A Walk thru the 18th Century –Bear Creek State Park, Cumberland, VA 6/9

Today’s big adventure was Colonial Williamsburg. The historic park was a short drive from our campsite so we were able to really spend the majority of the day taking a walk back through time. We were fortunate in that the weather was just about perfect, a little on the cool side for starters with very little humidity. We enjoyed walking through the historic village, viewing the demonstrations of different trades, and listening to the vignettes of life around the time of the American Revolution. I really enjoyed watching how books were bound and seeing how leather was stretched over the spines. Ned enjoyed talking with the cooper as she explained the ins and outs of barrel making. It was also quite fun to see how silver coins were literally cut into pieces to make change. Clarifies so much the expression, “Pieces of Eight.” We also thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the still active Episcopal Church. It was so amazing to see the pews marked with the names of our founding fathers, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and others and imagining them sitting there taking part if the service. The gentlemen that gave us a tour of the capitol building got top marks for good storytelling and bringing history to life. I was particularly fascinated with all the maps showing the colonies as they were at this time. There are so many good pics to choose from, including Mr. Ned with a 3 corner hat, but I decided to just show a snapshot of a typical street scene. There was a constant stream of horse drawn carriages, coaches and wagons rumbling by that really added of the authenticity of the village. We left Williamsburg at a little past 4, did a quick drive through Richmond and finally arrived at the sweetest little camping spot. Believe it or not we are the only people in the campground! It’s situated around a beautifully wooded lake and seems too perfect to be real. We popped the lid on Winnie and were planning on taking a ride through the park and perhaps taking a dip. Mr. Ranger, John, a very friendly fellow came on over to say hi. (Apparently, there’s not a lot going on today). He claims it’s a weekend campground that usually hosts about 400 people. Kinda hard to believe as I sit in the woods this evening, with the only sounds being the birds, insects, and Ned grilling chicken! He let us know that the beach was closed and we were no longer allowed to go swimming in the lake. Bummer. Ned and I hopped on our bikes anyway and spent some time poking around the place, visiting the lake, playing on the pier and taking great photos. We’ve been secretly planning our strategy for a late night swim, but I think Ranger John is hip to us. He keeps driving by occasionally to see what we are up to. At one point, as I was riding my bike he drove by and said, “Hello there Debi” and gave me a nice friendly wave. Kinda makes me feel a little tiny bit bad to be plotting against him. Tomorrow we continue the tour of our country’s forefathers and visit Monticello. I’d like to get an early start, but this place is so beautiful it’s going to be hard to leave.

Feast of Firsts –First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, VA 6/8

