Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged green, pat bean, postaday, red-eared slider, Rowlett, Texas, turtles on November 17, 2012| 4 Comments »
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and
respecting her seniority.” — Elwyn Brooks White, Essays of E.B. White, 1977
This red-eared slider turtle lives in a green world in the creek that runs through Springfield Park in Rowlett, Texas. — Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Dogs, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged gatlinburg, pat bean, pigeon forge, postaday, smoky mountain national park, tennessee, yogi's in the smokies on November 13, 2012| 4 Comments »
Gaping at sights like King Kong as I drove through Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is probably one of the reasons I missed my turn. I shot this photo out my RV window while stopped at a traffic light. — Photo by Pat Bean
“Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.” – Ray Bradbury
Adventures with Pepper: Day 46-47
After a week’s layover at Yogi’s in the Smokies Campground, I finally decided it was time for me to get back on the road again.
I came across this scene on my way down Big Cove Road just outside of Yogi’s in the Smokies. It stopped me and my camera in its tracks. — Photo by Pat Bean
First I said my good-byes to Dolly, the matriarch of the family group that adopted me and Pepper and fed us campfire steaks. Dolly was 75, the mother of seven children and lots of grandchildren, but she told me she still had plenty of get-up-and-go. I left her with the encouragement to get up and go often. And she promised she would take my example and do so
My goal for the day was to drive through Smoky Mountain National Park. It was steep, which by now I had become used to, but it was also crowded. I only stopped a few times and left the park early so I could go through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Pepper and I had lunch by this small gurgling stream in Smoky Mountain National Park.
They were crowded, too, but full of interesting sights. I guess I gawked too much because I missed my turn, a mistake that added several hours to what was only going to be a short day’s drive.
I drove one section of Highway 441 twice because I got wrong directions – most likely because I asked the wrong question.
I ended up taking Highway 411 to Marysville and back-tracking a few miles on Highway 321, the road I had missed.
I ended the day at Mystic River, which turned out to be a Passport America campground, which was good because the full price was $45. As a passport member, I paid only half of that. It was a very nice campground and I stuck around the next day. .
Book Report: I drove the 300 miles back to Dallas from Lake Jackson yesterday and never got to Travels with Maggie. Hopefully I’ll get an hour’s worth of writing in later today.
Bean’s Pat: A Trip to Antarctica http://tinyurl.com/c6te3yc This sounds like an awesome arm-chair traveling event.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged appalachians, autumn colors, Blue Ridge Parkway, pat bean on November 8, 2012| 6 Comments »
The many interpretive and information signs along the parkway enhanced my experience of the parkway. It was also great to drive a road where Mother Nature was the focus of all the attention. — Photo by Pat Bean
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S Elliot
Adventures with Pepper: Days 37
It was a cold morning in Ashville but it warmed up quickly. This last day’s drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway was the steepest, the road traveling up to 6,047 feet, just slightly less than half the altitude of the highest point of 12,183 feet on Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park, which I drove near the start of this meandering journey to Texas.
While I didn’t stop at every overlook I know I got over half of them. — Photo by Pat Bean
In addition to being the steepest, today’s colors were among the most brilliant, meeting all my expectations of catching Miss Appalachian in her finest autumn dress.I stopped for lunch at the 3,570 Stony Bald Overlook at the 402 mile marker, and looked out at layer upon layer of color and mountain ridges.
“Wow!” I said to Pepper as she chewed her pork-skin bone while I ate a peanut butter and orange marmalade sandwich.
Thirty-point-four miles, half a dozen stops and two hours later, Pepper and I were standing at the Richard Balsam overlook at that 6,047 feet for a zillionth replay of beauty and color.
Ponds always stopped me for a closer look, and this one had a great short hiking trail to go with it. Ahhhh. Blue Ridge Parkway I’ll miss you. — Photo by Pat Bean
“Where in Texas you from?” I heard a voice say from behind me. Because of my Texas license plates I heard those same words at least once a day on the parkway. Many of the speakers were Texans themselves.
I suspected the speaker probably wasn’t really interested in the answer. The question was just the icebreaker for sharing a few minutes of conversation with a stranger. It’s one of the rituals of traveling – a ritual I love.
