8/24/08 (Sunday): Greetings from cool, dry Boone! We hope all our FL friends are recovering from their extended visit with Faye! I understand that my in-laws now have lakeside property! Fortunately, only a grassy area was flooded, not their homes. We haven't had any rain here in Boone for several weeks. The grass is crunchy and the gardens are wilting. We're hoping to get some of the remnants of Faye here later this week.

Just to bring you up to date on a couple of things that are happening with us:

I'm participating in a study to determine the fitness levels and recreation preferences of "mature" women (over 60!). I'm getting paid $80 to wear a wristwatch-type GPS (to track my location) and a pedometer device to track my activity level. I also have to keep a journal of active periods over 10 minutes long. I'm not supposed to do anything differently--just adhere to my normal daily routine. It's an easy and fun way to earn a little extra money.

Wiley and I spent two days last week at a friend's house, helping her build some shelves. She has a really charming mountain cabin and wanted to continue the rustic theme. We visited a sawmill and bought some barn board (dirt cheap!). We think they turned out really well and our friend was very pleased.

Here's a picture she took of the finished product--pretty nice, huh?!

In addition to fishing, Wiley has been enjoying the garden he planted when we first got here. The first crop was turnip and and mustard greens. Then we ate turnips. Next came zucchini, yellow squash, patty pan squash (pictured above, stuffed) potatoes and now tomatoes. We're looking forward to cantaloupe in another couple of weeks.

Here's what's for dinner tonight!

Last weekend was really busy--the BMW motorcycle club had reserved almost half of our campground. They were a really nice group--all my preconceived notions about motorcyclists went out the window. They were quiet and well behaved and very interesting to talk to. One of them came all the way from Idaho on his motorcycle!

Many of them pulled little tent trailers behind their motorcycles, but this guy had an ingenious idea--his tent folded up into the bed of his truck! There was a bed on each side, a dining table and some cabinets. He put his motorcycles in a little trailer behind the truck.

With the campground so busy, Wiley and I decided to head out one afternoon and find a little solitude. As usual, the scenery is just so gorgeous. We passed several barns with quilt patterns on them (I talked about this in an earlier blog).

I just think they're so interesting! Note that this barn (you can't see the bottom of it because it's downhill from the road) has two patterns on it!

We wound up in Trade, NC, where we happened on this old mill. It's still in use, although they weren't grinding anything the day we were there. We bought some popcorn flour--they grind the same kind of corn that you would use to pop into flour. It's supposed to be much lighter than regular corn meal.

The next afternoon was just too beautiful to "waste" hanging around camp, so we drove to Blowing Rock and hiked the Glen Burnie trail. It was quite lovely, although a little strenuous (very steep). We wound up at this great waterfall. I balanced the camera on a rock, set the timer, and dashed into the picture. Can you see how hard I'm breathing?!
On our days off last week, we drove to Damascus, Virginia, about 1-1/2 hours from Boone. We hiked a little way on the Virginia Creeper trail. It's mostly for bikers--outfitters take bikers up to the top of the mountain and they ride downhill back to town.

The trail at the bottom where we started parallels Beaver Dam Creek.

It wasn't a particularly good hiking trail (and it was pretty hot down off our mountain), so we stopped for an ice cream and then drove to Abingdon, Virginia. This little ice cream store/gift shop was one of several businesses that seemed to flourish right on the trail.

Abingdon is a very historic town. Check out this website: Abingdon, VA. We enjoyed a walk through the historic part of town.


There we many gorgeous old homes.
We came home through a little corner of Tennessee. The highway went right under this high ridge of rock. We stopped just past it at a place where you could hike up to the top. It's called "Backbone Ridge." The trail was very steep with lots of steps, but the view was worth it.

Yesterday I took Wiley fishing after work. He caught a nice one! We weren't nearly as busy at the campground last week, although next weekend (Labor Day) promises to be very busy. I'm going to lead a scavenger hunt, bingo and children's crafts. (I have such a fun job!)

That's it for another busy week. Next time I'll blog about today's hike on the Boone Fork trail and show you some photos that I'm going to submit to a contest sponsored by the Charlotte newspaper. Tune in again soon!

8/10/08 (Sunday): I'm back (and pretty much over my jet lag)! I had a great time visiting Mark, Heather, Hudson and Austin in California--thanks guys!

I always take a little "surprise" for my grands when I visit. This time, I brought a device that allows you to blow truly monstrous bubbles. We all had a great time playing with this thing. We went through 2 bottles of Dawn dishwashing liquid and most of a bottle of glycerine. Great fun!

The other thing I brought was face painting crayons. They were also put to good use right away. The boys are very creative--they didn't even practice before I shot this video!

I know some of you with older computers have trouble when I put two videos in a blog, but I couldn't resist letting everyone hear how well Austin (age 8) is doing with his guitar lessons.


Aren't they great kids?!

Austin (in the aqua speedo).

Hudson

Austin and Hudson are both on the swim team, and I was privileged to sit in on a practice. They're both good swimmers. In fact, Hudson's team is going to the county competition.

The other momentous event of the day was the removal of Hudson's braces. He was handsome with them, and he's stunning without them!


We also visited a local lake where the boys enjoyed swimming and playing around and Mark and I sat and soaked up some sun.

We also managed to fit in an overnight camping trip at Big Basin Redwoods State Park (click on link for information about this gorgeous park). What a treat!

We set up two tents--a small one for Mark and Hudson and a bigger one for me, Heather and Austin. It's been a long time since I slept on a thin camping mat, and I didn't get much sleep, but that was the only down side of the trip. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous--big redwoods, creeks, waterfalls and lots of wildlife.
Many of the redwoods either had hollows in them or had been damaged by fire. Some had even been cut down. But they were incredibly BIG!

I'm not having a lot of luck with my campfire photos, but you get the idea here. We enjoyed a wonderful campfire. Heather made shishkebabs and we roasted marshmallows for dessert.


We hiked along a creek to a waterfall the next day. It was really a lovely spot--almost liked a grotto. I didn't get any good photos of the waterfall because it was so dark.

Altogether a great trip, but I'm happy to be home in Boone again.

8/1/08 (Friday): We've warmed up some here in Boone, but it's still a lot cooler than off the mountain. Everyone who comes up here comments about our lovely weather. We've had a little more rain, but we're still down about 2 inches for the summer (4 inches for the year). It's just lovely to sit outside in the late afternoon and watch the kids playing hide and seek and people relaxing and having a good time.

Wiley and I just finished some renovations on a small RV that the campground rents out. We put down some indoor/outdoor carpet and made some minor repairs. It looks really great! Now some of our seasonal guests are asking whether we'd like to help renovate their units! In exchange for our work (which we did on our days off), Garry is letting us use the RV for Julie and John when they come to visit. This is Garry having some lunch with two regular visitors to our campground, Mackenzie and Billie. They helped me and Wiley finish the job on the carpet.

I'm heading for a visit with Mark and his family on Sunday morning. I'll be back late Thursday afternoon, and Julie and John's visit starts that weekend.

On our last days off, we went to New River State Park. Wiley fished and I took a short hike and took some photos. The wildflowers and butterflies are everywhere!


I hope everyone is having a good summer. I'll blog again when I get back from California.