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Archive for the ‘Adventures With Pepper’ Category

A Hard Day’s Drive and Church Steeples

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , on October 18, 2012| 5 Comments »

            “There’s a church in the valley in the wildwood. No lovelier place in the dell. No spot is so dear to my childhood, as the little brown church in the vale. Oh come, come, come, come. Come to the church in the wildwood. Oh, come to the church in the dell. No spot is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the dell.” – William S. Pitts

Adventures with Pepper: Day 27

            It was with a bit of reluctance that I left Carthage Gap and the family that had adopted me, but I was on the road in time to watch the sun come up.

The little brown church in the vale is in Nashua, Iowa. — Wikipedia photo

It never did. While the weather was calm, it was a completely overcast day.

But the roadside scenery, when I had time to look at it, more than made up for the missing sun.

But it was a hard day’s drive on Highway 50, through the Appalachian foothills, and the road got most of my attention. The route was mostly narrow, mostly winding, and the primary two directions it traveled was either up or down.

It wouldn’t have been too bad if I were going my usual 100 to 150 miles, but I was facing a journey of 270 miles. The distance wasn’t by choice, but because I couldn’t find a decent campground to spend the night until I reached Front Royal, Virginia.

I’m not sure why, but I suspect it was the many church steeples I was seeing as I drove through  West Virginia that caused me to start singing “The Church in the Wildwood” to Pepper. I hope she is tone-deaf because I couldn’t carry a tune if my life depended on it. Usually the only time I ever sing is when I’m driving, and usually only because I want to stay awake.

After many twists and turns and fall colors around most of them, I ended my day at Front Royal, Virginia. — Photo by Pat Bean

The hymn, written by Iowa school teacher William S. Pitts in 1857, was my grandmother’s favorite song.

When I did some research this morning, because I wondered if I had the lyrics right, I discovered an amazing story in the Des Moines Register about the song.

The article said Pitts wrote the song following a coach ride that stopped in Bradford, Iowa, where he saw a wooded valley in which he envisioned a little brown church.

Five years later, when he returned to that same Cedar River valley, the church he had imagined had been built, down to its brown color.

. During the winter of 1863-64, Pitts taught a singing class at Bradford Academy, and  had his class sing the song at the dedication of the new church in 1864. This was the first time the song was sung by anyone apart from Pitts himself, according to the newspaper article.

The second amazing thing is that the little brown church still exists. It’s a popular tourist attraction in Nashua, Iowa.

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Adopted for Two Days

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 17, 2012| 6 Comments »

            “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”—Tim Cahill

One of two ponds at the entrance to Carthage Gap RV Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 26

            What I didn’t tell you about my drive yesterday were my concerns about where I would spend the night.

Brandy, sort of my granddaughter for a weekend, in the costume her mom made for her. The outfit included a hook and specially braided hair. — Photo by Kim

I hadn’t seen an RV park all day, and my campground directory listed only one near the end of my day’s drive.  It was the Carthage Gap RV Park outside of Coolville, Ohio.

I was worriedly hoping it would be a nice, safe, clean place because I didn’t fancy driving another 100 miles. I’m happy to tell you my hopes were met — and then some.

The park was located in a beautiful setting, and the staff was enthusiastically friendly when I checked in for two nights. The manager explained that I had come just in time to experience the park’s early Halloween celebration. She offered me the option of being in the middle of the large park, or of hooking up in an isolated section.

I guess I was sort of people hungry at this point in the trip because I chose the small site in the middle of it all.

After the park manager led me to it, and guided me as I backed into the squeezed space, she introduced me to my next door neighbor, Kim.

“She’s one of our seasonals,” the manager said, then hurried off to help other RVers get settled for the busy weekend.

Kim became my guardian angel for the next two days, taking me under her warm wing and adopting me into her brood, which included parents, a sister, a niece, a husband and a daughter. They lived not too far away and their travel trailer was almost permanently parked at the scenic campground, I learned.

The brood had all gathered this weekend for the spook celebration, which is an annual event at the park.

I was the family’s guest at the Halloween potluck dinner that preceded the trick or treating the next night. And I got to sit around their campfire as candy was handed out to the many young treat-or-treaters. The most unusual costume of the night, I thought, was the young boy dressed as a railroad crossing. As a mom, I was never that inventive. My kids were usually witches, hobos or ghosts, things that didn’t require any sewing on their mom’s part.

