Sketching Shenandoah: What I Packed, What I Used, and What I Brought Home
I packed enough art supplies for several imaginary versions of myself, then discovered that the artist who actually showed up in Shenandoah mostly needed a sketchbook, a pen, and five spare minutes. Between mountain drives, campground deer, wildfire haze, and one unruly palette, the trip taught me what travel sketching is really for.
Sketches from Cumberland Mountain State Park
Sketches from a camping trip.
Lists. And the Flu.
I have a “To Do” list. It’s helpful when I have so many things to do that I can’t keep track of them all. This same feature is also the worst aspect of my To Do list, generally because the list makes it quite obvious that fulfilling my ambitions would require more time than is […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part I
There are about three times during the year when I really crave the ocean, especially if I haven’t been anywhere near a coast for a few months. It’s kind of like being a salmon, only backwards, because instead of wanting to return to a river I feel this crazy need to hear the surf, smell […]
A Visit to Knoxville
I visited the Knoxville Museum of Art for the first time last weekend. My husband and I had tickets for an evening performance of the Knoxville Symphony and decided to extend the trip so that we could see some of the city sights. The art museum was one of the places that I’ve had on […]
Bristol Caverns
It was time for a day trip! My son, husband and I piled into our Titan and drove to Bristol. After paying $15 each for a ticket, we waited in the gift shop until the tour began. The shop had the typical trinkets: bags of rocks (polished and unpolished), figurines cut from quartz, kids books, […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part 6
Sooner or later, a cruise comes to an end. It kind of makes me sad. No more buffet. No more nightly martini tasting. No more waking up to the sounds and smell of the ocean. There’s only been one time when I was looking forward to going home. But it wasn’t this cruise. We’d been […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part 5
Bucket lists. If you’re over a certain age, you probably have one. AARP has statistics that half of all US citizens over the age of 37 have a bucket list, and most of the items on the list are travel-related. I’ll bet the Panama Canal was on the majority of those. It was on mine! […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part 4
Did you know… The Beach Boys “Kokomo” was written as a theme song for the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail? There’s a scene where Tom moves from New York to a bartender position in Jamaica. Terry Melcher was in the studio. Mike Love was on the phone. They had a few bars of music, and […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part 3
It’s better in the Bahamas! Or so they say. There are over 700 islands in this nation archipelago, so “better” is absolutely a matter of relativity. However, there are some features that apply to the area in general; the water is clear and an average of 80 degF all year long, the beaches are awesome, […]
A Cruise to Panama, Part 2
Last month Hubby and I decided to book a last minute cruise to the Panama Canal. Neither of us have ever been there, and it was on my bucket list. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time. And it was! We had a great time, enjoyed the trip and highly recommend […]
Old Stone Mountain Highland Games
Guid gear comes in sma’ bulk… proved true this last weekend at the Stone Mountain Highland Games! It really wasn’t that small, but there was so much to do and we had such a great time that I can’t wait for the next one. It was the 45th gathering of the Clans at this beautiful […]
Roan Mountain Hike
How was your weekend? We took a long drive with a short hike on Thursday to Roan Mountain. I heard a lot of good things about it and thought we’d pack a lunch and check it out. The mountain straddles the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. We wanted to take a look at the […]
Pete’s Branch Falls Hike
Pete’s Branch Falls trail in the Cherokee National Forest is an easy two hour hike along Horse Creek. It is prettier after a rainfall, but if you’re in the area it’s a nice way to get away for a couple of hours.
Making Corn Shocks
Have you ever made a corn shock?
It sounds like electricity would be involved, but no batteries or jumper cables are needed. A corn shock is a way to stack and store corn stalks, but I didn’t know that until this past weekend. Making them is hard work!
Hiking the Margarette Falls Trail
This week I hiked the Margarette Falls Trail with a group of spry seniors from the local Senior Center. It’s a moderate hiking trail located in the Cherokee National Forest near Greeneville. It was named for Margaret Doak, who is credited for enjoying the waterfalls at the top of the trail in the early 1920s. […]
Thoughts Before our Trip
Tomorrow we leave on an extended trip in the RV. We plan on visiting the Grand Canyon before traveling east in search of our new home. I jokingly call it “The Great Cross Country Home Hunt”, but it is, really. Great, I mean. As in “no small feat”. We’ll be crossing through many states, searching […]
The RV Shakedown Trip: Epilogue
Rain started by the time we hitched the trailer to the truck on our last day. We’d cleaned and stowed everything the night before, so really all that was needed was to disconnect the landlines and connect to the tow vehicle. The weather forecast showed that rain was expected for most of the week, so […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 7: Mackerricher State Park
Mackerricher is a California state park located a little north of Fort Bragg. When our boys were little, we brought them here on camping trips to see the seals and the tide pools. Our last visit was many years ago, so I was slightly concerned when we saw on the website that the park was […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 5: A Rainy Day
This morning we woke to a light rain staccato on the roof of the RV. It wasn’t a surprise, but the forecast is so often wrong this time of year that we were disappointed it was right this time! Nevertheless, a rainy day on the coast is better than one in the apartment. We don’t […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 6: Jughandle State Natural Reserve
I became intrigued with Jug Handle when we first arrived at Caspar. A blurb on the map of the RV park bragged that the trail was particularly interesting because it went through a unique “ecological staircase”. So when today dawned clear and sunny, we packed a lunch and drove to the Reserve to investigate. It […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 4: Surf Fishing!
We woke up this morning to heavy fog. So instead of going on the hike at Jughandle, we decided to go to Westport for some fishing. This was my very first time surf fishing. I found that it’s not as easy as it looks. My biggest problem was getting the hooks cast out far enough […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 3: Mendocino
Day 3 of our Shakedown trip started brilliantly. The sun was shining, the birds were tweeting, and the air temperature was balmy for a March day on the coast. After a small breakfast consisting of a bowl of granola with sliced bananas, we took the short drive south to Mendocino. It’s one of my favorite […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 2: Point Cabrillo
Today we visited the Point Cabrillo Light Station. History of the Point Cabrillo Light Station The light station is a California State Historic Park located south of Caspar Beach. It was constructed in 1908 to aid the mariners who were transporting logs from the area. The station originally housed a kerosene-powered 3rd order Fresnel lamp […]
The RV Shakedown Trip Day 1: Caspar Beach
There was no doubt in our minds that the first trip in our new trailer would be to the coast. It’s been months since we’ve seen the ocean, one of the longest times in recent history that we haven’t traveled. It’s been over a year since we’ve visited the Pacific. So while our first trip […]
Retired!
My husband officially retired February 1. I’ve asked him twice since then how he is liking it. The response so far has been “it hasn’t sunk in”. I suppose that’s normal; we’ve had long vacations before and it probably just seems like another one. Still, we’ve been looking at travel trailers and thinking about what […]
A January Hike
After over a month of cold rain, the sun has finally decided to reappear in our neck of the woods. What better way to celebrate than with a January hike? It rained into the early morning, but the clouds were skedaddling by the time I got out of bed. I poured a cup of coffee […]
Wandering Through Gray Lodge Wildlife Area
It was a gorgeous day in November when we decided to drive over to the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area near Willows, California for a short hike. Gray Lodge is managed by the California Department of Fish and Game as a wildlife sanctuary for over 300 species of birds and mammals. The sky was mostly clear […]