Waco Notes

August 1, 2010

We spent the morning with Betty, Russell's 87 year old mom. She is sleeping more often than not, and other signs that do not bode well. It is good that we are here.

But we have discovered other reasons it is good for us to be here:

• We have a lot of work to do! I'll detail all of the maintenance Russell has in store at another time, it is extensive! He has had some work done previously, but is into DIY for learning and savings purposes.
• We need to reorganize, yet again. And our storage room is here.
• It is good to be not moving for the foreseeable future, or at least not navigating new territory. There is a lot to be said for knowing how to get from point A to B, less stressful. Well, usually it is.
• We are close to family and friends. Nice.

We spent some time in the pool yesterday and one of the men there told us about Pandoraradio.com. I'm currently grooving to a Maroon 5 mix. I highly recommend this site. Of course most of you are more hip than I am and you are already there!

Anyway, we are semi-stationary for the near future, so blogs will be less frequent and less touristy, if that is possible.

WV, KY, and back to TN

July 28, 2010


Russell is currently racking up the total of states covered in our trip so far, 23. He has just colored in the most recent one on our Good Sam's map that is posted in the cabinet. Tonight we are just north of Nashville and will get to Waco in two or three days.


About Wal-Mart boondocking: maybe better in cooler weather! It was hot! In our Civil War frame of mind, Russell recalled an anecdote about Stonewall Jackson. It seems he would sleep under a wet sheet when in hot weather. Sounded like a good idea, but really messy if you aren't sleeping on the ground. Another thing: shopping carts. The Barboursville, WV Wal-mart had the neatest parking lot of the year last night. Russell corraled carts to insure that none of them were going to come crashing into us. The one that crashed into the RV interrupted one of the few sleeping moments of the night. Poor guy was back out to the parking lot. I think Russell was just taking advantage of the cooler breezes outside. So tonight we are plugged in with a/c at a campground. NICE!

A couple of notes from earlier posts:

• In southwestern Virginia, I wrote about these really old log structures, not barns, not houses. We just couldn't figure out what they were. Paul Urie told us that these are drying houses for tobacco and they are as old as they appear to be.
• On the WV freeway, Russell commented on mowers on the road shoulders. I didn't get it until seeing another such rig later. The men drive the shoulder in CAT machinery with a shredder attached to arms that go over the railing to mow the down slope. The road drops off so steeply that this is the only way to get the job done. Amazing!

Amazing. Beautiful. Spectacular. Superlatives that I'm using over and over again to describe this wonderful (there's another one) country.

We are MOST FORTUNATE!

PA, MD, WV

We've sort of been busy! News from Waco is confusing enough to prompt an about-face and head for Texas. So a number of nice folks in Pennsylvania allowed us to renege and we are on our way, spending tonight just west of Charleston, WV courtesy of Wal-Mart, a first for us. I asked the nice greeter if wifi was available anywhere in the store, response: "I've been wondering what exactly that is!" I took that as a NO, but did fill her in before moving on.

The west side of Appalachian Mts is decidedly rougher than the east, or at least from our viewpoints of the 2. The farms of Pennsylvania and Maryland are wonderful, with rotated crops spanning the hillsides. If you can't farm going up, you are out of place here. There are no observable farms in West Virgina! This is way more rugged and forested. The trees are massive. The entire drive was delightful.

We did get to Gettysburg Battlefield on Saturday, I should have written about it earlier. The auto tour circles the city, those people were under siege for 3 days. So much has been written about the event, I certainly can't add any insights here, but I can offer advise. We had read the novel Killer Angels prior to the trip and visited and read about other battlegrounds. We often refer to a wonderful history book given to us by the Scoggins'. Then we watched a couple of movies on the topic. We got so much more out of the experience by immersing as opposed to just dropping in and visiting the site. Talking to local experts was icing on the cake!

Shenandoah Valley

July 23, 2010

Our campground at Verona held a lot of promise...that largely went unfufilled. All that beauty was overshadowed by events and attitude. So most of the week was spent in-house working, or driving futility trying to find things. But then came Friday.

After getting our work out of the way, we drove south to Lexington, VA. This is a gem! The town is just lovely and would be a good day trip if that were all there was. However, it holds so much history, that is the reason for visiting. We drove through VMI - huge! We missed the museum, but learned that it was burned to the ground, along with most of Lexington, by Sherman; seems he lit more than Atlanta. We walked through a small portion of Washington and Lee University to visit the Lee Chapel. He was buried below the chapel in the cript built for his family, with Traveller just outside in the garden. The room above the cript and just behind the altar contains a lifesized statue of Lee in repose that is really beautiful. Lee was president of the university for the last 5 years of his life and completely innovated their curriculum during that time. His son was an instructor at VMI, and later became president at Washington Lee. We also visited the home of Stonewall Jackson, also an instructor at VMI for the 2 years he lived there. We really enjoyed the afternoon there.

We got back to camp to find a whole new rowdy place. It seems the weekend party starts early, a fact we missed since our arrival was on Monday morning. On Friday we were glad to be leaving before the place filled up and more partying got started. We must be getting very old!

Leaving, we turned left.