Knowing that there were a couple of little tykes eager to pounce on our bed and wake us up, this ol’ lady managed to outfox them and get up first. It was wonderful to spend the morning with all that boy energy and Ned and I each enjoyed taking turns reading to them. I must admit, I was a little sad to have an early start, but we had a lot of territory to cover today. Originally we were just going to head straight for Virginia Beach, but Ned really wanted to visit Kitty Hawk and see where the Wright Bros. had their first flight. I thought that was an excellent idea since that would give us a chance to travel longer up the coast. As we meandered toward the coast, the North Carolina countryside put on quite a show for us. We traveled alongside miles of abundant orange daylilies, magnolia and mimosa trees in full bloom, and the ubiquitous fields of corn. We also admired a field of red tulips. It was quite a thrill to finally reach The Outer Banks of North Carolina and see the sandy shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Hard to believe we’re here, especially after traveling thru the canyons of the west, peaks of the Rockies, plains of Oklahoma and gaps of the Appalachia Mts. It’s so interesting to see the home styles change from single story with large porches to three story homes built on stilts. Nag’s Head and the surrounding towns didn’t seem to have much of a “there” there. Even though there were the obligatory beach shops touting swim wear and hammocks, it seemed more like it was just strip mall after strip mall. We finally arrived at Kitty Hawk National Site and were really amazed at how many people were there. We’ve visited a lot of National and Historic Sites the last 3 weeks and haven’t seen crowds like this. The visitor’s center and pavilion detailing the history of the Wright Bros. and their first flight was interesting, but nothing compared to going out to the dunes/field and walking the actual first 4 powered flights. So fun to imagine what it might have felt like to be in mid-air for 12 seconds, then finally 59 seconds! As we walked the final 852 feet you could almost feel the magic of the moment. We continued our drive up the coast leaving North Carolina and entering Virginia. After what seemed like a really long car ride traveling up the coast we finally reached First Landing State Park. We are camped at the spot where the Virginia Company first landed before going on to settle Jamestown. We picked out a spot nestled under the trees, but facing the dunes and the Chesapeake Bay. The first thing we did was take a walk out onto the dunes and put our feet in the water. It was much warmer than I expected! Well, Ned knew I was feeling antsy after being in the van so long, so he thought it prudent to “run the dogs” – i.e.. take the ol’ girl out for a bike ride. We headed for the boardwalk and had a marvelous 10 mile ride in the heart of Virginia Beach. (Today’s pic is Ned on the boardwalk). It was fun to ride up and down the boardwalk, but I enjoyed cruising through all the neighborhoods and looking at the affluent beach houses even more. It was a little after 7 by this time and we thought it too late to head back to the campsite to cook dinner so decided to head to Doumar’s for dinner and ice cream. (We first heard about this place on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives). Doumar’s claim to fame is they invented the ice cream cone. They still make homemade cones on the very same machine that Abe Doumar made in 1905 on Coney Island. Doumar’s is located in the heart of Norfolk, in a very inner-city part of town. We couldn’t believe that after 8 pm on a Tuesday night the place was packed! We each had their famous bbq pulled pork sandwiches at the bargain price of 3.25 ea. Meh – I wasn’t so impressed with the bbq. It’s North Carolina style, so it was a vinegar based sauce. Ned summed it up perfectly when he said they tasted like tuna fish sandwiches. Our main reason for coming was to taste the ice cream! I had a vanilla cone and Ned had a chocolate. We thought it was pretty darn good and rated it just behind Farr’s. So for those of you following our ice cream adventure and keeping score the list now goes like this: 1^st place – Farr’s, 2nd Doumar’s, 3^rd Blue Bell and Andy’s Frozen Custard still is in last place. (This is only the official ice cream tasting, I’m not even counting the Baskin Robbins or franchise soft serve we’ve eaten!) Yes, there will be more of me to love upon my return home.

Howdy Pardner –Cassie’s House, Wendell NC 6/7

After a pretty good rain storm last night, we woke up to blue skies and a crisp cool morning. We headed off towards Raleigh and just for the heck of it decided to see Duke University. On a whim we decided to call Ned’s high school friend, Jed, who is the Director of Duke’s Center for Nicotine & Smoking Cessation Research, a message, went to lunch and heard from him while eating. Turned out he only worked 2 blocks from where we had arbitrarily decided to dine. While walking the 2 blocks to his research office, my phone rang and it was Megan saying, “Hey, mom are you walking down the street in North Carolina now?” Quite surprised, I answered yes. Megan then said her friend Becca just called her and said, “Hey Megan, I think I just saw your mom walking down the street.” (Becca is a nursing student at Duke and a former roommate of Megan’s). How coincidental was that?! We had a great time chatting it up with Jed, meeting his wife and getting a tour of the facilities. A short drive later we arrived at my niece Cassie’s house. She and her husband, JB, have the two most adorable boys! We brought them some cowboy hats and bandanas from Bryce Canyon, and they wore them the rest of the day. The cutest thing was when we all went out for ice cream tonight, two little girls about the same age spotted them and said, “Look daddy – cowboys!” Some things never change – what girl doesn’t like a guy in a cowboy hat? (See today’s pic.) Ned and I are plum tuckered out from riding bikes, wrestling, playing at the park and being horses for the cowboys. This ol’ gray mare ain’t what she used to be. We promised the boys they could sleep in the camper’s upper bunk with us when we all meet up in Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. I’ll let you know how that works out...

