December 23, 2009 (Wednesday): We're in Michigan for the holidays. We enjoyed a lovely drive up through the snowy mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. Fortunately, the roads were clear and I was able to enjoy the beauty, too.

There's not a lot of snow on the ground, but Wiley scraped together enough to make a snowman. We also enjoyed a brief snowball fight. We were hoping for a white Christmas, but right now it appears it's going to rain.

The girls entertained us with a portion of their school pageant. Check it out:


We hope everyone has a joyous Christmas and happy new year.

12/16/09 (Tuesday): My, how time flies. Another Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. We're really looking forward to a trip up to Michigan for a visit with both sons and their families. Last weekend we had an early celebration with Wiley's family. We've definitely got the Christmas spirit going.

Wiley's sister put on a lovely Thanksgiving feast for everyone. She has a great house with a gorgeous, tropical back yard.
There are lots of fun things to do in New Smyrna Beach. We took a clamming class at Canaveral National Seashore. Wiley got a clamming rake for his birthday and we picked up some good pointers on where and how to find the critters. I made some clam chowder with the fruits of his labors, but I'm not fond of clams, so I had potato soup for myself.

I think I had mentioned before that some of Wiley's ancestors settled in this area in the 1760's. This map is in the museum in town. The fifth name from the bottom on the right (Rogero) is his family. We took a great tour of the town with a former mayor. She was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and a fascinating character. Like most small towns, New Smyrna Beach has had its share of politics and she knew of more than one skeleton lurking in local closets.

Of course, the best thing about New Smyrna Beach is that it's a beach!
We spend lots of time on the Indian River, watching the birds, manatees dolphin and big boats.

And enjoying butterflies and flowers in December!That's it for now--we're off to take a hike.

12/1/09 (Tuesday): Greetings from sunny Florida! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day with Wiley's family. His sister prepared a feast at her lovely home. We enjoyed a beautiful day and some great food. After the year we just went through, I'm so thankful to feel healthy and to be living such an active and healthy life.
I don't think I've given the grand tour of the campground yet. We love it because it has lots of tropical vegetation (including a bunch of gorgeous hibiscus like this one right beside our patio) and it's very close to the beach. There's a lake at the back end of the campground (it's saltwater, so I'm not sure whether "lake" is the right term for it). Wiley fishes there almost every day. There's a giant tarpon in it that teases him--he hasn't been able to catch it yet. Here's a little video of the lake that I took the day my friend Lucie came to visist.


We like to go to nearby Oak Hill to fish and crab from the pier. These white pelicans like to fish there, too. There are a couple of other county parks off U.S. 1 that we visit as well. In fact, we watched the last space shuttle launch from one of them. That was fantastic--the first time I've ever been so close! We could even hear the roar.

We're planning a trip to Michigan for a Christmas visit with my sons and their families. It'll be the first time in a year that I've seen Hudson and Austin--way too long! We're really looking forward to it. We'll be driving up this time, so I'm hoping we'll get decent weather. Wiley, as usual, is hoping for snow!

That's about it for now. As soon as I download the pictures, I'll do a blog about the historic town of New Smyrna Beach and Wiley's family connection with it.

11/8/09 (Sunday): This will be a short blog because it's too pretty outside to be sitting inside on a computer. We're thinking about taking the kayaks to the beach (it's going to hit 80 degrees today).
A couple of weeks ago, we went on a walk to benefit various projects in Haiti supported by St. Margaret Mary's church. Wiley Sr. came along in a wheelchair. Mag, Cathy and Katelyn walked with us. It was a beautiful day in Winter Park and we enjoyed three miles of scenery and socializing. The high point for me was seeing the resident eagle on its nest.
The next weekend, we took the Dykes gang to a great Volusia County park near Oak Hill. We caught crabs, but no fish. David took the kayak out.

We're really enjoying our campground (Sugar Mill Ruins Campground in New Smyrna Beach). There's lots of gorgeous tropical vegetation and the people are great. We have a TV lounge, game room and recreation hall. The back end of the park features a salt water lake, complete with crabs and fish (including a very large tarpon). Of course, you can guess where Wiley is every morning! It's also close to shopping and historic downtown New Smyrna Beach. Part of Wiley's family were among the original settlers of this area. They came as indentured workers with a settler named Turnbull who wanted to start a sugar plantation. We're having fun exploring.

Okay--I'm off to enjoy the day. I hope everyone will have a great Sunday!

11/1/09 (Sunday): Hello--is anybody out there? I haven't gotten any comments on my last blog. Where is everyone?

We're back in Florida (New Smyrna Beach--check out the map) and will be at this campground until at least the end of March. We're not working for the campground, but we may find somewhere to volunteer in the area just to keep busy. It's a nice campground with a large pool, lots of tropical vegetation, a fishing pond and plenty of good shopping and beaches nearby.

