Oh, Ohio!

On Sunday, 8/10, we arrived at Erie Islands Resort & Marina. It’s a great campground; not many trees, but all the sites are pull-thru and very wide. We were probably at least two miles (as the crow flies) from Lake Erie, but at $10 a night – who’s complaining.

We spent our first full day driving around the area, through Port Clinton, by the lake, out to Marblehead and back through Catawba Island. It wasn’t as much driving as it sounds; things are fairly close together around here.

We had lunch in Port Clinton: walleye and fries. Walleye and perch are the big catch from the lake and they seem very proud of it if you go by their restaurant prices. But it was good.

Our first stop for pictures was at Lakepoint Park on the east coast of Marblehead.

This is as close as we got to Cedar Point, an amusement park across the bay near Sandusky.

We had to get our picture taken while here, with Lake Erie behind us.

Karen, this lighthouse photo is just for you. We didn’t go up in it, but be assured it was WAY smaller than the one in St. Augustine. On Tuesday, we caught the 9:30 ferry to Put-In-Bay (say Puddin’ Bay).

What a great place this was to visit. We took a tram tour around the island. Our first stop was the Butterfly House at Perry’s Cave. I’ve been to bigger displays, but these were so beautiful, we didn’t even notice.



This next one was the hardest to catch. The underside of their wings is brown and not very special. But the top side is this beautiful blue. They rarely sat still with the wings open, so Julian kept shooting till he got this one in flight. Once we got our fill of the butterflies, we walked across the street to Heineman’s Winery. They boasted a cave beneath the winery that allows you to stand inside the world’s largest geode. I had to see this. OK, it really could be the world’s largest geode. There were about a dozen of us in there on this tour. However, it was also the world’s smallest cave! That was it! You went down, walked around the staircase and came right back up again. It was definitely overpriced for what it was, but, hey, that’s the risk one takes when sight-seeing, right?

There was a tour of the winery too, but we opted out of that. We’ve seen wineries. But we did taste the grape juice and the Riesling. I’m not normally wowed by grape juice, but this stuff was really good. And so was the Riesling – we bought 4 bottles of it.

Then we hopped back on the trolley and rode it back into the downtown area. We had a great lunch of walleye, cheese stix, grilled chicken and sauerkraut balls. And it was ALL terrific.

The whole day there was terrific. We’ve said we’d both go back again, rent a golf cart and just roam around the island.

The next day, we stopped at the Jolly Roger (THE place for perch and walleye) and picked up perch ‘n chips (‘n onion rings). We drove out to East Harbor State Park on the east side of Catawba Island. We ate the lunch, which was very good. Even Heidi got to go. She doesn’t look it, but she really was having fun out there.

On Friday, we took the ferry to Kelleys Island. There are no organized tours here, so we rented a golf cart and took off after stopping for lattes. This island is only four square miles, so it didn’t take us too long to get around.

Our first stop was the state park on the north end of the island. There was a great beach here and people were definitely enjoying it.

From there we went to The Grooves. This is a tube formed by glaciers about 30,000 years ago. This picture is from above, shooting down the grooved tube. We continued the ride around the island, but these were quite obviously the main attractions unless you were big into hiking and/or birding. So we went back into the very small downtown area and had lunch, then caught the ferry back to Marblehead. Here’s a shot back at Kelleys Island as we left. On Saturday (today) we took a picnic lunch to Catawba State Park, on Catawba Island. We took Heidi again and she’s always thrilled to get to “go”. There is a boat dock there and it was very busy. They even had someone there directing traffic to and from the launch area. And after being on Lake Erie for a week, I felt it was time to touch it. So here I am dipping a hand into the first of the Great Lakes I’ve ever been to. Then it was back to the campground to start getting ready to move to our next location on Sunday. We’ll be in Niagara Falls for a couple days and then on to the Finger Lakes of New York for two and a half weeks. Unfortunately, we won’t have easy (if any) access to the internet, so it may be a while until I can make my next post.

So until then, happy trails!

Good Times, Good Friends

We’ve continued to keep busy since I last made an entry here. Not all of it is of great interest to the reader, so I’ll summarize:

- We got the air conditioning fixed. What a relief knowing that we’ll be heading into hotter territory soon.

- Another couple who are our friends joined us for a week at Creekwood. That meant eight of us hanging out together.

- I completed a total of four web pages for the resale-by-owner group at Royal Highlands.

