Snowed In!!

Determined to get to Pagosa Hot Springs we soldiered on knowing there would be a little snow. So here we are - waiting for the sun to shine - hoping to be home Dec !. For those of you that don't know Pagosa is in South Central Colorado - the best hot springs in the country we think. We expect snow much of the way home so pray us on in!!

Lots of Fun but no Turkey!

With the first picture can you guess where we ended up on Thanksgiving Day? You guessed it - Branson,MO. We were pretty determined to head West - with no stops - when we realized that we might like to be somewhere special on Thanksgiving. (So we wouldn't be too lonely!) We turned North 170 miles from Little Rock, AK and found ourselves listening to Andy Williams on TG Eve. It was great fun. We almost skipped it - but we have heard about Branson for so long that we felt we might regret it. As it turned out we had two days - four shows - and plenty of time to explore Branson. The weather the first day was 70degrees and the second day 30degrees and sleeting! When we got back to our home we learned that tornadoes had been dancing all around us.

Do you remember me telling you about Pigeon Forge - extreme carnavalism? Well, for our tastes Branson is only a little bit better. The locals tell us that 20 years ago it was small and quaint - easy to get around - a little homey. Not any more. Traffic - and
more commercial endeavors than imaginable! Still we loved the shows - most all of them are very good - not as many big names. They all got too old!!

The lights you see make up my pictures. Branson has a beautiful outdoor shopping mall on the river - the town spent 7,5 million dollars on a computorized fountain that performs to music. The bright lights are huge natural gas flames (I mean huge - 7 pipes as big as a ships smoke stack). We enjoyed it!

Our hosts at the RV park were from Twinfalls, ID and on their way retirement. They could not talk up enough the region of the Ozarks, the Lakes, Hiking, canoeing, fishing, shopping and much more! They said many people come to stay 3 or 4 days and stay three weeks! Now we can say we have been to Arkansas, Missouri, and the Ozarks and Branson. Not bad in two days!

Today, November 26 we drove just past Oklahoma City. We really can see the end of our trips. Barring the unforseen - like blizzards - we should be able to make Boise in five days. Count it - five days! We can barely believe it - we have always felt so far away from home. But now we have it in our sights. Yeahhhhh!

Exploring the Smokies

We drove into Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and could not have been more surprised.  It was everything we never wanted to see!  (Vegas, Fairs, Carnivals all wrapped into one.  Huge crowds and traffic jams.) So we avoided the throngs and drove into the Smokey Mountains to view some early mountain settlements.  The story that comes out is close families who yearned to be self sufficient, they were  Christian folk, lived with very little (we call it poor today - they didn't think of themselves as poor).  The stories are much like Dolly Parton's - one of twelve children - roaming the hills,  singing together, going to church and often made fun of by the kids at school.  Dolly talks about going to school with holes in both shoes, her stockings and having the kids laugh at her.  IT made for a tough breed of folks. By the way the graveyard was one of the first where we stopped and read the markers.  There were basically about three family names on the markers - still being buried there to this day.  The one Jon wanted a picture of is " Here lies Samuel Oliver - Murdered by North Carolina Rebels."

Church built by hand - hardwood of course

Hardwood pews, floor, and ceiling!

Primitive Barn

Learned Something Amazing Today

Always a Smokey Haze

Today, our sights were set on driving a small portion of the Blueridge National
Parkway - destination Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Pigeon Forge,Tenn.
(home of Dollywood!)
The drive was spectacular of course - we had no idea that the mountains were so
tall and rugged in this part of the world. The forest is so thick with hardwood trees
that one would have a hard time walking through it at all. (There are evergreen trees
on the ridge lines.) I had a guy from the South tell me that he loved the West but what he didn't like is that our mountains don't have any trees. To these folks forests mean disiduous. Hmmm
Since we first drove in the Blueridge Mountian Range we have wondered why the

Smokey Mountains are called the Smokey Mountains. Sure, we noticed that the air always seemed smokey - but we assumed that was poor air quality, fog, mist or wood smoke. Today we learned that the constant smokey haze is from the hardwood forests as they breathe and exhale. It has a blue cast and of course makes for the most spectacular sunsets.
We had two hikes today both short and very steep. The three pictues on the right
are the hike to the Devil's Courthouse - a massive black outcropping with a cavern.
The Cherokee Indians lived in this area and they had many superstitions about it- mainly that the devil
 held court in the cavern. Those superstitions were carried on by the pioneers
who settled here and became the "mountain folk".

Devil's Courthouse behind Mimi

Well, ta ta for now - hope you enjoyed your environmental lesson for the day!

Surprises Still Await Us!

OK - it is time for me to admit that half the time we have no idea where we are going each day - or why. We pray and head in the general direction and sometimes because of lack of daylight or because we need a grocery stop we find ourselves in the sweetest places!

