It's lobster time

Made it to Portland, Maine. Lenny did very well on the trip up, sleeping most of the time. The Maine Info Center was pet friendly and had a nice pet walk.  Now we are sitting outside at Docks Market waiting for our lobster dinner.

North Carolina Mountain hiking, music and BBQ

Today we decided to travel to Grandfather Mountain via the Blue Ridge Parkway. What we didn't realize was the leaves have started to turn beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange. Driving north on the parkway was gorgeous. Every turn we made was even more colorful than the last and believe me, there were LOTS of turns.

We stopped and hiked Mount Mitchell and then saw an advertisement for a fruit market that was having mountain music. That was a great stop. We bought apples, fudge, and cider and listened to music while eating. The day was absolutely gorgeous, beautiful blue skies and warm.

Next we decided we needed to hike a little ore or we wouldn't get our 10,000 steps. So we stopped at Linville Falls. After about a 2 mile walk we saw the falls from 3 different locations. With the fall foliage, the view was even more spectacular.
The last stop of the day off the Blue Ridge Parkway was going to be the swinging suspension bridge at Grandfather Mountain. Yes, it did sway but we all made it across AND back. The bridge was renovated from a wooden bridge in 1998 We can't even imagine how much the wooden bridge swayed.














The consensus of the group was southern BBQ for supper. Found a nice little restaurant outside of Grandfather Mountain that had BBQ and music. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Drove back to our little getaway and sat outside at the fire for about a hour.


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Location:Linville, NC

The girls turn 60

Since Linda and I turned 55 five years ago, we have made it a must to take a vacation together with one of these criteria: 1) somewhere that one or both of us has wanted to go or 2) do something that we've wanted to do. This year, we decided we should take a llama trek. There's a winery in Winston Salem, the Devine Llama, that packs up llamas with a lunch and wine and takes us on a hike. So that's where we headed on Oct 5 ... but first a few other sights to see along the way.
On the drive down, we chose two quilt shops to stop, the Traditions of the White Swan in Hagerstown MD, and Patchwork Plus in Dayton VA. If you are a quilter, we definitely recommend Traditions. Beautiful fabric, large, bright shop and very helpful staff. We found lots of quilting things we needed!

Made it to Winston Salem and checked into our hotel room at the Brookstown Inn. A beautifully restored cotton mill. A must stay. They serve cookies and milk and wine and cheese. What more could anyone want or need?


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Location:Winston Salem, NC

August 7 - Des Moines, IA to Wauseon, OH

Since we didn't stop to see anything along the way, we decided to give you our reflections on the trip.

1. It was nice to be gone long enough and without cell and email service to not be able to tell what day of the week each day was.
2. Glacier National Park was everything we had read and heard about but  so much more. That might have been because we hiked the trails and got into the haeart of the park. We also saw a lot of wildlife while we hiked and talked to a lot of interesting people.

3. We highly recommend staying at Mini Golden Inns in Hungry Horse, MT. Rick, the owner has a neat sense of humor that comes out every so often. The rooms was extremely clean and was only 9 miles from the West entrance to Glacier. That was very convenient because we visited the park very often in our 5 days there. We could take off for the park in the morning, come back in the afternoon and then go back into the park for the evening.
4. We also recommend eating at the Glacier Grill, a couple miles east of Hungry HOrse on the way to Glacier. Lots of different types of food.
5. Our Yellowstone experience was so different than Glacier because we rode more than hiked. We were only at Yellowstone for 2 days so we didn't have the luxury of the time to hike. We wanted to ride the whole park because the last time we were in Yellowstone, we didn't see the Northeast corner because it was closed.

6. Pahaska Tepee is also a place we recommend you spend some time at. It's just a couple of miles east of the East Entrance to Yellowstone. However, it was still about 30 miles ride just to get to the 1st intersection in Yellowstone called Fishing Bridge. The roads were great riding roads, lots of curves. Pahaska Tepee was also a restaurant with good food (remember that HUGE pancake?).
7. We've driven Yellowstone and now riden Yellowstone. Riding is definitely our first choice, especially with the great weather we had.
8. Enjoyed having some extra time on the way home to stop at some of the sites like the Buffalo Bill Cody Heritage Center, Ft. Larimie, and Pararie Town. Broke up the drive back.
9. Neither of us had driven west on I80. Nebraska had more trees and rolling land than we thought. Iowa wasn't all corn like we had heard and we also liked that we didn't have to fight the traffic in Chicago.
10. Since we trailered our bikes, we took along some audiobooks that helped pass the time as we rolled along the highway.

Well, that's it for this trip. Can't wait for the next one.

August 6 - Lexington, NE to De Moines, IA

Continued our trip on the Oregon Trail. We stopped at the historic Ft. Kearny in Nebraska. By 1949, 4,000 wagons had passed the fort mostly on their way to California. This was an example of a blacksmith house with a sod roof.

Next we stopped at the Stuhr Museum of the Prarie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska. This is a restored 1870-1890 railroad town that portrayed Nebraska early settlements. Of course, Peg had to shop in the millinary shop (hats).

It was really interesting to step back in history and experience what life was like on Nebraska plains.

But if we are ever going to get home again, we needed to get back on the road. Drove past a "farm" of windmills along i80 and made it to Des Moines, IA. Tomorrow, we're on to Illinois, Indiana and maybe Ohio.