- The guys went to the car & motorcycle museum, while the girls went shopping one day.

- We had cocktails on the creek nearly every evening at 5pm.

- We’ve kept up with our walking for exercise.

- Heidi got her hair and nails done. (Happily, that’s out of the way for another 6 weeks.)

As mentioned in my last post, we had planned an adventure for the week that all eight of us were together at Creekwood Farm. We were going to do a rafting trip on the Pigeon River. (Do you hear banjos?) We had made the reservations, but they canceled it in the end – just not enough water in the river.

So instead, we all drove to Lake Lure for a tour and lunch. It was a beautiful drive, as are most drives in North Carolina. We took the boat tour first and saw some beautiful and costly homes. Lake front property there is several thousand dollars per linear foot. Even so, there was hardly an empty space anywhere along the shore. Here’s one of the houses on the lake.

This view is across the lake to Chimney Rock. We didn’t go up there, but the formations were pretty cool.

After the boat tour was over, we went up the road to the restaurant at Lake Lure Inn. It was a really good buffet. Here’s the whole crew after chowing down.

From left to right we are: Gary, Julian, Barbara, Donna, Larry, Kenny, Stacy, and Mary.

Here we all are again, that same day, for “cocktails on the creek”.

The next day, Saturday, we all went to Canton for the ‘Mater Festival. It proved to be much larger this year than we’d experienced before. Instead of in a vacant lot, this year they had the booths set up right down the main street of town.

We did buy some tomatoes, which were very good. We also got a slice of tomato pie. It turned out to be a lot like pizza, but in a regular pie crust. It wasn’t bad!

The following Tuesday, we took our last trip into Cherokee for some gambling fun… and I do me FUN. At first, neither one of us were doing very well. In fact were we playing together (our strategy when the money gets low) and were down to about our last $20 when Julian hit a Royal Flush! We can’t tell you how beautiful that was! A little later, on a different machine, I hit a four-of-a-kind for over $300. Both of these were won on progressive machines that had obviously not hit in some time. What a FUN day! (That will help pay for the coach repairs!)

On our last night at Creekwood Farm, we went out to dinner with our friends, Ken & Stacy. Once again we had a fabulous meal.

Yesterday we pulled up stakes and drove to Crittenden, KY, which is about 30 miles south of Cincinnati. We’re here for 2 nights and will leave tomorrow for Port Clinton, OH, right on Lake Erie.

Festivals and Fun

On Saturday, the 12^th, we went to the Maggie Valley Summer Arts and Crafts Festival. It was fun to see all the different crafts people had to sell. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking through the various tents.

Our friends, Ken & Stacy, arrived on the 14^th. It’s been fun to see them again. We had dinner together that evening and then a fish fry together for lunch the next day. (We do enjoy our food on the road.)

At last report, we were going back to Marion to get our air conditioning fixed. We did that on the 16^th, or so we thought. After returning to Creekwood and getting set up, the A/C started doing exactly the same thing. Apparently they had tightened something and thought it was fixed. Now they have ordered a new part which is scheduled to be installed on Tuesday, 7/29. Hopefully that will be the end of it. I’ll let you know.

On the following Saturday, we went to Waynesville to enjoy the Folkmoot parade. We were surprised at finding a parking space so easily, but didn’t get too excited. We had lunch and then met up with our friends to sit and enjoy. Oops! It was held on Friday! Were our faces red!!!!! Stacy had commented on it earlier in the week and referred to it being on Saturday. I checked that morning and it said the 18^th and I just didn’t connect that it was already the 19^th. Well, we had a good lunch out anyway. (Duh.)

So Sunday, Julian and I took a drive down to Franklin, NC. Our friends had told us about an RV park there that they had liked so we wanted to look into it. Besides, we just needed to get out and explore. The park turned out to be no big deal. So we just drove around and then had a very good lunch at Cody’s. We came back through Cherokee and tried to stop at the casino. Unfortunately there wasn’t a parking space to be had in the building and we figured it was probably pretty busy on a Sunday anyway. So we headed on home.

Yes, we have been to the casino… three times so far. We have not spent as much as we had budgeted, so we almost feel like winners. If you can bring money home, that’s a good thing!

Last Monday, our neighbors, Larry and Barb, arrived here at Creekwood. They have been all the way out to Washington state, on the road since May. They’ll be here for two weeks.

