store, so on my way home I stopped at the large local grocery store near my work. I went around the store picking up the necessary items and went to check out at the self-checkout aisle. After realizing that I had too many produce items which annoy the checker, because the machine pauses and I have to stare at the checker until they realize they need to do something, I went to a regular checkout.

Just as it was my turn to get my groceries rang up, the security beeper goes off. (You know the one that goes off and it usually is someone's cell phone making it go off.) Well, one of the managers went out to see what it was and as my checker is starting to scan my groceries I happen to glance out the window and see the manager yelling at someone and he is throwing his juice bottle at the customer/s. The customer didn't do what the manager asked, instead they hopped in their car and started reversing out to drive away. Meanwhile, in the store my checker mentions to another manager who happened to be walking by the checkstands, but hadn't looked out the window, that he might want to check on this guy. So as he's running out the front of the store as backup, the first manager has pulled out a KNIFE...yes, a knife and has punctured not just one but two of the tires as the car is trying to leave. Well, as the second manager is running out to help he pulls out his knife and before the car can get away, a third tire is punctured. This doesn't seem to affect the car, because it drives off out of the parking lot. And that is that. (I can't imagine that there is anything worth stealing from a grocery store that is worth more money than the three tires that they are going to have to replace!)

My checker resumed checking my groceries and after paying her, I left the store. I have learned a very good lesson here, they don't call the police on shoplifters...and store managers carry knives out here..so I won't ever want to get into a disagreement with one of them on how the price really was 99 cents not $2.99.