Chapel at The Cove

As it happens - that is what happened to us at Asheville, NC. Now most informed people know that there is so much to do and see here that one might decide to move here just to experience everything. Let me make a list for you: Blue Ridge National Parkway ( 450 some miles built in the 30's by a work program), Biltmore Mansion and 8,000 acres of land most of which you can explore by horse, bicycle, hiking, or car) - really and amazing place. Billy Grahams home and training center called "The Cove". The sweetest, most vibrant downtown with all the history you could ask for. Our favorite? The Grove Hotel - built in one year with 400 men, mules and one steam shovel. The fire place is one of two identical fireplaces in the lobby. The boulders are bigger than you would use in major landscaping!! Do you see Jon standing there?

Of course another favorite was seeing the North Carolina that Billy often referred to. Montreat - the Cove. Mountains, trees, beauty everywhere. Ruth talk often about it and afterall it is the place she chose to raise the kids pretty much by herself. What a woman.

We debated quite awhile about whether to spend the 69.00/ ticket to tour the Biltmore mansion. We got mixed reviews from everyone we asked. My opinion - if you are there you must go see it. We didn't know that the industry barons could live like that (before income tax). The nice thing is that you are on your own, you can stay as long as you like in each room, you are free to roam the grounds and stay awhile. There are all kinds of hospitality venues and it is very relaxed. As for the mansion - there are no words. No - maybe the word is Royalty.

We loved this part of North Carolina. We were surprised that a little town could hold so many surprises ! Still Crazy and Still Havin Fun! Weather is still glorious! Blessings to you all.

The Lodge at the Billy Graham Training Center

Biltmore Home (hah)

Almost Heaven - Virginia

Hi friends and anyone who has joined us! I now know what John Denver was singing about - I have been singing his song "Country Roads" all week. Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains - Shenandoah River. Life is old there, older than the hills younger than the mountains. blowing on the breeze. Take me home country roads. to the land that I was born - West Virginia - Mountain Mama Country Roads.

Well, I guess you can see that we have been caught up in the Shenandoah Valley and everything that surrounds it. It is impossible (I think) to come to Virginia and not get caught up in the history of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, the great generals and Presidents who came from this state and the beauty of the rolling green hills.

For the last week we visited Mount Vernon, Monticello, General Robert E. Lees birthplace and burial, Stonewall Jackson, many battlefields, and the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Appalachian trail . . . it starts the mind a spinning. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and on and on. It seems the great minds and great leaders loved Virginia. Both Washington and Jefferson said that there was no place on earth that they would rather be.

So needless to say we ate it up. I apologize - the pictures are few and far between. The picture of Jon is on the Skyway National Park Hwy above the Shenandoah Valley. So is the bear - the largest and prettiest Jon says he has ever seen.

We started at the North end of the Shenandoah at Winchester. A fascinating history. A town that saw so much Civil war action (changed hands 70 times)! We ended up at Lexington, VA - the home of the Virginia Military Institute and the Washington-Lee University. Also the home of Lee and Jackson. Wow. We loved it and the two pictures that I enclose mean nothing to you - but to say how impressed we are with this little
town.
Of all the places we have seen and enjoyed - this is the area that we would choose to live. The Western part of Virginia. Within reach of the Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Appalachian Trail and the rolling green hills.
Today we say goodbye to Virginia and head for The Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Tennessee. Thanks for checking in and indulging my love for Virginia!

Up Close and Personal

Here we are standing under Miss Liberty. Once again we had the most gorgeous day ever. We found her inspiring, beautiful, and quite large! The pedistal is as tall as she is. The story of building the pedastal just to hold her (after France sent her over) is pretty cool. We went in her inards and the amount of steel securing her would support any large bridge or skyscraper. I would recomend everyone get up close and personal with her. I am finding that on this trip I am spending a lot of time thinking about the word liberty. A blessing that I definitely take for granted.

Ellis Island on a beautiful day. You are looking at the processing building where they weighed, measured, tested IQ of 12 million immigrants. They pulled up their eyelids with a button hook to look for disease, - The tests and measurements were elementary but they made the immigrants so nervous and a few were sent back! It is hard to imagine the fear and trepidation they felt.

Sorry that you cannot see this but you are looking at Jon's back as he looks at ground zero. Today they are building a new building on the sight - Trade Center One - next year will be 10 years and they will dedicate a park at the sight as well. There really is very little information around the area but the tourists keep flooding in to see it. In some ways it felt like New Yorkers had moved on - but if you dig there is plenty of personal accounts. My favorite is the church that withstood the explosions when the buildings around it suffered. That church became a respite and place of peace and provision for the firemen and volunteers over the next many months. I don't think we ever thought we would be here - but we are glad we did. What happened here changed the world as we know it - right along with Pearl Harbor , the Atomic Bomb, the assasination of JFK. Every generation has an event that cannot be forgotten - it reminds us how vulnerable we are. Something to think about. TTFN