On Thursday, the four of us took the dogs and went up to Hot Springs, about 35 miles north of here. These are mountain roads, very winding, and it took over an hour to get there. But the scenery was fabulous.

We went to Murray Branch to do a little fishing. Julian and I had been there two years ago and had really enjoyed it. Since then, the Forestry Service has moved out and the park upkeep has suffered somewhat. But it was still a beautiful place to spend a day.

Here’s Heidi and me – ever watchful for that big fish to hit the line.

Larry was the only one to catch anything. He caught four, none big enough to keep. Here’s one of the smaller ones.

On Friday, the four of us went to Asheville to their Farmer’s Market. It wasn’t really huge, but we bought all kinds of produce, snacks and goodies. From there we headed downtown to a Thai restaurant we’ve been to each of our trips to this area. Traffic as awful – and then we realized that one of the largest street fairs in the South was taking place this weekend.

We finally found a place to park and started walking towards the restaurant – on the opposite end of town. The walk was good for us and the food was as good as we had remembered.

We took our time walking back and enjoyed much of what Bele Chere had to offer. There were two streets, the length of the downtown area plus most of the connecting streets full of vendors of nearly everything imaginable. This is Donna, Barb and Larry looking at trees made of twisted wires. They were so cool!

The fair stretched all the way down to the tower you see in the center of this picture. I’d guess it was probably a mile long, give or take.

Here’s another view of how far it all went.


It turned out to be a great “accident” to have stumbled onto this fair. We really enjoyed it.

Yesterday was the International Festival Day in Waynesville. This is part of the two-week Folkmoot celebration going on throughout this part of North Carolina. I had expected more crafts from around the world, but the majority of the vendors were from North Carolina. They had nice wares, but it was anti-climactic after being at Bele Chere only the day before.

We’ve also been doing a lot of hanging around the park. We walk up to 2.5 miles most days. We have cocktails by the creek with all our friends. Last night the six of us played cards in the afternoon. I’ve been doing some paper crafting. We both have been reading and generally relaxing whenever we can.

We’ve got some fun planned for this next week (besides the trip to get the A/C fixed). So I may actually be getting another entry made in the near future. You just never know.

Happy Trails!

Boone Over the 4th

We left Asheboro on Monday, June 30, for Boone, NC. This town is named after THE Daniel Boone and is situated high in the Appalachian Mountains. The drive was only about 135 miles, but it was just about all up hill on somewhat narrow roads making it slow going. But it’s beautiful country, so we didn’t mind it!

We got settled in and met several of the neighboring dogs, including a silver Schnauzer who was also named Heidi. We found the weather here to be completely different from Asheboro. It had been very hot there – not true in Boone. The temps dipped into the 50’s over night and it was still chilly for our morning walks. We aren’t complaining, mind you, just stating the facts. It was actually a very welcome change.

We were close to the Blue Ridge Parkway here. We only drove about 8 miles of it, though. These pictures make it easy to see why it’s called the Blue Ridge.

We took a 50-mile scenic drive one day… and it took all morning to do it. It was beautiful, but those mountain roads are very windy and very narrow. This scenic drive took us right by Grandfather Mountain.

At the Visitor’s Center there was a natural habitat area for a number of animals that are native to this area. We saw this beautiful bald eagle.

Not to mention more beautiful vistas.

And a black bear.

(“Show them the backside!”)

At the top, this bridge spans the two peaks of the mountain.

We did cross it. It wasn’t so bad. That’s me in the black sweatshirt. (I told you the weather was colder here.)

Here’s both of us and some of the fantastic view from up there.

We continued on with the 50-mile drive and arrived in Blowing Rock for a late lunch. We stopped at a pub and had a fantastic sandwich. We walked around the shops some and then drove out to the Blowing Rock. We decided we’d seen enough mountains that we didn’t want to pay for another one, so I don’t have any photos. From the brochures, I don’t think we really missed anything special.

There was a parade in Boone on the 4^th of July. We drove down and had no trouble finding parking or a place to see it all. Here’s the color guard who got the whole thing started.

I tried, but was too slow to get a picture of the Grand Martial. He rode in the back of an old pick-up and his name is Orville Hicks. He must be pretty well known around here. I checked and he’s got a book written about him and his stories. There’s a picture if you follow that link, and that’s exactly how he looked on the back of that pick-em-up truck.

