It has been a long hot summer ..... time now to head for cooler climes. Today we departed Winston Salem headed towards Colorado, presuming it hasn't burned down before we get there.
But before I talk about that I'll digress and say a bit about what's gone on since my last post, after returning from Alaska in September.
Before returning from Alaska we learned we had won free tickets (thanks SiriusXM!) to Jeff (Foxworthy) and Larry's (the Cable Guy) Backyard BBQ in Charlotte, also featuring The Marshall Tucker Band and Foghat, 2 of my old favorites. The concert was just 2 days after we were to return from Alaska, but we made it home just in time to catch the show. We figured we would be in the nosebleed seats, but SiriusXM put us down on row 12. Great seats!
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| How about these seats! |
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| Gettin' down |
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| Larry cracks Jeff up |
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| Larry plays the flute with Marshall Tucker Band |
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| Larry plays the drums with Foghat |
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| Larry is muti-talented. He also plays guitar. |
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| Marshall Tucker Band is a rare southern rock band that features woodwinds |
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| The Tucker boys jammin' |
About a week after arriving home from our 4-month trip to Alaska, we left home again for 2 back-to-back Country Coach rallies in the tidewater VA area. The first rally was in Virginia Beach. Our rally host is a retired Vice Admiral and treated us to a visit to Oceana Naval Air Station. Hank has been retired for over 15 years, but they still treat him like a god when he comes on base. While there we toured the maintenance hanger at the base where they service F-18 Navy fighter jets. Our tour guide there was a fighter pilot code name "Boink". That moniker was awarded to him after an unfortunate instance with a bulkhead hatch on his ship. Ouch! We also toured a number of the maintenance training facilities.
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| Boink demonstrates an anti-G suit |
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| The Officer's Club at Ocean NAS |
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| Grounded F-18 fighter jets awaiting maintenance |
The second rally was at Williamsburg where we toured Jamestown, Yorktown and, of course, Williamsburg.
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| Dorcas and friend |
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| It's a bowline Dorcas: the rabbit comes out of the hole, goes around the tree .... |
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| In the restroom at the Mariners Museum where the original Monitor is on display |
Oh yeah, we had also bought a 2013 Honda Pilot to replace our faithful, but aging 2003 Honda Element. Installing tow brackets on a Honda Pilot is not for the faint of heart. Google is your friend.
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| It's scary, isn't it? |
Afterwards we spent time seeing the multitude of medical specialists I see, and doing home and coach chores.
The day before Thanksgiving we departed for our winter home at The Great Outdoors near Titusville FL. We spent the next 4 and a half months enjoying the warm Florida sunshine. We paddled, biked, played Pickleball practically every day (me) and did Yoga (Dorcas). It's our version of Margaritaville. We came home from Florida just in time to see more of those pesky specialists.
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| Matilda, watch out for pygmy rattlers! |
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| Our winter home |
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| Paddling the Rock Springs Run |
In May we spent 5 nights at New River State Park, paddling on the New River with members of the Lumber River Canoe Club. Following is a trip report posted by club member Mitch Lloyd:
Members and friends of the Lumber River Canoe Club met at New River State Park, near Jefferson, NC, for a camping/canoeing/kayaking/bicycling/ eating vacation. Most of us arrived on Wednesday May 2 and set up our deluxe accommodations, utilizing the power and water available at the campsites to ensure our comfort during our stay. On Wednesday night and every subsequent night we met at Myron and Dorcas Whitley’s campsite for a campfire circle and smoke eating contest, while we made plans for the coming day
Wayne and Linda Charles were the original planners of this excursion but had to withdraw for personal reasons and I was much surprised to learn that Wayne had reluctantly passed the control responsibility to Myron. Therefore, we all showed him the same amount of respect for leadership that we extend to all trip leaders, which is to say that we all nodded our heads as plans were made and then did our best to ignore them.
With neither Don Meece, Wayne Charles or Mike Britt on hand to do all the talking, we were forced to speak to each other and make real acquaintances. We all took turns lying and telling large generic falsehoods in Don’s stead. To honor the thought of Wayne, we first drank a beer, ripped off the top of the can, cut a single piece of wood into two hundred thousand toothpicks and made a campfire for ants that lasted all 4 days and still had a pickup truck load of wood to take home (Wayne is famous for his “Indian campfires”). To do honor to the absence of Mike Britt, we all walked around the campground and introduced ourselves to every camper and all the park staff and their families and then went to every Wal-Mart in 6 counties.
Myron turned out to be a much better trip host than Wayne. To begin with, Myron could hear us and didn’t fake it. Listening to us was another matter. He made huge roaring campfires every night, although nobody can consume more firewood than Don Meece. Myron delivered perfect spring weather for our Thursday paddle and very nice weather for our Friday bicycle ride. The weatherman vehemently insisted (up through Friday night) that a biblical proportion flood would start on Friday night, rain all day Saturday and continue into Sunday morning. But Myron the Eternal Optimist planned a paddle trip for Saturday morning even as the ladies laid plans for a siege on the Shatley Springs Family Style Brunch. Saturday morning arrived with a bit of sun that turned to building clouds, so we elected to do a shorter run of about 7 miles that could be done in a few short hours. Myron’s supreme confidence justified itself and we didn’t see rain until after 9 PM Saturday night, which ended before Sunday morning and a beautiful clearing blue sky. In contrast, when Wayne was in charge of last year’s trip to this same park, it snowed on us when the gales weren’t blowing tents off the hill.