The second pond at the park. — Photo by Pat Bean

Kim’s daughter, Brandy, was one of the trick or treaters.            “Just wait until you see my niece’s costume,” Tracy had said at dinner. “My sister’s an excellent seamstress and can sew up anything.”

I waited. Tracy was right. Brandy was the most lavishly dressed pirate I think I’ve ever seen.

Since Kim had officially adopted me into the family for the weekend, Brandy felt like a granddaughter, of which I have eight.

I left Carthage Gap with great memories tucked away in the brain’s rolodex. And a bit homesick for my own family, too.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is still stuck. Too much traveling – I’m currently on the Blue Ridge Parkway in my journey and driving 100 miles takes five hours. I need to settle for a day soon and catch up.

Bean’s Pat: Couch surfing in India http://mymeanderingtrail.com/ This travel blogger, who writes about hiking the Appalachian Trail, is a good model for Tim Cahill’s quote about the journey being more about the people you meet than the miles. And about the kind of concerns all travelers who get off the beaten path endure — and overcome.

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A Missed Turn Finally Put Me on the Right Road

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , on October 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

            “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.” —  Dietrich Bonhoeffer      

Adventures with Pepper: Day 25  

A picnic site along the Ohio River Scenic Byway. — Photo by Pat Bean

          Once again I decided to take the scenic route instead of the shortest route. I would continue following the Ohio River Scenic Byway, Highway 52, south. It would eventually turn north and become Highway 7, which would take me to my Carthage Gap destination near Coolville, Ohio.

But once again, I found myself on a scenic byway that wasn’t untraveled. That wasn’t too bad, I thought in the beginning. I needed a post office, and since I was driving down the main street of all these small towns, surely I would see one.

I knew to look for an American flag out in front. Well, I saw lots of American flags, indicating this was a pretty patriotic part of the country, but none of them were in front of post offices. I finally thought I had found one when I spotted a postal truck in downtown Gallipolis.

It wasn’t, but I did catch up with the postman hand delivering mail in the vicinity, and he took my envelope to mail.

I frequently saw pumpkins and mums for sale along the Ohio River Scenic Byway. — Photo by Pat Bean

The post was important to me because it contained my signed contract to blog three times a week for American Profile magazine. This was a writing job that I was thrilled to have gotten, especially since I would be blogging about this beautiful country I live in.

The blog is called Discovering America, and you can check it and the magazine’s other blogs out at: http://blogs.americanprofile.com

I guess I was still thinking about this great opportunity when I missed my turnoff to Carthage Gap.

I knew I had done something wrong when I found myself crossing the Ohio River into Ravenswood, West Virginia.

I immediately I got stopped by a Fall Harvest Parade being held in the town, but at least  that gave me some time to study my map to discover where I had gone wrong, and what to do about it.

The answer was to go back across the bridge to Ohio and take Highway 124 to Carthage Gap, which is exactly what I did when I could finally pull a U-turn.

Highway 124 was narrow, winding, sometimes steep and it followed closer to the Ohio River than I had been all day. And I had it practically to myself.

I’m sure glad I took that wrong turn.

            Book Report: No progress yet today. Too much other stuff to catch up on. I’ll get to Travels with Maggie later today – I hope.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Photovia http://tinyurl.com/cnung67 I May Die: I’ve been here a few times  in my travels, and know exactly how relived one is to find they’re right where they should be, and that the scary isn’t scary at all – just different. This post made me smile. Perhaps it will you, too.

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Glorious End to a Day’s Drive Beside a River

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2012| 5 Comments »

            “I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

This is how the sky looked when Pepper and I first went outside to watch the sun go down. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 23-24

I left readers wondering about whether I would drive on the Kentucky or the Ohio side of the Ohio River today.  But the big question I had to answer first was whether I was going into Cincinnati to do a little sight-seeing, or was I going to skirt it.

And this is how it looked a few minutes later, when I thought it could get no more colorful. — Photo by Pat Bean

While I truly can enjoy big cities, I prefer to do so without an RV as my mode of transportation, and without a dog. Since I was stuck, happily I might add, with both, I decided to skirt the Queen City by taking Interstate 275 across the Ohio River and through Kentucky – Yes I know, I hate freeways but it was the easiest and quickest way to get away from city traffic.

Thankfully I was only on 275 for about 35 miles before I crossed back over the Ohio River on the other side of its big curve. Ohio came out the winner as the state of choice for the majority of today’s travel.