Book Report: I wanted to skip reporting about Travels with Maggie today. I’m sure you know why. And today, after posting this, I have a 300-mile road trip to make, from Dallas to the Texas Gulf Coast via Interstate 45. I think I’ll be listening to an audible book as I hate freeways, but I have loved ones waiting for me at the end of the trip so the drive will be worth it.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Beans Pat: http://tinyurl.com/bzttg42 This one just seemed appropriate for today. My wish is that this time around the losers will help the winners do what is in the best interests of the country, and that the winners will put the interests of the country above personal ambitions or gain. OK. I’m a dreamer.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Dogs, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged Blue Ridge Parkway, fried apple pie, meadows of dan, pat bean, postaday, woolly caterpillars on October 31, 2012| 2 Comments »
“You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.” — Ronald Reagan
The majestic, panoramic views from the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which the parkway follows, can get to be a bit overwhelming. So I also spent some time focusing on nature’s little beauties, like this woolly bear caterpillar that made its way across my Meadows of Dan camp site. — Photo by Pat Bean
Adventures with Pepper: Day 33
Meadows of Dan is a small farming community located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I stopped here because it had a nice RV park with Wi-Fi and I had a writing deadline to meet for American Profile Magazine http://blogs.americanprofile.com
Or like this tiny mushroom growing beneath a tree. — Photo by Pat Bean
It was a pleasant scenic park but nothing special to distinguish it from the other campgrounds I had stayed at along the way. Pepper tried to play with every dog we passed on our walks, and I enjoyed the smell of campfires drifting into my RV as I sat at my computer and wrote.
The best part of my two-day stay in Meadows of Dan was the morning I left.
A blue jay, its bright blue feathers a bit faded at this time of the year, sassed me good-bye as I drove out of the campground, making me smile at its determination to not move out of the road until Gypsy Lee was almost on top of it. While I didn’t see anything, perhaps it had found a tidbit of breakfast hiding among the gravel.
I stopped for gas in the tiny town, where an art show and farmer’s market was underway. The gas pump was an old-fashioned one that didn’t take debit or credit cards and so I had to go inside to pay.
And I loved the contrast of Virginia creeper in its fall dress against the rocks that lined the roadsides. — Photo by Pat Bean
I took time to roam through the country store that was filled with home-made crafts and other goodies, of which I bought bread, honey, plums and an honest-to-goodness fried apple pie, which I ate once I got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to continue my journey.
The crust was moist and the taste of the grease it was fried in rich in my mouth. I savored every bite, including the rich apple filling that had been lightly sweetened to perfection. Just writing about it now makes me feel like one of Pavlov’s dogs.
Eating healthy, which I mostly do, is good for the body. But that apple pie was good for the soul. It’s probably a good thing I don’t live in Meadows of Dan, however. There’s probably only so much the soul can take.
Book Report: I’m happy to report that Travels with Maggie is now up to 60,119 words. I didn’t have internet at my last stop and so it was Travels with Maggie that got my attention.
Bean’s Pat: Hurricane Sandy Birding http://tinyurl.com/cwhadl4 In the aftermath of tragedy, life goes on for both humans and birds. Not to make light of the tragedy by noting this birding blog, I join all those mourning for the families of those who lost loved ones.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged american chestnut, Blue Ridge Parkway, marby mill, pat bean, postaday, rakes mill pond, william g. lord on October 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
“Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands …” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
One of hundreds of inviting places to have a picnic along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I loved the way the light shown through the trees on this shady spot. — Photo by Pat Bean
Adventures with Pepper: Day 32 Continued
The Blue Ridge Parkway is not just about the fantastic landscape, it’s also about the people who made or make the Blue Ridge Mountains, which stretch from Pennsylvania to Georgia, their home.
Except for this couple, I had Rake’s Mill Pond site to myself. — Photo by Pat Bean
My companion on the journey, , besides Pepper, was ranger and naturalist William Lord’s mile-marker guide published in 1982 by the American Chestnut Foundation. The American Chestnut, whose numbers in the Appalachian Mountains once numbered about three billion, were decimated by a blight in the early 1900s. Today one would be hard pressed to find a hundred mature American chestnuts. The parkway, however, is home to a few immature trees as the battle to save them continues. Few chestnut trees today grow to more than about 20 feet before the blight fugal disease take them. The people working to save this species, like the chestnut foundation, is part of today’s story along the parkway.
I loved the markers along the Blue Ridge Parkway that helped me make sense of what I was seeing.
One person from the past was a miller named Rake, who built a small pond to have ready water for his grist mill. His advertising gimmick was to allow customers to fish in the pond while they waited for their meal to be ground. I’m glad I stopped at this small, peaceful place, because the Marby Mill, the show mill of the parkway just up the road a bit, was too crowded for me to park Gypsy Lee, and she ain’t big
I was forced to pass this stopping spot up and continue on to Meadows of Dan, where I would spend the night.