Carolina on My Mind –Lake Norman State Park, Troutman, NC 6/6

Well who had bets on us taking the ski lift? You were right. We had a great time riding Virginia’s only chair lift down to the tunnel and wandering around looking up at the chasm and just soaking in the magic of the place. We’ve decided this state park is our second favorite, after Montauk. The park employed quite a few young men, about 18 or 19 yrs old, who worked the chair lift. We spent quite a long time talking with one of these Southern gentlemen and exchanging stories about each of our hometowns. (See today’s pic) He is a real sweet local boy. His daddy is a coal miner and the family also used to grow tobacco to supplement their income. We didn’t head out for North Carolina until almost noon! When we finally reached Asheville mid-afternoon we were thinking about taking a tour of the Biltmore Mansion. We went to the Visitor’s Center, saw a short film and then realized the tickets were $70 a piece. Call me cheap, but that’s the equivalent of about 6 nights camping! Fuhgetaboutit. Suddenly it didn’t seem that interesting to view rich people’s stuff. (Does this mean I’m cheap?) Instead, we decided to stroll thru downtown Asheville and had a delish lunch at an outdoor café listening to some great street musicians. We both thought this was a much better use of our dollars. Originally we were going to camp at Lake James SP, but because there was no swimming and we were really hot we thought we’d drive a bit longer and camp at Lake Norman. By the time we got here, it was about 6 and quite muggy. We hopped on our bikes and did the usual tour of the park. It’s a rather large state park and things are spread out. By the time we biked to the swimming beach we discovered that it had already closed. So, we decided to go back to the campsite and hike the lake access trail for an unauthorized swim. Well, as soon as we started on our quest the skies opened up and a huge drenching thunderstorm engulfed us. So, back to the van it was for a quick sketchy meal waiting for the storm to pass. Why am I seeing a heated game of skip-bo or scrabble in our future? Tomorrow we head to my niece’s house. I’m really looking forward to getting reacquainted with my grand-nephews!