Once in Ohio, I veered south onto Highway 52, also known as the Ohio River Scenic Byway. I was seldom out of sight of the river the entire day.

But then it did. — Photo by Pat Bean

My route took me past Ulysses S. Grant’s birth place, where of course I stopped to investigate, but didn’t linger long.

I think I had wondered my brain out yesterday, for when I reread the notes I had jotted down on the drive to put into my journal later, there were none.  But I didn’t need notes to remember that the best part of the day was the evening, which I spent backed up to the Ohio River at Wolford’s Landing outside Portsmouth.

The day’s biggest thrill came when my canine traveling companion, Pepper, and I watched the sun go down over the Ohio River. I stayed an extra day at Wolford’s in hopes of a replay.

Book Report:  Travels With Maggie up 55,902 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Travel Books http://tinyurl.com/cng8jzl This blog intrigued me because I’m a big fan of travel books, and of the five favorites this blogger mentioned, I hadn’t read four of them. Of course I’m going to check those four out. How about you?

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A Wondering Day for this Wanderer

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2012| 8 Comments »

            “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain

Adventures with Pepper: Day 22

I didn’t wonder at all about this willow tree. I just enjoyed how it gracefully hung over the pond at the Indian Springs Campground near North Bend, Ohio. — Photo by Pat Bean

Today’s drive, mostly on Highway 50, was a wondering one for this wanderer.

The first city I passed through, a tiny town called Gnaw Bone that had lots of flea markets, got me wondering how a town got to be named Gnaw Bone.

Perhaps it wasn’t.

I learned that the area was originally a French settlement called Narbonne, which English settlers might have mistranslated as Gnaw Bone.

I didn’t stop at any of the flea markets, just in case you wondered.  No room in Gypsy Lee for stuff.

It was an overcast drizzly day, and although 50 was certainly a backroad, it wasn’t untraveled. My brain wasn’t untraveled either. My thoughts were all over the place.

Just as a storm of leaves blew across the highway east of North Vernon, a lavender semi drove through them. Now I’ve seen purple semis but never a lavender one. It left me wondering about the driver. Man or woman? I couldn’t tell as the large vehicle passed me on a curve.

But then I found myself wondering why one of these geese on the pond wasn’t like the others. — Photo by Pat Bean

And then I found myself quoting out loud to my canine traveling companion, Pepper. “I never saw a purple cow. I never hope to see one. But I would rather see, than be one.”

Well, OK. It was just that kind of day.

And then there was the old green truck with a rear sticker that asked: “Who is John Galt?” That question got me thinking about how life is lived at either end of the pendulum. I read Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged” at a pivotal time in my life, and got a lot from it. It wouldn’t mean the same thing to me these days.

And so the day went until I finally pulled into the Indian Springs Campground near North Bend, Ohio.

Then I spent the evening wondering which side of the Ohio River I was going to travel down tomorrow. Tune in Monday to find out..

Book Report: I was up before 6 a.m. to work on it, but most of the time was spent unraveling the back roads I took from Brimfield, Massachusetts, to Monroe, New York. But I got it done. Travels with Maggie is now up to 55,617 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Live to Write http://tinyurl.com/9efoarz Tarzan or Jane? A fun question to make you think. My answer is Jane, because she got to experience two worlds.

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You Can’t Get There From Here

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 11, 2012| 8 Comments »

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. – Friedrich Nietzsche

It was true. You can’t get there from here. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day: Day 20-21

I literally couldn’t get there from here after I left Illinois and drove into Indiana.  I misread a warning sign, thinking it was the other direction in which the bridge was out.

It wasn’t.

Time to back-track and follow the detour signs.

They led me to Clay City, Indiana, which calls itself the Mayberry of the Midwest, and then onto Highway 246, a narrow, winding backroad on which the colors of fall had already arrived. While I regretted my error, I was sure glad I got to drive the detour.

I wasn’t that happy, however, about getting lost in Bloomington, where I wandered around for an hour. I stopped for directions and twice people gave me wrong ones. I finally found a place to park, somewhere on the University of Indiana campus, where the last direction giver had sent me, and got onto my computer to seek out my own way out of town.

The trail Pepper and I walked daily — Photo by Pat Bean

Thankfully, I was just two blocks from Highway 45, which I had been following until I got side-tracked by Bloomington construction. Once back on the right road, I stayed on it to Nashville – Indiana not Tennessee.

