5/15/08 (Thursday): I haven't downloaded any new pictures yet, so I thought I'd post some from previous adventures that I haven't shown you yet. I take so many pictures everywhere we go that you probably haven't seen even half of them. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the gorgeous scenery that we've been seeing every day (it's impossible to take a bad picture here!).

The little town of Todd is only about 5 miles from here. One of our workers, Lynne, lives there. I fell in love with this town. It's got a gorgeous creek, lots of beautiful old houses and barns, and two unique stores.

Todd General Store and Todd Mercantile both have this shiny metal siding on them (I don't know if it's tin or aluminum or what, but it's really unusual).

There are a few new, upscale houses in Todd, but mostly it's a very real, down home kind of a place, and one of my favorite places around here.

Wiley tried (unsuccessfully) fishing from this one-lane bridge.

So, we drove on to Valle Crucis. It's a little bigger and has more tourist traffic, but still a neat place.

The Mast General store in Valle Crucis is the original one. There are a couple others, including one in Boone. They sell all kinds of neat things, ranging from shoes to penny candy. The bluegrass group that played at our campground last Saturday plays here regularly.

We're looking forward to a visit from my cousins, Donna and Dave, this weekend. Mag and Wiley are coming later this month, and if Julie can get her back in shape, she and John may visit this summer. We're having a blast and can't wait to show off our new home!

By the way, you'll note that I've put a link to my friend, Lynne's, website on my blog. If I do it right, it'll appear on all my blogs up there near the counter. When you get to the site, click on print room to see the landscapes of Boone. They're very special. Check it out--she's a wonderful photographer who captures the beauty of this area magnificently. Her work appears on calendars and other local publications. If you'd like to buy any of her photos, they're very reasonably priced and would make great gifts.

5/12/08 (Monday): Belated Mother's Day greetings to all the Moms I know! We had a cold, stormy Mother's Day here in Boone. It started with some pea-sized hail. Then we had lots of rain and high winds. There was no damage, but most of us here in the campground didn't sleep. The winds were 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph. This morning there are lots of branches down and it's still cool (high of 61 today) and breezy. It feels more like autumn than spring!

We went to New River State Park earlier this week. The New River is badly mis-named, because it's believed to be one of the oldest rivers in the world. We took back roads to get to the park, and it was a gorgeous drive. The rugged hillsides are dotted with old farms and vivid green meadows dotted with wildflowers. The river is shallow and looks perfect for canoing when the weather warms up a little.


The mountain laurel on the trail down to the river was in bloom. There seem to be several shades of pink and orange. They look a lot like wild azaleas.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike--cool and sunny. Looking up was like being in a cathedral with the rays of the sun filtering through the tall trees.

Our work "week" is Thursday through Sunday. This Saturday we had an ice cream social, scavenger hunt and blue grass music. I

I had fun making up the clues for the scavenger hunt and serving ice cream while listening to the live music. That's Joan (pronounced like Jo Ann) getting ready to have an ice cream cone.

We're having a visit from my cousin Donna and her husband Dave next week. I've got to get busy and plan some adventures with them! Then, in late June, I'm going to fly to Orlando and drive Mag and Wiley and Katelyn here for two weeks. We're looking forward to both visits and hope maybe some other friends will come to check out this beautful area. Y'all come!

5-6-08 (Tuesday): We didn't get our WiFi back up yesterday, as hoped, but it's back now, so here's the post I promised you. It's mostly pictures taken as we hiked some of the local roads. We were off yesterday and took a nice ride and a couple of hikes, too. So this blog is kind of a mish-mash of fun times.

There are lots of great hikes and rides on country roads right here where we live. The campground is located on a very old (100+ years) farm. The owner's family bought it in the 1940's, and the campground was built in the 1970's after a fire destroyed the hay barn. Their son, Bob, and his wife, Joan (pronounced like JoAnn), now run the campground and live right across the street in a pretty new home almost on the top of the mountain. This 100-year-old apple grove lives in their front yard and is visible from the campground. Can't wait for a taste of the heritage apples!
We have spent some time trying to find places for Wiley to fish. One of the campers told us about the little brook at the foot of our entrance road. We found a spot to park and Wiley fished. I hiked this great dirt road to the top of the mountain (almost a mile), admiring the wild flowers and the views. There were a few gorgeous homes perced precariously here and there. It sort of made me want a house again, but then I'd have to look at the same view all the time instead of having a new view whenever we feel like it!This old, abandoned house sat near a quiet place on the brook. It had some beautiful old outbuildings. Next time we go back here, I'm taking my sketch pad!

