SUMMER EXTRAS

Our planned travels for the summer of 2010 ended with the week in Gatlinburg.

But sometimes things don't go as planned - For example, see my blog from April 2009 where Carol and I got married ;o)

After our week in Asheville, we had one more trip. Not planned, but, Hey, that's what's life is all about.

We had traded into our N Myrtle timeshare for a week in August. We were giving it to a family who are some of our best friends. But then their situation changed and they couldn't go. We offered it to another dear friend who said she'd go with her two daughters. Then one of the daughters canceled so we decided to join Marianne and her daughter Angie. This could have been a total disaster because the timeshare is really really small. It trades as a two bedroom but it is TINY. And except for Carol working with both of them, we'd had none to little time with them.

As usual, when will I learn, EVERYTHING went wonderfully. By the middle of the week, we said, "We don't want to come back to the beach ever again without you two !"

From the beach to Broadway at the Beach and Ripley's Aquarium, to just hanging at the pool. We had A BALL !

We even made it to a couple more sunrise walks.




We had thought that we'd not make it to Brookgreen Gardens until maybe next year. But, here we were back at Myrtle Beach. And we'd promised Emily that we would go, "the next chance we got." So -

Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, artists, poets, REALLY RICH people started their "gardens" in 1931. The vision was to collect work of the finest American sculptors, provide an outdoor showcase for Anna's incredible work, all in a garden setting highlighting South Carolina Lowcountry indigenous plants and animals. Their success shows in the simple fact that the gardens have been open to the public since 1932 and the number of visitors grows every year.

EMILY found THREE of her true loves - art, nature and photography. I cannot put ALL of the 201 pictures she took over two days. But here are a few - I can't even say, "of the better ones" because almost all of them were this beautiful.

And not to be too redundant - but if you "click" on the picture, you'll be taken to a much larger version.








And I even took pictures, too



And complete strangers took pictures of all of us



We've found a new secret about leaving Myrtle Beach but "shhhhh" don't tell anybody.

Another wonderful inbetween, my - becoming OUR - trademark of making an incredibly right decision for totally wrong reasons. The kids REALLY wanted to go back to Johnny Rockets. The only time we could possibly work it in was on the Saturday we were leaving. Carol insisted, while I wanted to get an early start home. We agreed to stay until 2:00.

Our checkout was 10:00 Saturday morning. The same as almost everybody else who were at Myrtle for that week. We have found that leaving earlier, even MUCH earlier on Saturday morning did not avoid the incredible traffic jams in the small towns west of the beach. In order to go to Johnny Rockets, we decided to check out, go to Ripley's Aquarium, have lunch and then head home in the middle of the afternoon. And it worked out perfectly. Broadway at the Beach was almost deserted, there were no crowds at the aquarium or the shops or the restaurants.

Emily, Andrew and Angie




Andrew, Tom and a Horseshoe Crab





A close look at a shark




The ride home was unobstructed by all those other tourists. We DID see mile long lines of stop and go traffic headed TO the beach.

So another - week long - inbetween. Mary Ann and I used to agree that the secret to a long happy marriage was "Low Expectations."

What I had simply hoped would not be a disaster turned into a great week with new wonderful friends.

Life is good - especially at the beach !

OK - JUST ONE MORE

Carol has wanted to see Biltmore for a long time. She wanted to go while we were in Gatlinburg, but it just didn't fit into our schedule.

Carol reminded me that we hadn't been out in the Airstream since last summer. And we found a campground within 4 miles of Biltmore. And we hadn't been to Maggie Valley or Cherokee either. AND we had an open week before our next trip to the beach.

So, off we went.

An easy drive to Asheville was ended with an infuriating loop around the town while trying to find the campground. We actually drove past the exit, got off and back on three times before we finally found it. But we finally arrived safely and picked a quiet spot overlooking the river.

The next day we took the ten minute drive to the Biltmore.







No picture taking was allowed inside the house, so go back to the top of this page and click on the Biltmore link. It really is amazing what you can do when money is no object. A friend of a friend said that the outrageous, excessive opulence actually made him sick to his stomach and he had to leave before finishing the tour. But as people whose mantra is "Too much is never enough", we LOVED IT ALL. Emily wants to buy the place and move in. I told her we could sell the doublewide and maybe pay for a couple of days maintenance on the house and the remaining 8000 acres.

Emily has discovered the joys of photography. She took many, many wonderful pictures of the vast array of flowers in the gardens. Here are a few -







After touring the house, we went to the "farm". The kids had a good time, but Emily, especially was in heaven visiting with the two retired carriage horses.







There was lots of cool stuff for Andrew to explore, too. Most of the equipment was labeled "antique" this or "antique" that. I'd really prefer "vintage" or just "used" since I remember almost all of this stuff being used back in Delaware County, NY on my cousins' farms.





The world's largest Chia pet


Doc Cudd, a blacksmith who really is an artist. Not only does he make art out of the steel, he plays the anvil as a musical instrument.




Carol had wanted to come to the NC side of the Smokies for Biltmore. But I'd been disappointed in our two trips to the TN side that we hadn't made it to Cherokee and Maggie Valley. Two of my parents best friends lived in Maggie Valley and I had such wonderful memories of Frances and Clayton Alexander, their beautiful home, their hospitality and friendliness to a little boy AND Clayton's trout pond.And many, many trips to Cherokee, LONG before it had a casino !

The Alexanders had traveled with my parents before I was born. Clayton and my Dad were both heavy equipment operators and went wherever the work, living in their trailers. So I guess the Airstream, even the doublewide were already bred into me.