My campground for the next two days would be the Last Resort Campground, where it rained most of the time. There was a nice trail behind the park, which Pepper and I walked several times a day, usually starting out during a lull in the dripping sky, which usually didn’t last until we got back to the RV.

All part of travel – and since no whining is allowed in Gypsy Lee, I didn’t

Book Report: Travels with Maggie now at 55,432 words

            Bean Pat: Wildflowers http://tinyurl.com/9r3lg27 A reminder that beauty can be found anywhere. Almost makes me want to hurry back to Texas. I love this blog because it’s helping me learn the names of wildflowers. As a writer, I need to know these things, because a flower is not a flower, it’s a poppy or a penstemon or a bluebonnet – or as it was today, a blazing star or a gayfeather, or for the scientific-minded, which I am not, a liatris mucronate.

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Back Roads and Lincoln Trail Park, Illinois

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 10, 2012| 8 Comments »

            “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines … It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.” – Charles Kuralt

A lone great egret on Lincoln Trail Lake —  Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 18-19

            I got it all figured out on the map, just exactly the best way to get to Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield. But in the end, I decided I’d rather spend my day traveling down Illinois’ backroads.

A young deer in the sunlight while the mom stays more hidden in the shadows. The park was full of deer. A staff worker said they had fawned late this year. — Photo by Pat Bean

So, with a cheat sheet of right and left turns to compensate for my lack of directional sense, I set out to drive from Chatham to Lincoln Trail State Park.

You guessed it. I got turned around numerous times. It seems my map and reality were  two different things. Too often sign markers were missing, and once even turned around the wrong way.

But it was a beautiful drive and I eventually found my way over numerous state and county roads to Lincoln Trail State Park, which was awesome.

I camped on a high lookout point with stairs leading down to the small lake that was painted by the colors of fall.

I had breakfast at the park’s marina restaurant before I left. The food was ho-hum, but the view was magnificent. — Photo by Pat Bean — Photo by Pat Bean

The large park is just west of the 1,000-mile Lincoln Heritage Trail, which marks Lincoln’s passage from Kentucky, through Indiana to Illinois.Heavily forested, the park is home to beech, oak, maple, hickory, sweet gum and sassafras trees. among many others. The air was clean and fresh, the days warm and sunny, and the nights cold and crisp, just perfect for snuggling beneath the covers with my canine traveling companion Pepper, and having pleasant dreams.

            Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now at 55,212 words. Not much time to write with traveling and other commitments, but I’m trying to at least keep it moving forward every day.    

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

        Bean’s Pat: Focus on the Eyes http://tinyurl.com/8rd5zjr Good advice for picture taking. I never thought of this very helpful hint. Perhaps other amateur photographers haven’t either.

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Sunny Day, But Plans Still Go Awry

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

            “Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun’s shining or not,” – Marty Robbins

This barge was going down the Mississippi River at about the same time I was going over the river on the Mark Twain Bridge. --Photo by Pat Bean

This barge was going down the Mississippi River at about the same time I was going over the river on the Mark Twain Bridge. –Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 18

            Finally, after three days of Mrs. Sky’s weeping, Mr. Sun made his bright warm appearance again.

It’s a rare occasion that I don’t make it to where I’m headed. But Springfield traffic and a traffic accident right in front of me convinced me that I would rather visit Lincoln’s Tomb as an armchair traveler. — Wikipedia photo

I got up early, leisurely drank my cream-laced coffee while posting my blog, took Pepper for a long walk, and then took to the road as happy as the robins dining on worms brought to the surface by the rain.

Soon I was crossing the Mississippi River over the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge. A huge barge was passing below, on the Missouri side of the river, I noted, passing a sign in the middle of the bridge that welcomed me to Illinois. The state border here goes through the middle of the Mighty Mississippi.

On the other side of the bridge, I came across a series of roadside signs like the old Burma Shave ones. Anybody else out there remember those?

This one was more indicative of today, and made me laugh. “I’m on hold/I wish I had/the gun I sold,” They said. Perhaps it made me laugh because I recently was on hold for an hour trying to find out why my Amazon account wouldn’t let me sign on to order a book.

But I’m sorry I didn’t get to rub Honest Abe’s nose for luck. Note how shiny it is. It’s been rubbed a lot. — Wikipedia photo

My plan for the day, meanwhile, was to stop in Springfield, Illinois, pat Lincoln’s nose for good luck, than check into the Double J Campground down the road in Chatham.  I didn’t realize just how big a city Springfield was. I got caught in an early afternoon traffic jam, and then a nasty accident took place right in front of me, blocking my way.

