Great Smoky Mountain Railway

We almost didn't get to take the train trip. When we made the reservation we requested the Wed trip. Checking in today we discovered that our reservation had been made for yesterday. :-( However,the people at the KOA were very nice and managed to get us on today's train. It was a 4 1/2 hour trip and the scenery was nice. We rode past a man made lake - Fontana Lake and through the Nantahala River Gorge where they go white water rafting. We drove through the river gorge yesterday when we went to Murphy NC but today we got to see the river from the opposite side. Tomorrow we will probably go into the Smoky Mountains National Park.

House Hunting

I'm sorry if you tried to go to the photo gallery and got an error. The internet in the campground is quite unreliable. While adding titles to the pictures the internet went down and caused the gallery to record an error but it should be fixed now. I'm not going to add any more titles until I get home so you will just have to guess the pictures! :-) The first few pictures are of the campground and the rest were taken on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Today we went to check out a house that is owned by a teacher friend. They recently purchased it for a vacation home for now and a possible retirement home later. It is a very nice house and in a really nice wooded area. Lola, our trusted {?} GPS unit, got confused and we had to do a little hunting to find the house. Just for kicks and giggles we stopped at a modular home display and checked out a rustic log cabin type. Not cheap! Tomorrow we are taking a trip on The Great Smoky Mountain Railway.

I managed to get the rest of the Parkway pictures loaded. You can see why they call these mountains the Great Smokies as the tops are very hazy. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the mountains seem to go on forever with one layer behind another layer as far as the eye can see. In the pictures, unless you look closely, it's hard to tell what is mountain and what is sky and clouds.

Today, on the way back from Murphy, we stopped and took pictures of some white water rafters. There was mist coming up from the water. We think it was caused by the difference in water and air temperature. According to one of the rafters the water temp was only 46 degrees! One of the raft guides fell off the raft right in front of us. He didn't look very happy.

Tired!

Today we decided to cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway. Good thing I had pre-determined the overlooks to stop at or we would have been on "overlook overload" after 10 miles! At Waterrock Knob we decided to hike to the overlook. The sign said it was .5 miles. Should be a cinch, right? .5 miles up a mountain is a lot different than .5 miles on flat ground! We probably got within 250 feet from the top but that last section looked like a killer, steep and all rock, so we wisely turned around and headed back. We got off the Parkway at mile marker 412. The first 15 miles were one continuous series of downhill "s" turns. I felt like a pinball in the back seat. We stopped at Harrah's on the way back, chowed down at the buffet (not fancy but tasty), and hit the slots. We're definitely not millionaires yet. I've been trying to post pictures in our gallery but it's slow going. The internet connection is not the greatest. Check out the photo gallery.

Greetings from Cherokee!

Well, we are here in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Our campground is located in a narrow valley along the Raven Fork River. At this spot the river is not very deep and this afternoon it was full of kids and adults splashing, playing, and tubing. The campground is very nice and has lots of amenities. I'm not certain what's on the agenda for tomorrow but whatever we do I will take lots of pictures and try to post them on the web site.

Finally!

I am finally doing something about this blog. I am really ashamed that I have not been more diligent about keeping it up to date. I've found a new look that I like and have actually personalized it with a picture of Sarah. We spent last weekend at Beverly Beach which is north of Daytona Beach. Our campsite was right on the beach. We could look out the front window of the motor home and watch the waves roll in. Sarah loved playing in the water and the sand and didn't even mind the jellyfish that kept washing up on shore. It is not a place that we will make frequent visits to as it is quite expensive to stay there but we will certainly go back again. Check out the Picture Gallery for beach pictures and other new pictures. All 3 sections will have new pictures posted.

Happy Holidays!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

We spent Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania as planned and then spent the next 3 weeks frantically getting ready for Christmas. There just didn't seem to be enough time to do everything that needed to be done. Mailing Christmas cards, decorating, and shopping continued right up until the last possible moment but in the end everything did get completed. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent peacefully and enjoyably with family as they are meant to be. I even had time to update the blog and add pictures.

May 2007 be a good year for all!

New Look

I finally gave the blog a new look but haven't added any pictures since our summer vacation even though we have been to both the Bristol Motor Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway since then. Work has kept both Bob and I busy. Retirement sure sounds good but unless Bob wins the lottery we still have a few years of work left. We will be traveling north to PA to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. This will be the first time in 21 years that we will be back "home" for this particular holiday. We are all excited and Sarah is hoping for snow. Her only experience with snow was several years ago when we went to Las Vegas for Christmas. Her first reaction - "It's cold!!" If it does snow I hope it's mid-week not when we are arriving or leaving. I really don't want to find out how the motorhome handles snowy roads! I hope to have pictures to post when we return.