Filling in the Gaps –Natural Tunnel State Park, Stone Gap, VA 6/5

True to our word, we packed up early and headed out toward the Appalachia Mountains. It had rained while we were sleeping last night so the drive through the eastern part of Kentucky and over the mountains was particularly beautiful. Everything is lush and brilliant green. One of the things we have been having fun doing the past three days in Kentucky is looking for, and trying to capture on camera, the quilt patterns on the barns. It’s so charming and quaint to see all the brightly painted quilt squares. We continued to entertain ourselves by periodically stopping, jumping out of the car and snapping the pic. Once we reached the Appalachian Mountains we stopped at the first grocery store to load up on provisions. Mmm – groceries are a little different in this neck of the woods. We usually buy a quart of milk, several yogurts for breakfast, chicken, turkey or perhaps a steak for barbequing and fresh fruit and veggies. That usually lasts us for a couple of days. This store was predominantly stocked with canned and frozen goods, sliced processed cheese, and the meat choices were pork bellies or other fine choices of swine. The veggies were basically iceberg lettuce. There was also a large display of gallon sized frying oil. An older gentleman in front of us in the check-out line had only two cases of moon pies and ABC ginger ale in his cart. I feel so sorry for these folks that the main grocery store in town (and it was a big’un) had such poor choices. We really do take for granted our fresh fruit, veggies and lean meats. Needless to say we walked out with a small bag of items. In preparing for this trip I discovered a Coalfield Miners Folk Festival in Grundy, VA for today. I was so excited that we would be able to experience first hand a real mountain community gathering. When we reached Grundy we couldn’t find anything about it so started asking around. After several attempts from different people, we finally realized the festival was outside of Grundy in a place called Poplar Gap. We began a long, long climb up a ridge, passed small houses, trailers and shanties clinging to the edge of the mountain, with the gap in the mountain no wider than a single lane road. All these towns are called “gaps” for a reason! We traveled through several of these small gaps and hollers. It was so interesting to see how entire communities and generations have eeked out an existence all around mining coal. Ned was particularly fascinated with the geology of the area and pointing out all the exposed seams of coal in the mountain. Of course, the farther we went up and down, the more doubtful it seemed we would ever find the festival. Ned thought for sure this was one of my usual hair-brained ideas. Finally, we spotted a handmade sign tacked to a post, directing us to the place. (What, me worried??). We were warmly greeted by some gentlemen and given a program of the activities at the festival. Ned was delighted to see that at 2:15 there was a talk to be given by a geologist on the history of coal in this region. We attended the talk with about a dozen other people and found it to be informative and entertaining. It turned out that the speaker also just wrote a book about Natural Tunnel State Park where we were camping tonight. How fortuitous! After the talk we enjoyed walking around the grounds, (which were on a flattened hilltop which turned out to be a restored strip mining site), listening to “pickers” (bluegrass musicians), seeing basket making demonstrations, etc. (See today’s pic). I especially enjoyed talking with the guy who had a booth about the Scots-Irish genealogy of the area. The conversation started out something like this: Him: “Are you short?” Me: “What?, Well, I don’t think I’m thaaat short.” Him: “You look short.” Well, his accent was so thick that I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. After awhile I figured out that he thought I was a descendent of the “Short” family in that area. Pretty funny. We also enjoyed the local fare. Ned had a fried green tomato sandwich and I had soup beans, which consisted of a plate of beans, collard greens, hominy and a hoe cake. We had such a great time at the festival. Everyone was very welcoming and absolutely fascinated that we came from the Gold Mining area of California. We finally moseyed on through the Appalachia Mountains to Stone Gap, where we are camped tonight. It’s an amazing park whose main feature is an 850 ft. natural tunnel surrounded by 400 ft. cliffs. An active railroad actually goes through this tunnel. Ned and I decided to hop on our bikes and ride to it. The trail was so steep we had to walk our bikes down to the visitor center. Once at the visitor center there is a chair lift (much like at a ski lift) that takes you to the tunnel. Well, it was well after closing hours so we decided, what the heck let’s just hoof it. We were rewarded with the most amazing site of the tunnel nestled in a hardwood forest, next to a stream, and looking up at these huge cliffs. Unfortunately we forgot the camera! We had a really, long and hard climb back to the top and then an equally hard climb – walking our bikes – back to the campground. I was exhausted when we got back. Tomorrow we swear we’ll go down and capture it on film, the question is will we walk it or take the lift?