These guys led the way for every fire truck in the county (if not beyond). That ax could not have been shinier!

Did I mention we were in the sticks? Can you hear the banjo playing?

Much of this parade was pretty similar to the one in Troy. There were the cars, the politicians, some very young beauty queens, a couple of dance troupes, and a few horses bringing up the rear. We were both surprised that there was no marching band. But it was a fun way to spend the morning.

As is our custom (even when we travel), we’d gone to bed a little after 9pm on the 4^th. It wasn’t long till we heard fireworks – and not what you’d expect in a campground. So we got up and checked out the skies where we could see a city display taking place. We knew there was a show at the armory but had no idea where that was. Apparently, it was just over the hill from our campground.

We visited the Farmers Market on Saturday. It was small, but we found a couple of things that we just couldn’t live without.

That’s the excitement for our time in Boone. Unless you want to count the fact that the shower was still leaking and the starter on the coach was still giving us trouble. This being the case, we made an appointment for repairs at a place that (fortunately) was right on our course to our next stop. Since we had to be there at 8am and it was 40 miles of windy, narrow, mountain roads, we left the afternoon before and stayed in a Wal-Mart a couple miles away.

We left there at about 3pm with a new battery and a fixed shower. Apparently there was never a rubber gasket in the drain, so it may have been leaking since day one. Yikes! But it’s fixed now.

They had a great customer waiting area at this place and we had to keep Heidi with us. She did great and even made friends with this guy (an employee).

OK, he gave here fresh bacon, but still.

We arrived at Creekwood Farm at about 5pm and it was raining off and on. Thankfully, not very hard so we could get leveled and set up. It was a long day and we were happy to sack out early.

We got the rest of our stuff set up this morning and felt great about getting to start enjoying things again. We went into town to our favorite pizza place for lunch. (It’s still wonderful pizza.) When we got back, the air conditioning was making a funny noise and then pumped out some hot air before starting to cool. This was NOT normal. Even after we turned off the A/C something up there kept running. Julian climbed up on the roof to inspect things and realized that whatever wasn’t shutting off was VERY hot. So we cut power and called the RV repair place again. We’ll be going back there on the 16th to get the A/C fixed and will be without it until then. Pray for cooler weather here! And while you’re at it, pray for things to quit breaking! (Thank you.)

And now for the fun stuff...

We left home on Thursday, June 19, as scheduled. The weather was great, traffic was relatively light. We stopped in Hero, FL, (just north of Jacksonville) for Krystal Burgers. I closed the laptop, putting it in sleep mode… from which the screen never recovered.

I was able to squint just right and see things on the screen just enough to get the exit number to the RV Park where we planned to spend that night. I was glad I mostly remembered the way there – this was our third year stopping there on the first night of our summer trip. Anyway, they were expecting us and this sign greeted us at our site.

I was able to hook up the printer and get the directions to our second stop printed out. I found out just how dependent I’ve become on having GPS navigation. We took a couple wrong turns, but were able to recover fairly easily.

Setting up at Banjo Creek was a bit of a challenge. The sites aren’t particularly level. But we got it worked out. The site and the campground are very nice. We look out over a little pond and a small fenced area where a family of ducks is living. (The babies have grown tremendously in the week we’ve been here.)

First order of business was getting the laptop screen fixed. It was a bit of a run-around, but we finally had a functioning PC by Wednesday. (I can’t believe how many e-mails piled up in only a week!)

We drove through the old downtown part of Asheboro on Saturday. We stopped and walked around to see the chalk drawings on the sidewalks. Apparently anyone who wanted to could pick up a bucket of chalks and go to it. Several kids had some fun drawings and a few adults had made some great art. It was just a fun thing to see.

Some old friends from our days in Colorado are now living in the Winston-Salem area, maybe 60 miles or so from here. We called then Sunday and they were happy to have an excuse to get out of the house and meet us for lunch. They talked about coming to Maggie Valley next month for a weekend get-away. We’ll see – it would be fun to see more of them.

On Monday, we drove about 10 miles south of here to a town called Seagrove. It’s got a pottery museum and lots of potters in the area. We envisioned a downtown with shops to peruse. We never really even found a downtown, much less any shops. I guess the potters work out of their scattered homes and we’re not into pottery enough to go all over. So we just drove further south and enjoyed the scenery. We stopped at this covered bridge which is one of only two in the entire state. It looked so small to us, probably only big enough for one carriage at a time.