We're off work Mondays through Wednesdays. On our first day off, we took the Blue Ridge Parkway south for a few miles and stopped at Moses H. Cone Park. Cone was a very wealthy denim manufacturer.

His mansion is now an Appalachian craft center with some really beautiful musical instruments, quilts, rugs, jewelry and pottery. Can you believe that's a quilt?! It seemed to glow from within.

I just had to include this close-up so that my daughter-in-law, Heather, could see the stitching. She's done some beautiful quilts.

We browsed through the store and then walked about five miles on the carriage roads that Cone built for his guest's walking and riding pleasure. They have a very gentle grade and the walking was quite pleasant.

We enjoyed many of the same wildflowers that we've been seeing around here. These fiddlehead ferns made me think of fairy glens.

There were also lots more trilliums in bloom. We've now seen 3 varieties of trilliums--the red Wake Robin, a pure white one, and this one with the red center.

We only saw this one iris. I'm not sure if it was a wild iris, even though it was out in the woods.

Toward the end of our hike, the carriage road followed alongside a little brook with some small waterfalls. We even had to ford the brook at one point. What fun!

Our destination on this walk was the old apple barn. It was very well kept up, but you couldn't go in it.

We had a pleasant lunch in Blowing Rock, which is the town that Jan Karon modeled her fictional town of Mitford after. My sister, Jan, and mother-in-law, Mag, and I really enjoy Karon's novels.

We had been pretty footsore after hiking five miles, but we got our second winds over lunch and decided to drive a little further to Linville Falls. Rather than trying to type a lot of information about the falls, here's a link that will give you all the scoop: Linville Falls.

I guess my feet weren't in such bad shape after all, because I hiked all three trails mentioned at this site while Wiley fished. The mountain laurel were in bloom and the views of the falls and Linville Gorge were breathtaking.

Wiley caught a very large brown trout in the pool below the upper falls, so our day was complete!

I have lots more pictures (and great memories), but I've run out of time and energy. Besides, we want to go out and make some more memories today! So I'll bid you farewell and hope you have a great day. See you next time!

5/3/08 (Saturday): Hi everyone! This is just a short blog to explain the delay in posting. I must be a jinx--the WiFi at our campground has been down all week and won't be back up until Monday!

We're having a great time, even without computer access. The area is unbelievably beautiful. The apple trees across the street from us are in full bloom. They're over 100 years old and are varieties that no one plants any more. We have cows and horses in the back pasture, and almost no traffic, and yet we're only 5 miles from Boone, which has everything you could want in the way of shopping, a hospital, doctors, several libraries and a college. There are lots of seasonal residents starting to come in, and they all seem like great folks. We're enjoying getting to know our co-workers and neighbors, too. This week I'm taking care of the neighbor's cats and chickens. She's a psychologist who does music therapy. Her cat, Sebastian, is a delightful big orange long-hair. I really enjoy going into the house, too--it's old and very charming.

Wiley has been busy checking out local trout streams. Right now, I'm at Panera's using their free WiFi and he's at a babbling brook right behind the shopping center. We're going out for Chinese food tonight.

My cousin, Donna, and her husband, Dave, are planning to visit us on their way back to Florida from Colorado. Right now they're stuck in a blizzard in South Dakota.

We're looking forward to touring Grandfather Mountain, the Blue Ridge Parkway, several neat small towns with interesting shops, and doing LOTS of hiking. The rhododendron looks like it's about to pop out, and it's on all the local trails.

I've got to cut this short because I'm about to run the battery down. I promise a nice blog with pictures on Monday.

4/28/08 (Monday): Happy Monday to you all! We had a rainy morning here for our first day off. We made the best of it by taking a lovely ride through the countryside. But that's the subject of the next blog. First, I want to finish my blog about the area right around our KOA home.

Here are some of the gorgeous wildflowers we saw along the dirt roads near camp where we've been walking every morning.

Does anyone have an idea what kind of wildflower this is? The flower was the size of a dandelion, but the foliage was nothing like a dandelion. Kind of pretty, isn't it?