Police eventually came and cleared the road enough so I could travel on, but by that time I wanted to get out of Springfield and park my RV under a shady tree and take Pepper for a brisk walk. And so I did a U-turn and made that happen — at the Double J RV Campground  seven miles south of too-chaotic-for-me-big-city.

Book Report: I got up early to drive the Skyline Trail in Shenandoah National Park — Yes I know my blog is trailing behind me. I’ll do better tomorrow. I’m staying put for the day.

Bean’s Pat: Sunday Morning http://tinyurl.com/8qmm77p A rabbit, cat and beetle are what make this morning special. What I love best is the ordinariness of it.

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Stalled By Rain, I Turn to Computer Games

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

 “And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” Gilbert K. Chesterton

Adventures with Pepper: Days 15-17  

On my earlier trip to Hannibal — when it was sunny — I climbed the 253 steps to the top of Cardiff Hill. At the foot of the hill is a statue of Tom and Huck. — Photo by Pat Bean

 I stayed over this day at the Mark Twain Landing campground, taking advantage of the scenic park to catch up on my writing. My plan was to get back on the road the next day. But a thundering rain storm, which began during the night and continued into the day, pushed that plan out the window.  While my RV, Gypsy Lee, takes steep hills and winding curves with ease, she doesn’t do slick well. Frustrated that my well-thought-out day of travel had gone awry, I spent most of the day playing computer games. I hate it when I do that.  It was still overcast the next morning but I took off anyway, stopping at the large Wal-Mart in Hannibal, about 20 miles east of the Landing campground, to stock up my depleted pantry. When I came out from my shopping, it was raining again, steadily and hard with no indication it would be stopping anytime soon.

At the top of the hill was the Mark Twain Lighthouse, which was built in 1935 to commemorate what would have been the witty author’s 100th birthday. It was never a working lighthouse. — Photo by Pat Bean

Time, I decided, to put Plan B into action.

I had passed through Hannibal, coming from another direction and headed another direction, in 2006. I had stayed that time at the Injun Joe Campground just outside of Hannibal on Highway 61. I back-tracked there now and settled in for the rest of the day.

This time I actually did get a little writing done, and a lot of reading, too.

Book Report: “Travels with Maggie” now at 54,915 words. Long drives and other projects keep the book moving at a snail’s pace. But I’m happy as long as there’s at least a little progress.

Bean’s Pat: Fly like an eagle http://tinyurl.com/8fauggm or soar like a red-tailed hawk.  The soaring red-tail, with sun highlighting its naming feature, is a common sight in my travels. It’s one that always makes my heart soar right up there with it. But I’ve never been able to photograph the flight. I’m so glad this blogger captured the awesomeness.

 

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Long Drive, Good Book

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Lakes, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

“A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”  — Franz Kafka

Adventures with Pepper: Day 14

Canada geese on one of the two small lakes at Mark Twain Landing near Morgan City, Missouri. — Photo by Pat Bean

It was a long drive today, 275 miles from Seneca, Kansas, to Morgan City, Missouri — through the kind of country that I had been passing for the past couple of days.

I used it as a sort of sabbatical for my brain and eyes, which had been going full blast ever since I had left Lake Walcott State Park in Southern Idaho some 1,500 miles ago.

For the first time since starting the trip, I occupied my mind with something other than the passing sights. I listened to an audible book, Brandon Sanderson’s first book of his trilogy, “The Way of Kings.”

Sunset on the second of the resort’s two lakes. — Photo by Pat Bean

I loved his “Mistborn,” trilogy and was finally getting into this one.  Sanderson, who finished up the epic “Wheel of Time” is not a fast read, but he gives one plenty of things to ponder.

And when I got to my chosen campground for the night, the Mark Twain Landing, I continued my slow day by taking a walk with Pepper. Later, I sat outside with her and a Jack and Coke to watch the sun go down over a small lake. It was if my body signed with relief.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 54,615 words. It really is true, at least for me,  that the more I have to do the more I get done. Perhaps I became too accustomed to having to find time to fit my personal writing in between work for too many years.         

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Do Vampire Writers Write at Night? http://tinyurl.com/8qldry5 This one’s for my writer readers, who find themselves wondering instead of writing.

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