On Wednesday we decided to go to the North Carolina Zoo. This is the one attraction attributable to the Asheboro area. And it was well worth it! We walked around 4 miles or so inside the park. It’s fairly spread out, but it has lots of great habitats and displays.

This polar bear was just basking in the sun.

There were black bears, too.

… and lions.

… and lots of other animals and birds. We enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend it to anyone who visits this area.

When we got back to our car, the key simply would not turn in the ignition. Neither would our spare key. We’ve had similar problems, but it usually works itself out fairly quickly. This time it didn’t. Julian finally got out of the car and rocked it as much as he could. And voila, it was functioning again. (But here’s another problem needing to be fixed! Geez!)

So we treated ourselves to lunch at Rockola, the best food we’d had so far on the trip. And while eating, we got the call that the PC was fixed and we could pick it up. Hooray! Some good news.

When we got home, we found a small puddle of water on the kitchen floor. This had happened the day before, but we just passed it off. Well, Julian got more into it and discovered that the new hose & shower head were leaking and sort of following the tile cracks into the kitchen. Argh!! “If it’s not one thing, it’s another!” – Rosanne Rosannadana.

So the next day was spent getting a new shower hose and fixing the leaks. After this kind of day, we decided we needed dinner out! We had a very good meal at Sagebrush, a steakhouse chain. But this is a dry county – you can’t even get a beer! Oh, well, this too shall pass.

Friday found us at the Saturn dealership in Greensboro getting the ignition switch cleaned and oiled so that we won’t run into that sticking problem again any time soon. We felt very lucky to have gotten out of the zoo parking lot without having to call someone. It was a fairly quick fix and we were off to the Farmer’s Market.

It was Blueberry Day at the Market and they were giving away small cups of blueberries and a little cup of ice cream. Both were very yummy! We walked through all the areas and bought several items of produce. Then we found the healthy snacks and loaded up on pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, corn nuts and dried peas. Mmmmm, yummy snacks.

Troyfest beckoned on Saturday. This is the annual Independence Day festival in Troy, NC, about 18 miles south of here. After a big breakfast at the campground, we headed off to see what this was about. And what a hoot it turned out to be.

Several blocks of the down town main street were lined with vendors selling everything you might imagine at a festival like this. Tons of food, politicians campaigning, garden flags, church groups selling home made breads, jewelry, the whole nine yards. And then there was the parade! Small town America is alive and well! We decided that if you wanted to be in this parade, you just signed up and rode along. We found no rhyme or reason for some entrants, but it was all fun.

There were lots of political types hoping to be re-elected. There were church groups and the Shriners, of course.

Police cars, regular cars, and beat up stock cars on trailers came by. Even guys on tractors came by.

High school championship sports teams waved and one marching band performed. Quite a few junior beauty queens had “the wave” perfected on the backs of open cars.

Every fire and rescue vehicle in the county participated (glad there wasn’t a fire anywhere).

Military personnel and cub scouts were there. And there was this group of girls who apparently were championship caliber, but I couldn’t figure out in what event.

And the horses came through at the end, followed by their clean-up crews.

It was so much fun! It was reminiscent of my childhood, but a longer parade than we ever had in David City, I’m sure. But mostly it was reassuring to see the family and small-town values that still exist in this country. It’s good to get into the rural areas to experience it again.

That pretty well wraps up our adventures since leaving home only 10 days ago. We leave tomorrow for our next stop and hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy more and not have so many things to FIX!

Happy trails to all!

If it's not one thing, it's another!

This will be quick and dirty. We've not had a marvelous start to our trip. Don't worry, we're fine.

We left the house on Thursday morning, 6/19, as scheduled. The laptop screen crapped out on us after stopping for lunch. I only got the PC back today with it fixed. And that was a run-around chore, the details of which I won't bore you with.

So not having a computer meant no blogging and a lot of hanging around, waiting for phone calls. But, we have been running around Asheboro, NC, some and trying to enjoy the in-between times.

We've just discovered a leak from the shower into the kitchen. This could take more of our time this week. It's a good thing there isn't a whole lot to do here in Asheboro.

We leave here on Monday. I hope to get some pleasant blogging done between now and then. But I wanted everyone to know that we are on the road, we are fine, and we are going to have fun! ... we're just not sure when the fun will begin. (giggle)