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Archive for the ‘Journeys’ Category

Blue Ridge Parkway: Chestnuts and Rakes Pond

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , 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.

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Blue Ridge Parkway: Roanoke River Crossing

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , 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.

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Blue Ridge Parkway: Natural Bridge Disappointment

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 26, 2012| 7 Comments »

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” — Frances Hodgson Burnett, “The Secret Garden”

Natural Bridge as painted by David Johnson in 1860.

Adventures with Pepper: Day 31 continued 

A 2005 photo of Natural Bridge — Wikipedia photo

I had a fantastic day’s drive this first day of my journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway, despite one big disappointment.

In my perusal of sights along the parkway, I had seen pictures of Natural Bridge and wanted to see it for myself. I didn’t know it was a tourist trap. The entrance to the bridge was on the inside of a gift shop, and a walk down to see it would cost me $20.

The cost of the ticket included some extras, but all I wanted was to see Mother Nature’s creation in a natural setting. When I saw the crowds, and realized the setting would be staged, I passed.

Instead, I back-tracked to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Natural Bridge Campground, where I had reservations, and checked in early. I like the family atmosphere of Yogi’s campgrounds — and the 50 percent discount I got from this one as a Passport America member.

After hooking up, I had plenty of time to take Pepper for a nice walk down to the James River, which ran along one edge of the park. I had the river to myself, and sat for a while beside it at a picnic table watching Pepper chase fall leaves.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 58,302 words.

Bean’s Pat: Discovering Myself http://tinyurl.com/9kfpuuk I’ve been traveling through fantastic fall color country. But this blogger has some fantastic shots of Minnesota’s fall colors. Take a look.

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Skyline Trail through Shenandoah

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , 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.

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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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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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Will I Find a Clean, Nice, Safe Place to Spend the Night?

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Dogs, Journeys, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on September 28, 2012| 4 Comments »

“Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.” – Leo F. Buscaqlia

Adventures with Pepper: The End of Day Ten  

Pepper was a little confused when this quaint burro didn’t want to play. It was one of several pieces of garden art that added charm to Wray, Colorado’s, Hitchin’ Post RV Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I left Loveland, Colorado, this morning I was facing what looked like a 160-mile drive ahead of me before I would likely come across an RV park — and the ratings for it  in my Trailer Life Directory left something to be desired.

Perhaps that was simply because it was small. At least that’s what I hoped.

My love of driving little-traveled back roads means it’s not usual for me to find myself in this kind of situation. And when it does, the questions start running through my head.

Would I find a safe place to stay the night? Would the people I meet be trustworthy? Would I take a wrong turn? Would my RV suffer a flat tire or engine trouble?  Would the showers be clean?

All these woulds are what made one couple I met decide, after just one day on the road in a  brand new 40-foot RV, that the traveling lifestyle wasn’t for them. Instead they chose a wooded RV park an hour away from their home, bought one of its spaces, parked their RV and used it as a getaway cottage.

Even if they weren’t rat-a-tat-tatting on the post, I found these woodpeckers charming. — Photo by Pat Bean

A creative way to go, I thought, when the female half of the couple told me about their decision as we shared the park’s Laundromat at her home away from home.

But it’s not my way. Not knowing what lies ahead is part of the adventure.

I’ve learned two things over the years that ease my mind about facing the unknown.

The first, which I learned after suffering worn disk brake pads that left Gypsy Lee crying ouch every time I touched the brake pedal, was that I trusted myself to solve whatever problem fate threw at me.  In this case it meant sitting at Wiser State Park near Poteau, Oklahoma, for several days, while new brake pads for my RV were shipped in to a Poteau tire shop, as none were to be found in the small town.

And who doesn’t get a smile on their face when a deer emerges from the woods. While certainly not great art, the small wildlife statues did make me feel good about the place I had chosen to spend the night. — Photo by Pat Bean

The second is a Plan B. Once it was a night spent in a Wal-Mart parking lot to escape driving in a storm, and several times it’s been to keep driving until I do find a place that looks safe.

That would have meant quite a bit farther this day if the Wray, Colorado, place didn’t work out, I had noted when planning the day’s driving route.

Thankfully I didn’t have to do that. Wray’s Hitchin’ Post RV Park, despite its faded entrance sign, turned out to be a clean little gem run by a little old lady who used a walker to move about.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie up to 53,606 words.

The Wondering Wandrer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Catch of the Day: http://tinyurl.com/dy2alca There’s more to getting up early to go fishing than catching fish.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , , on September 15, 2012| 11 Comments »

            “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost

Part of my everyday Sunday life was sitting on the back steps of my grandmother’s home early in the morning watching her wring a chicken’s neck so we could have the best fried chicken in the world for dinner. It spooked me the way the headless body of the chicken would flop around. My grandmother’s house on the outskirts of Dallas is now condemned. — Photo by Pat Bean

Mine from the Ages of 3 to 11

These are the steps I ran up every week day to catch the school bus. I tripped on them once and chipped a tooth, which the dentist said was why it finally fell out when I was in my 60s. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I was 11 years old my grandmother, the only person I thought loved me – of course I was wrong – died. My whole world then changed, and it wasn’t for the better.

I recently searched out my grandmother’s old home. As Robert Frost said, life had moved on. But the memories of my everyday life as it was back then are still etched into my soul.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

  

This is the tree in the next door neighbor’s yard that I climbed most everyday. I loved this old tree, which back then was young and perfect. The house on the right was a corn field. — Photo by Pat Bean

          “Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.” – Anton Chekhov .

 

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Devil’s Slide

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on September 13, 2012| 9 Comments »

 “The journey itself is my home.” Basho Matsuo

Adventures with Pepper: Day Four Continued            

Devil’s Slide as viewed from the far side of the Weber River. — Photo by Pat Bean

When it comes to interesting landscapes, the Devil too often gets the credit.

For example, Colorado has a Devil’s Playground, New Zealand has a Devil’s Bath, Wyoming has a Devil’s Tower, Norway has a Devil’s Valley and Oklahoma, Idaho and Arizona all have Devil canyons. And this is just barely scratching the surface.

Wandering/wondering minds are curious about this name phenomenon. Aren’t you?

Utah’s Weber Canyon, which I passed through, was what got me thinking about this.

Near the mouth of the canyon I passed Devil’s Gate, and near its end I passed Devils Slide.

The gate was named by early explorers to the region, and later illustrated by Thomas Moran for a railroad tour guide. He also did an illustration of Devil’s Slide.

I was on the wrong side of Highway 84 to get a picture of the gate, but Pepper and I stopped at the scenic turnout to admire Devil’s Slide for a while.

Artist Thomas Moran’s etching of Devil’s Gate, a rock formation in the Weber River that daunted early pioneers who came down Weber Canyon. This spot on the river now offers kayakers a major challenge.

The limestone sides of the slide were part of a sea floor about 175 million years ago. The sea drained away, the reef bed tilted and the softer between layer of rock eroded away to create the unusual geological site.            I wondered what was on the mind of the person who named it Devil’s Slide instead of Angel’s Slide, or simply The Giant’s Slide.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 45,422 words. I got up early this morning so I could write.  

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day

          Bean’s Pat: Take a hike http://tinyurl.com/8fk88m8 Along the West Coast Trail. I would be envious if I weren’t having my own, less strenuous, but still fabulous journey right now.

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