I've got a few leftover pics to share from our Upper Peninsula/Boone adventure.Here's Wiley hiking the trail on Elk Knob. The higher we got, the more snow there was. Gorgeous, but I'm still glad to be back in Florida!
We took one last ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway to admire the foliage. Spectacular!

We also drove out to see Chimney Rock. Lake Lure lies at its foot. We decided that we didn't want to spent $14 just to drive up to Chimney Rock, so we just saw it from a distance over the lake. Maybe next trip.

On the way back to Florida from Boone, we stopped in Dahlonega and Helen, GA. We enjoyed the museum in Dahlonega (site of the first gold rush in the U.S.) and did a little Christmas shopping in Helen, GA. Google Dahlonega to learn some history you probably didn't know. Here's a link to one interesting site: Dahlonega History.And, of course, we continued to admire the gorgeous autumn foliage.

Okay--we're up to date now. As soon as somebody tells me they're still interested in reading my blog, I'll post again! (Just kidding. You all know I like blogging as much as you like reading it.) Belated Happy Halloween!

10/20/09 (Tuesday): We finally got some drier weather. We've had a couple more hikes and lots of drives around the area. The big news is the snow a couple of days ago!We woke up to a tiny bit of snow on our deck, but the real news was the higher peaks surrounding the campground. Of course, we had to go check it out.
This is Snake Mountain, which we see from our campground. It was really neat to see the beautiful autumn colors backed up by snowy mountains.

Over toward the town of West Jefferson there was less snow, but more color. This is a view of Long Hope Mountain (don't you love the name of some of these hills?!).

We'll be going to the town of Pilot Mountain today (perhaps better known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith TV series). We're heading home this Friday or Saturday with a couple of stops along the way. We're looking forward to seeing friends and family again.

10/15/09 (Thursday): We're feeling laid back and happy. The weather isn't cooperating, but even that has its advantages. We're forced to take it easy for a while. Before it turned rainy and cold, we took a couple of drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a great hike up Flat Top Mountain. It's impossible to get the impact of the color laid out on the mountains, but enjoy my attempts anyhow.The orchard at Alta Pass on the Blue Ridge Parkway grows heritage apples. We enjoyed browsing through the store and sampling some apples. We brought home a bag that we've been enjoying stewed with dinner.

Remember barn quilts? There are some new ones since our last summer in Boone. We love seeing the Christmas tree farms, too.


The little town of Todd, which has always been a favorite destination for us, had a fair with music, arts and crafts and food. We especially enjoyed the music and our friend, Lynne's, photographs


As you can see in this picture of Fred's Mercantile, it was sometimes foggy when we got to the top of the mountains. We had a great soup and sandwich lunch here. It was beautifully decorated for autumn

I'll close with a few random autumn shots for your viewing pleasure.

We'll see everyone soon!

10/7/09 (Wednesday): Well, I've been so lazy about blogging that I'm afraid I'm not going to remember half of what we've been doing! We're at the Boone, NC, KOA now. It was like a homecoming, greeting all our dear friends from last year. We're in a gorgeous site with a mountain view and great satellite and WiFi reception. We even have a nice deck! But let me catch you up.

When I last blogged, we were in Gladstone, Michigan. Here's a link to a map of our route from there to the Keweenaw Peninsula at the northern tip of Michigan on Lake Superior.

Our first adventure was a visit to Pictured Rocks National Seashore. Check out the link. Unfortunately, we chose a really rough day and went on the first tour in the morning. So not only were we contending with the big waves and spray, but the sun was wrong for taking pictures. We really enjoyed the trip, even though we didn't get good photos. Here's a link to some better pictures than we got due to the rough water: Pictures of formations.

This is Munising Falls, which is just a couple of miles from the Pictured Rocks visitor center. The falls aren't very high, but they're at the end of a horseshoe shaped canyon and an easy walk on a good path. You can also climb some stairs and see the falls from above.

Another really fun day was spent at touring a real iron ore mine. The Iron Mountain Mine is in Vulcan, and you get a guided tour through 2600 feet of underground drifts and tunnels to 400 feet below the earth's surface. At one time, this was a very profitable mine that produced high quality ore.This video is sideways (still haven't figured out how to rotate a video), but it'll give you a taste of what the tram ride down into the mine was like.

Another really interesting thing about the mine was that it supports a healthy colony of bats, one of which flew right by us!After a short ride through the countryside, we visited Piers Gorge State Park on the Menominee River. The Menominee River is a border river separating Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin. It's close to Iron Mountain and Norway, Michigan. This stretch of the river is very fast moving with some small waterfalls. We had a nice hike.