Book Report: I’m in Nashville now, and while I’ve stuck around for a few days, I’ve taken tours and listened to country music, and Travels with Maggie got stuck again.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: Marc and Angel http://tinyurl.com/95gpobj 10 Ways to Live Life with No Regrets. I’m not fond of promoting big blogs like this, but the advice these two hand out is just too good to pass up. I read their blog a lot.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged Blue Ridge Parkway, dogs, henry david thoreau, roanoke river, virginia trails on October 28, 2012| 4 Comments »
“Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” – Henry David Thoreau.
Pepper pulled me down the trail, and I was hard pressed to keep up and not stumble. But when she pulled me back up the trail, I thought: “Oh what a good dog you are.” — Photo by Pat Bean
Adventures with Pepper: Day 32
Oh goodie! I’ll be able to get a good picture of the Roanoke River. — Photo by Pat Bean
I’m suffering a distorted kind of writer’s block as I try to blog about my 466-mile journey down the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s not that I don’t have things I want to tell you about this amazing adventure, but that I have too much to tell you and too many pictures to choose from that I took along the way.
My thoughts seem quite jumbled. I think I need to stop thinking so much about trying to put things in order and just get on with the writing, tackling it piece by piece for the next few days, or as Anne LaMott said so well, “Bird by Bird.”
I got a great shop of the bridge that crossed the Roanoke River, but the view of the river itself from the viewpoint was blocked by foliage. — Photo by Pat Bean
This day Pepper and I crossed the Roanoke River, and had a fantastic view of it from the bridge high above it. Of course there was no place to stop and take a picture, which was why I was happy to see a trail head leading down to a viewpoint right after we exited the bridge.
It was a great little hike, in which I was pulled both up and down the trail by Pepper, but no decent view of the river. I’d have to make sure I filed the bridge-crossing view somewhere in my little gray cells, I thought.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged fall colors, pat bean, postaday, shenandoah national park, skyline trail, virginia, Wildflowers on October 22, 2012| 9 Comments »
Layers and layers of colors ending in blue. — Photo by Pat Bean
“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.”
—Carol Pearson
Adventures with Pepper: Day 29
The wildflower season along Skyline Trail had ended, but their were still a few flowers, like this small beauty with drops of rain still coating its leaves, to be seen. — Photo by Pat Bean
While the rain had stopped, the morning was still overcast. It was going to be a dreary drive through Shenandoah National Park, I thought.
But then Mother Nature took pity on me. I had just barely started my day’s drive down the park’s 105-mile Skyline Trail when the sun came out and bathed the landscape with its light.
Rain drops on leaves glistened in the sunlight and the passing foliage took on a warm glow.
The leaves of the maples, oaks, elms, beeches, aspens and many others, were a variegated palette of color. They reminded me of the mixed-color yarn my mother often used in making afghans. If she were using Mother Nature’s half-summer/half-autumn colors this day, her crocheted blankets would range in hues from green to lemon yellow with shades of orange, plum and scarlet in between.
Rag Mountain framed by an old dead tree I found interesting. — Photo by Pat Bean
Shenandoah National Park is a long, narrow mixture of lands and forests woven together in a landscape protected for both its beauty and its wildness. Its Skyline Trail is a narrow, winding, hilly road with a 35 mph speed limit designed as the way for people in cars to enjoy it.
With 75 overlooks – I know I stopped at least half of them – and inviting trails leading away from the smell of the road, Pepper and I found many reasons to at least briefly abandon Gypsy Lee, out home on wheels. .
It took me over seven hours to get through the park. It would have been longer if I hadn’t have wanted to get off the road and Gypsy Lee hooked up to civilization before dark.
Book Report: Just to keep it moving forward, I added another few words, bringing Travels with Maggie up to 56,103. I think for the next two weeks, until I get off the road for a bit, the book is truly going to be moving at a snail’s pace. I have writing commitments for Story Circle Network of which I’m a board member and other priorities this coming week, plus other priorities on this current journey. I hope I’m not just making excuses.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day
Bean’s Pat: Unusual Travel Tradition http://tinyurl.com/9f3amqx This blogger sees the funny side of travel. A new find for me.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged carthage gap rv park, coolville. ohio, friends, halloween, pat bean, postaday, Tim Cahill 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.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged gnaw bone, indian springs campground, pat bean, postaday, purple cow, wondering 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.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged great egret, illinois backroads, lincoln trail state park, pat bean, postaday, trees 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.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
Pat Bean is a writer, avid birder, hiker and passionate nature observer with wanderlust in her soul. She spent nine years living and traveling in a small RV. She now lives in Tucson with Scamp, a rescue who was supposed to be a Schnauzer mix but turned out to be a Siberian Husky-Shih Tzu mix who is as stubborn as his owner, her granddaughter says. She was also a journalist for 37 years, and can be reached at patbean@msn.com
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