This is a bloodroot, so named because the rhizome (root) is orange or red. The seeds are spread by ants!These are Dutchman's Breeches. They make huge mats covering whole hillsides under the trees. Just lovely!
I'm not sure what kind of trillium this is--maybe the Wake Robin? It was the only one we saw that was in bloom.Not sure what this purple flower is, either. It was about a foot tall.

This is called star chickweed. Note the heart-shaped leaves of the violets underneath. They're everywhere!


Most of the violets are purple, but there are a few white and even some yellow ones. Violets are in the same family as pansies.
These are my favorite wildflowers--bluets. They're tiny, but they form huge mats just covered with blooms. They're sky blue and look like pieces of heaven fallen to the forest floor.
These flowers look sort of like the Dutchman's Breeches, but they're slightly different. I think they might be squirrel corn. If you'd like to look up some of the wildflowers we're seeing here, check out this wildflowers of the southern appalachians site. I like it because it allows you to look up the wildflowers by color.

In addition to the wildflowers, we've been enjoying the birds. We put out the hummingbird feeder and had our first visit the next day. They're a little less bold here than they were in California, but just as beautiful. We also put out a thistle feeder, and the goldfinches have eaten half of the seed already!

This farm is another nearby neighbor to the campground.

It's time to start dinner, so I'll leave you now. Have a great evening!

4/26/08 Saturday: I hope everyone is ready for a grand tour of our new home base! Let's get started. The entrance is right next to a 100-year-old farmhouse, painted red, with it's silo on the edge of our driveway.


The office/store is where I'll be working. It has a great view of the mountains, including Elk Knob which was just purchased by The Nature Conservancy.

Behind the office is a small pasture with a pond. There are about a dozen goats in the enclosure. They're very friendly. I'm told that in the summer we put goat feed in an ice cream cone and let the kids feed them. There are also chickens, which will be one of Wiley's jobs.

This farm is one of our closest neighbors. The barn and Christmas tree farm are visible from our RV (at least until the leaves come out).

Our first afternoon here we took a walk into the pasture behind the office. This is a view of the back of the store and the goat pond and enclosure. We're parked on the other side of the store and to the left a little.

Here's the hiking gang--everyone except us had just put in a full working day (painting, cleaning the pool, mowing and weeding)--so we set a very relaxed pace! The woman in the middle is Lynne (the photographer). To her left is Joann, the owner. On the right is Teresa, who lives in the old red farm house next door. She's a music therapist. PeeWee took the picture. He's an RV repairman who happened to be on site and wanted to join us.

The cows didn't bother us on our hike, but we had to be very careful where we stepped. The grass is so green right now--it's well fertilized, I guess.

Here's our spot. The sites are a nice size and have gravel patios with fire rings and a picnic table.

The campground has a number of seasonal residents who live in park models (small mobile homes). They're quite attractive.

The park models sit above the campsites and store on a lovely green hill. That's where we took our hike. Wiley and Lynne are enjoying the view. Lynne is a professional photographer (weddings, etc.) who also works part time at the campground. She organized our hike. She lives in a nearby town.


I took this video on the hike. Turn on your sound.

The wildflowers are just starting to appear here. The days are pleasantly warm (70's) and the evenings quite cool (40's). We've been on several walks--there are lots of areas to explore. I need to get a good wildflower book--I can't identify half of what I'm seeing! The plant above is a may apple. It gets a little white bloom underneath and later on a small fruit. There are huge patches of them all over the area.

The blooms on this one were not quite open yet. There were also great big patches of violets, mostly purple, but a few yellow and white ones, too.

I've got to go to work now. I've got some more pictures for you--maybe tomorrow1

4/24/08 (Thursday): Just a quick post (no pictures this time) to let everyone know we arrived in Boone, NC, safely yesterday afternoon. We're in love with the campground and the area and the people already. It's so beautiful here! We took a hike with the owner, a worker, a neighbor and an RV repairman who happened to hear we were hiking. We went up the hill behind the campground and along a ridge of mountains to a single grave under a huge tree with a magnificent view. When I download the pictures from my camera, I'll blog in more detail.

Today we're in the town of Boone running errands and doing laundry. The WiFi in our campground isn't turned on yet (we don't open until May 1), so I'm at the library now. I'll post again soon.