Thursday’s paddle was on the New River starting at the US 221 park access and going 9 miles downstream to the King’s Creek access. The water level was perfect, in my opinion the exact same level as last year’s trip on this same section. Halfway down there was one little ledge that caused a 3 wave train about a foot high that splashed everybody and got the blood pounding for a couple of our lady paddlers, but no other rapids of note were encountered. Diane Isom Pangborn, who has paddled more rivers than Wayne and Don combined and was in the front of tandem canoe, abandoned her partner to complete responsibility as she threw down her paddle and gripped the gunnels on either side of the boat to ride it down. I was sorely disappointed, but not as much as Tom in the back of said canoe.
Friday was Ride the Virginia Creeper Trail Day, a 17 mile all downhill railroad line that has been converted to a bicycle trail. We all caravanned to Damascus VA, loaded up with an outfitter to run the 33 mile long shuttle to Whitetop Station (which is 3 miles from Whitetop Mountain) and began our long coast downhill. I want all of you to consider this before you join us on future trips, you need to know what kind of people we are. Omer the Fearless Gnome decided to join us on this excursion. We, thinking, supposedly rational people who should have learned a few lessons in our long lives, combined our accumulated wisdom and decided to put an 86 year old man (the last bicycle he had ridden had wooden wheels on it) on a two wheeled bicycle and point him downhill and told him we’d see him at the bottom. I took Omer aside and also told him that under no circumstances should he try to take a shortcut no matter how inviting it looked. So, Omer the Fearless Gnome, being Omer, stuffed his rented bike helmet down onto his smiling head, jumped on his bike and took off with a completely different group of peddlers and left us all in the dust at the top of the hill. We stopped at Glen Cove Station three miles downhill and found Omer there, but he took off again with another group of strangers and left us to look for him in the ravines on the way down. We did catch up with him about 8 miles later in Taylor Valley at the little grill and lunch stop there. So let me say, Omer pedals like his paddles, in his own way and let the future be damned.
Saturday we did a shortened paddle on the New River below King’s Creek Access. Diane knew of an access on the North Fork of the New that would cut off two miles from this 9 mile section and miss a class 2 rapid as well. The North Fork and the South Fork joined together about a quarter mile from this unofficial access point and the combined rivers made an easy 6.75 mile run down to a somewhat better river access just across the Virginia line called the Mouth of Wilson Boat Ramp Access, which is of course near Mouth of Wilson, VA. Turns out Wilson Creek runs into the New River at the boat ramp and earlier trappers and explorers used “the mouth of the Wilson river” as a rendezvous’ point and over the years the nearby settlement became Mouth of Wilson. The rock strewn ripples and the looming stone cliffs are very reminiscent of the Dan River and it was a very beautiful section to paddle, although we were constantly harangued by nesting geese all along the banks.
Saturday night was our community meal and we were joined by Tom and Christine Goodwin who now live in nearby Todd. In addition to Stew Beef, Clam Chowder, Seven Layer Salad, Pasta w/ chicken Salad, Christine (being from France and an excellent cook) brought a lemon tart to supplement the cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. She also supplied some fine French wine that met the approval of but was wasted upon several of our lip smacking swillers.
Thunderstorms broke after dark on Saturday night and rain fell again about 4 in the morning, but sunrise brought clearing skies with crystal blue air and warming sunshine to begin the day. While most of us began packing to return home, Myron, Dorcas and Stephen Caddis headed out for another paddle nearby. Tom and Diane invited a local locksmith to breakfast at their place since they safely locked their rv and car keys in the camper upon exiting. This of course was Tom’s fault because he is a responsible husband and the wife is always right, although Tom kept trying to blame it on the cat who was smiling through the window.
It was a great trip, good fun and good times with great people, and once again the weatherman was a lying sack of sheep fertilizer. Make plans to join us on the next outing.
Since then we have been close to home enjoying increasingly sweltering heat. We have been performing much neglected home chores and seeing more doctors.
Today we broke away for our Rocky Mountain Summer Adventure. We left home about 3:00 pm and made a stop at Bill Plemmons RV to fill up on their $0.99/gal propane. After filling the tank, but before disconnecting the filler hose, we observed an LP leak just behind the coach filler valve. However, when the technician disconnected the filler hose, the leak appeared to stop. After a few squirts of soapy water we confirmed it wasn't leaking any more. Something to keep an eye on during the trip.
All day before leaving home we had been monitoring a traffic backup on I-77 North near the VA line. When we left Bill Plemmons, there was still about a 4-mile backup. Dorcas plotted us a route on the back roads, and we were able to avoid it, and save a little time and frustration.
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| We stop at a lot of rest areas. |
We arrived at
Tamarack in Beckley WV, a regular stop for us, shortly before dusk, and parked for the night along with at least 15 other RVs. Apparently the word is out on our secret boondocking spot. As I write the temperature is 72 degrees, about 20 degrees cooler than when we left home. The low is forecast to be 66 degrees. Maybe we
will find cooler temps!
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| Our "secret" boondocking spot at Tamarack |
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| I guess I'm confused. |
Our immediate plans are unclear. We will head west on I-64 across northern Kentucky and southern Illinois toward St. Louis MO. We may visit a distillery or 2 in Kentucky if it works out. I want to spend a few days in St. Louis, but Dorcas is less excited about that stop, wanting to stay away from the crowds. We'll see how it goes. In any case we are flexible until July 8, when we have a date in Loveland CO.
Life is simple on the road.