Our final campground in the Upper Peninsula was Sunset Bay Campground, right on Lake Superior. We hit the first bad weather of our trip on our way there, and when we drove into the campground, we almost turned around and drove back out. Our site was just a few yards from the edge of the lake, which had 6-8 foot waves, high winds and rain. We had a restless night, but were so glad we stayed. It was a lovely campground and we had it almost all to ourselves.
Our major outing in this last leg of the Upper Peninsula trip was a visit to the Quincy Copper mine. As with the iron mine, we actually got to go down into the mine. This mine had a cog railway to take you down into the mine. I didn't get any pictures in the mine itself (very dark), but it was an extremely interesting tour.

Check out this site for some really interesting history of copper mining.

While in the area, we also visited Copper Harbor, a little town right on Lake Superior that was originally where the copper ore mined nearby was shipped out. It had lots of little shops, but we decided to forego them and take the Brockway Scenic drive and get a look at the town from above. It was a good decision. What a lovely part of the world this is!Our last days in the Keweenaw Peninsula just flashed by. We took in several waterfalls, including
Jacobs FallsEagle River Falls
and a little cascade right on the Brockway Scenic Drive.
As the sun set on our last day in the Upper Peninsula, we were sad to leave this gorgeous part of the U.S. What a wonderful tour we had of a part of the country many people have never heard of! We'd definitely recommend it for a family vacation.

My next blog may have some leftover pictures from Michigan and, hopefully, some new pictures from Boone. Hope everyone is doing well. We'll talk to you again soon.

9/25/09 (Saturday): We're in Gladstone, Michigan, at a campground on the shores of Little Bay de Noc (Lake Michigan). Check out the map. It's a rather industrial, down at the heels, little town, with barges loaded down with what looks like coal docked just above us. But the campground looks fairly new and there are lots of nice RVs here. We'll only be here a couple of days, and it's conveniently located. In a later blog, I'll talk about what we did today. But first I want to finish talking about our adventure when we were in Newberry.

Continuing our quest to see as many lighthouses as possible, we drove to Manistique. This lighthouse, unlike many we've visited, is still an active aid to navigation, guiding ships into the Manistique harbor. It dates to 1916. It isn't open to the public. Wiley fished a bit from the breakwater and I walked the beach.

Then we took a very scenic drive to see the Seul Choix (pronounced "sis-shwa) Point Light near Gulliver on Lake Michigan's southern shore. Seul Choix is French for "last chance." Native Americans and French fur traders who crossed the rough waters of Lake Michigan in canoes toward the straits of Mackinac could only find safety in this harbor. It's known as the haunted lighthouse, because visitors and workers have reported strange happenings, including items being moved, footsteps on the lighthouse stairs and the smell of cigars.

We hadn't intended to visist the Soo Locks, but we were so close and had the time, so we dropped by. This ship was just leaving the locks. It was an interesting experience, but the ship moved so slowly that it was a little tedious. The visitor center was interesting. There's some amazing engineering going on at the locks.

You may be wondering why we've done most of our driving and camping along the southern shore of the Upper Peninsula (Lake Michigan) rather than the northern, Lake Superior, shore. Our adventure getting to the Grand Marais lighthouse illustrates the reason for our route. There are almost no paved roads along big stretches of the Lake Superior shore! We drove 20 miles on a dirt road to get to this shot of the Grand Marais lighthouse. There were deep forests and, toward the end of the drive, glimpses of Lake Superior, but there were almost no homes. It was unbelievable that we were still in the Midwest. It was quite an adventure.The leaves are just beginning to change and they look really lovely with the deep green evergreens in the background. We kept a sharp eye out, especially in the open marshy areas for moose, but haven't spotted one yet.

Grand Marais is a funky little town. One of the things we enjoyed was the pickle barrel house. It was built in 1926 for a Chicago Tribune cartoonist and used as a vacation cottage by various others after that. It's really tiny!One last lighthouse in this blog. The Crisp Point Light was also a long drive on a dirt road. It's really hard to believe how wild the Upper Peninsula is! We reached the lighthouse from Paradise, MI. It was an even longer drive on dirt roads than the one to the Grand Marais light. I should have gotten a picture of our truck after this drive--it looked like we'd been mud bogging!One of the highlights of our trip so far was our visit to Tahquamenon (rhymes with phenomenon) Falls. We stopped for gas first and off to one side of the gas station was this humongous log. The attendant told us that it was one of a grove of large trees that had been lumbered in the area.
The falls are the second highest east of the Mississippi. They are tannin colored because the Tahquamenon River flows through lots of forest land. There's an upper falls (above) and a series of smaller cascades called the lower falls (below).The trails to the falls are paved, with stairs, so access is pretty good. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, which we topped off with some great ice cream in the visitor center.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to some of these beautiful sites in the Upper Peninsula. I'll be blogging again soon about what we've done the last couple of days, so tune again!