A Little Kentucky Flavor –Ft. Boonsboro State Park, Kentucky 6/4

Today was quite a day. I might get a little long-winded on this one, so pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit a spell. We weren’t sad to have an early start from Nolin State Park. We were never really sure what was up, but everybody kept staring at us. It was a relatively small campground, perhaps 24 sites, and between the California plates and the Winniemobile, we’re used to people coming on over and chatting it up with us. We were camped in the middle of the campground and people just sat in their chairs, facing toward us, and stared. It felt rather like we were in a fish bowl. As we left the park, driving through backroads and hills, we were absolutely charmed by the folks sitting on their porches waving to us as we drove by – and this was at 8 in the morning! It was quite touching and totally changed our opinion of Kentucky hospitality. The interesting thing about driving this particular stretch of road was the juxtaposition of neat and tidy Amish farms situated next to hillbilly ramshackle anything goes places. Once a year Kentucky has something called the “4 Day 400 Mile Sale.” Yep, for 400 miles (mainly on Rte. 68) it’s one big yard sale. The problem is that with some of the places you pass by, you can never tell if it’s a yard sale or the people are just living like this. Neds says it looks like something exploded all over their yard. (To make my point, one of the people in the campground this morning brought their refrigerator – yes the big one – with them. It wasn’t plugged in or anything, we think they may have put ice blocks in it to use it as a jumbo size ice chest.) Our first destination was Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. As a National Historic Site it was quite small, but done well. We enjoyed the visitor’s center and walking the grounds, but the cabin was under construction and we couldn’t view it. The next stop was Lincoln’s boyhood home, Knob Creek Farm. It was very low-key, and not really much to see, but we enjoyed taking a stroll and enjoying the peacefulness of the country property. For me, the best part was when we walked down to the creek (or crik as they say in this here parts) to see where Abraham Lincoln was saved from drowning by being pulled out by his childhood friend. When we got there and viewed the tiny little trickle of water Ned said, “Aw, the least they could have done was make it a good stream so we didn’t think our President was a weenie. Kinda makes the guy look like a wimp to almost drown in 2 inches of water.” (Viewing these sites is one thing, doing it with Ned is a whole other ball game!) Feeling rather Lincoln saturated at this point, we thought it a good time to maybe hit the Bourbon Trail. We had a beautiful drive through the country to Maker’s Mark Distillery. Knowing that we didn’t want to take a long tour or taste bourbon on an empty stomach we had a nice lunch at the little café on the grounds. (Ned highly recommends the bourbon bbq pulled pork sandwich). The tour was fantastic!! Our guide, Herb, was truly a Southern gentleman who was equally knowledgeable and delightful. We not only saw the entire bourbon making process, but also got to see the bottles being hand dipped in the red wax and stamped. And of course, the bourbon tasting after was divine. (Today’s pic Ned doing a little sampling). As if we hadn’t already done enough in one day, we decided to visit Shaker Village. We got there with only about an hour to spare before closing time so were able to just walk in and roam about on our own. It was enough…So, I bet you’re thinking our day was just about ready to wind down. Well this is where things really got interesting. Our final stop for the night was Fort Boonesboro State Park. We could have taken the highway up to Lexington and then followed the major roads to the park, but oh no – not us! After viewing the map we decided to just take a “short –cut” though a couple of unmarked backroads. We saw on the map that we could even catch the “free ferry” over the river. (In case you’re not aware, Kentucky has these free ferries you can catch over the rivers. They are a one-man operation that is guided by cables between the two shores and can fit one, maybe two cars. We’re not sure why this operation is cheaper than bridges, but we’re only from California and don’t know much). With me driving and Ned navigating (a deadly combination on both accounts) we started our short-cut. It’s a little frustrating because many of the roads around here don’t tell you the name of the road nor what the next town is. Anyway, at some point Ned said, “If we get to Sulphur Well we’ve gone the wrong way” right about the time I drove past a road marked Sulphur Well. “Mmmm – let’s just take this road and cut on over to the road we want to be on.” Seemed like a good idea until the orange line down the road disappeared and the houses turned to trailers and the trailers looked like “something exploded on their lawn.” Up and over the ridge and thru hollers we went, driving by tiny Pentacostal churches. The road kept getting narrower and narrower until finally we were in front of a road barricade that said, “Road Ends 500 ft.” I stopped the car, we looked at each other and just started laughing. At about this time, a guy in a beat up red pick-up truck, with a big black dog hanging out in the back, drove towards us on the road. He pulled up next to us, Ned got out, and we both said rather sheepishly, “We’re lost.” He asked us where we were headed and when we told him Ft. Boonsboro State Park, he took off his hat, scratched his head, let out a big sigh and said, “ You ever see the movie called Wrong Turn?” No, we said. “Well, rent it. Cuz you’re in it. It’s about getting lost in West Virginia.” Oh, did I mention he had a hand gun sitting right next to him on the seat?! Well, turns out he was the sweetest guy. He probably thinks a girl driving a van with California plates lost in the backroads of Kentucky ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he basically told us to turn around and go the more conventional route. And for the record, he said that if the road wasn’t washed out we might have made it work, then mumbled something about the locks not working and the government being no damned good. And then again, you never know the hours of the ferry guy…After about a good hour or so, we FINALLY made it to the campground. So, let me tell you about THIS place. We thought we would be staying at a quaint Daniel Boone Fort campground. Instead we pulled into a campground that is about the size of 3 football fields and has 160 campsites. Every single one of them has a fifth wheel parked in it. Poor Winnie looks so pathetic parked in the middle of them, like something they coughed up. We got on our bikes to check things out, rode past the sewage plant, miniature golf course, the pool with the condemned water slide and in the middle of the campground, where the asphalt basketball courts are located there was music blaring and at least 25 girls tap dancing!! Seriously. When I asked about it someone corrected me and said they were clogging, not tap dancing – whatever. 25 girls with taps on their shoes sounded like tap dancing to me! We decided that after today we deserved a dinner out. The closest restaurant is about 5 miles from here situated on the banks of the Kentucky River. We settled for the catfish dinner, not the frog legs (yes, really) and decided that we earned the margaritas and cold beer today. It’s days like today why I have traveling in my bones. You can’t make this stuff up and it’s why I love America!