When they stopped traveling in the late 1940's, Frances and Clayton returned to where they were raised near Waynesville, NC. Calyton really didn't want to stop playing with his giant boy toys, so he started a sand and gravel business. It was successful, so he started buying "bottom land" for access to the sand and gravel. A lot of land, pretty cheap because it was just a mountain "holler" miles away from the nearest town. When the area later became known as Maggie Valley, they were sitting on a mountain of money. They sold a lot of it, but kept the mountain behind their house. In the 1960's, the mountains were already completely covered with houses. At night the sparkled like stars. Except for a completely dark section behind their house. Clayton wouldn't sell it because he loved his mountain AND there was his trout pond. Not for fishing, just for enjoying. When we walked up to the pond, he would stop real hard on the bank and the big, beautiful rainbows would come to get fed.

The whole area holds so many wonderful memories for me that I wanted to share them with my new family. Clayton died 20 years or so ago and Frances died a few years ago. I found the road but the house was gone. The heirs had sold everything to a developer. We stopped at the sales office and were told that the house had been razed but the pond was still there.




This is where the house was



After a few minutes of "you can't go back", we drove on to Cherokee. Which had also changed greatly in 40 years. MUCH bigger, noisier, touristy with a casino and big hotels. But there were also new museums that we all really enjoyed.






I especially wanted Carol and the kids to see "Onto These Hills". IT had not changed. Still a truly moving experience. It's an outdoor amphitheater. We heard lots of thunder and saw lots of lightning. But the rains held off.

But it was only early afternoon, VERY hot, and Onto These Hills wasn't until evening. Something else that hadn't changed was the Oconaluftee River. Because many years ago some VERY smart Cherokees decided this river, flowing right through the town was a treasure that had to be saved. So Oconaluftee Islands Park was formed. Many childhood memories again, of my many summer days spent in the Beaverkill River in NY.






We had to be home Friday afternoon because it was their Dad's visitation weekend. I didn't want to worry about truck or trailer problems making us late. So we talked about leaving Asheville Thursday and spending the night someplace closer to Salem. During my travels as a single guy, I had met Garvey Hayes, another single guy in Florida. He wintered there but had a farm in VA where he had put in a few camp sites on Cripple Creek. I dug out his card and called him to see if any spots were available. There were, we went and FELL IN LOVE with the place. Quiet, right on the creek, miles of trails, HORSES, and Garvey and his new bride treated us like long lost friends for life.

The back of Airstream is almost hanging over the creek.



The campground doesn't have insurance for riding, but Emily was happy just to make friends with a new bunch of horses. Garvey said, "Don't let her go inside the fence. The horses would probably stomp her. NOT because they're mean, but because they're so spoiled they act like they're big dogs and they'd knock her down trying to be THE ONE getting all her attention.

And they really did follow her up and down the fence like puppies.






Andrew even enjoyed "visiting" with them



By Thursday evening, Carol and I were saying, "Instead of going home with the Airstream tomorrow, let's just take the kids to their Dad's and come straight back here for a weekend alone together."

So that's what we did. And by the time we were headed home Sunday night, we had decided to leave the Airstream at Cripple Creek for at least a couple of months and go there every chance we got. Weekends with the kids and weekends without the kids.

More wonderful friends and good times, all because I was paranoid about getting home on time.

And did I mention? REALLY GREAT motorcycle riding in every direction!

GATLINBURG - 2nd HONEYMOON

We drove to Galinburg on Saturday, July 24th. Got to the resort before check-in so we all went to the pool and enjoyed the mountain air.

There was a Magiquest in Gatlinburg, so the kids had another day of wizardry and spells.





When we were at Myrtle Beach, we told Emily and Andrew that "tourist things" could wait until Gatlinburg, where we had no ocean.

SO - next on the list was the Titanic Museum. At first I was disappointed when I learned that these weren't the people who had done the exploration and recovery diving. The artifacts were from survivors, families of those lost, and general debris found floating at the time of the wreck.

BUT - when I got inside and saw all of the information they had gathered, I really enjoyed it. Emily and Andrew really got into it also. They gave us each a ticket so that we entered as one of the passengers. Then we could go through the museum and see what happened to each of "us". The differences in the classes and what happened to them was particularly poignant.






We purchased tickets for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Again I went as a skeptic. I had seen the show on Broadway with the original cast and Carol had the CD with Donnie Osmond. So I really wasn't expecting what we saw and heard. Almost all of the performers sang better than on the CD. It really is a wonderful show. Lots of glitz and incredible talent.

The tickets were "two-fors" and for the second show, we picked "Magic Beyond Belief". And again, a great choice. We were all amazed. And got "up close and personal with the performers, human and animal.





The BIG promise to the kids was that we would go back to Dollywood. We had a wonderful time on our first trip in April of 2009 and everyone was looking forward to returning. AND a big bonus for me was that my grandson and son, Tyler and Adam could join us because Adam had moved to Knoxville. We had way too much fun to waste time taking pictures, but I had to post these -





Adam, Tyler and I went to Dollywood Splash Country for a fun and exhausting day. It was cut short by rain and this old man was thankful. When is somebody going to build a water slide with an elevator ?



Thank you Lindsay for meeting me in Bristol with Tyler. Thank you Adam for joining us - and for the wonderful lunch at Cheddar's.

Thank you God, for all my Blessings. My "old family" and my "new family". I never thought I'd be this happy again.