Jefferson Davis and Ranger Joel –Nolin Lake State Park, Kentucky 6/3

It’s Ned here again. We woke to a beautiful view of Energy Lake in the morning sun. Our first outing was to find out more about this Land Between the Lakes area. We learned at the Visitor Center the history of this unique and fertile area, formerly known as “Between the Rivers” (before the Cumberland & Kentucky Rivers were dammed to become lakes.) The group of settlers there got displaced 3 times by the federal government (first by the Tennessee Valley Authority when the Kentucky River was dammed, second when the Cumberland River was dammed, and finally when the Federal Recreation Area was formed.) Needless to say, there are still lots of locals who are resentful of having been driven off their land. We learned that Golden Pond, where the visitor center was located, was formerly considered the moonshine whiskey capital of the U.S.! The weird thing is that the area is now completely uninhabited and undeveloped, so that, although quite beautiful, something feels not quite right about how this land became a “nature preserve”. Our next stop was at the Jefferson Davis Memorial, with its 315 tall obelisk, highly reminiscent of the Washington Memorial in D.C. We opted not take the elevator trip to the top, but only tour the small museum about the man who had been President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. We left feeling fairly creeped out by the vigorous enthusiasm of all the Confederate die-hards touring the museum, including the Confederate flags adorning their cars in the parking lot. Our next stop was a special side-trip Debi had arranged to sample the wares at Chaney’s Dairy Barn, a family owned dairy business that was named one of the Top Scoop Shops by Good Morning America. We both had Chocolate Brownie, but felt it was fairly icy, and lacked the creaminess of our number-one-rated Farr’s Ice Cream we had at Bryce Canyon. We juggled our plan again and decided to check out Mammoth Cave National Park. Debi was a good sport and agreed to the Mammoth Passage Tour, even though she can sometimes suffer from bouts of claustrophobia. A thunderstorm moved in as we waited for our tour, which definitely added to the drama of the moment. Our guide, Ranger Joel, was a very enthusiastic, although extremely serious fellow .(See today’s after-tour pic of him with Debi.) Debi survived the hour long tour, although not without a few very uncomfortable moments. One of which was when Ranger Joel locked us into the cave, and the other was when he turned off the lights in the cave to make a point about how early explorers viewed the cave only by torchlight. I really enjoyed seeing the huge subterranean caverns, although I wished I’d been smart like Debi and remembered to wear a long sleeve shirt! The contrast between the muggy 90 degree temperature outside the cave, and the dry, drafty mid-50’s inside was astonishing. On the way to our campground at Nolin Lake State Park, we were treated to a fun, tiny ferry ride across the Green River. The lush green woods along this road were breathtaking.