Now all week we had turned right on US 11, taking care of business. I wonder how different our stay would have been if we had just turned left earlier. The most amazing homes and hillsides were just waiting there to be discovered. Green upon green, rolling, gentle, graceful, amazing. While riding along, I was trying to compose this paragraph and knew for sure that my vocabulary was too limited, or maybe the language is not beautiful enough to explain what we saw. But the whole day was like that. We traveled north on I-81 through West Virgina, then Maryland, taking a left in southern Pennsylvania.

Today we are heading over to Gettysburg, prepared to be awed.

Blue Ridge Mts., VA

July 20, 2010

We are settled at the next campground, with a few events of note in the getting here.

The evening prior to leaving Rocky Mount, we decided to take a short, no big-deal walk down the country road. Russell kept saying, "Is that a cat in the road?" We got close enough to see that the approaching red-furred animal was actually a fox! HOW COOL! That's when the rain started. The fox headed for near-by shelter, more from us than rain, I'm sure. We turned and headed for home, much further away. But nobody melted, and we were in for the evening. Of course, the rain ended just after we got dry. That's just the way things go.

We enjoyed the short drive up I-81 to Verona, VA and the Shenandoah Valley Campground. We were early, the designated space for our stay was still occupied. So took the staff advice and just left the RV and car in the drive, and hung around inside the office/store/restaurant. We were standing at the window, admiring the park, when a boy on a bike came into view headed right for our rig! Certainly he would look up and see it sitting there! Everyone in the store heard the THUD as he hit, bike then boy, headlong into our grill. We both saw it and were dumbfounded, but recovered to be the first to the scene.

And what a scene it became. One of the camp owners took control of the 12 year old, holding his head still, I was checking his eyes, the manager came running with THE BAG, the parents were informed, so they came running, and eventually EMS arrived. Brandon never saw the 13-ft tall by 8-ft wide motor coach parked in his path. Did I mention that he's 12? He had an exciting ride in an ambulance, a quick check with a doctor, pronounced fine, and his family finished the day with a tour of a museum and pizza. We were very relieved at the outcome. And the RV grill is fine too.

Well, our stay continues with an all-too-quiet fishing trip this morning at the on-site pond. Before leaving we hope to tube down the river and enjoy the waterfalls that are also on-property. It is a beautiful, friendly park and due to Brandon, we are marginally famous!

Rocky Mount, VA

July 18, 2010

"Brocolli Mountains." That's the term applied to these lovely rolling mountains covered in trees by our friend Muff Urie. She and husband Paul moved here 9 years ago, and we hadn't seen them since. But the Urie-drought is over! We have had a wonderful weekend with gracious hosts/tour guides. They arranged for rain to cool the temps enough for an evening dinner on the deck, ribs, YUM! They were talking about how beautiful the hillsides are in the fall, but, they are also very nice in the summer.

Tomorrow we head north for Verona, VA in the Shenandoah Valley. I'll always think of that old Jimmy Stewart movie, probably ought to rent it while there.

Virginia

July 15, 2010

We crossed the border yesterday south of Martinsville on highway 220. Russell saw Robert E. Lee riding Traveler through the kudzu! Maybe we are too involved in the Civil War. The drive was beautiful; foothills, farm lands, mud-chinked log buildings that have been there for ages.

And then we turned off on to VA 40. It was too late in the day, 2 too tired people, but mainly it was too wide a load on too narrow a road. The oncoming traffic was hugging what little shoulder was to be had in attempts to avoid, clear, miss, dodge...us! We were just trying to stay on the road in some fashion. This was not pretty. I begged Russell to slow down, but he felt the people behind would resent 20mph less than the speed limit. My thinking was I would really resent our plunge off the side of the road! We were belted and holdin' on. So then, of course, we turned on to a more narrow road, and drove right passed the campground. We did find a turn around spot not too far off.

We did finally get there, and there is lovely. Very rural, as suggested by the road narrative, and very quiet. Very nice owners. Once again we are wifi challenged, but all else is good.

Today we have driven into Roanoke for wifi and laundry, in addition to seeing the town. Big! But I can give you more details about Panera and the laundromat than the city. I'll spare you! I did walk around the nearby mall. As we have seen in other locals, there are many empty store fronts. It may be worse here than some other places we've been. The number of jobs represented and the amount of money lost is really heartbreaking.

Hendersonville, North Carolina

July 13, 2010

Too much time has passed since last posting! It shows just how lazy I have been. We have been soaking up the atmosphere of western North Carolina and seeing friends.

We took a Fourth of July drive to Jump Off Rock in Laurel Park, another very interesting town just west of Hendersonville. You can see South Carolina and Georgia from this end-of-the-road peak. We took a short walk down the mountain side, cut short by worry about getting back up! The Jaymar park had a nice hot dog picnic in the evening. The people here are very friendly and we really enjoyed the company, in addition to the food and entertainment, a trio of young sisters who can really fiddle and sing!

We met up with the Morrison's, friends from Plano who currently live in nearby Charlotte. The 4 of us drove to Brevard to see the white squirrels! Brevard College has a famous music program in addition to unique squirrels. We also enjoyed the town and a delicious lunch. It was nice to see folks from home and tour more of the area.

Friends Rick and Pat arrived last Thursday. We really enjoyed catching up with them and showing them the sights. Pat and I went to Carl Sandburg's Connemara. It is a beautiful property in the nearby town of Flat Rock, yet another beautiful town, this one to the south. We spent Sunday driving to Bryson City to catch the Great Smoky Mountain Railway for a 50mile round trip along several different rivers, including the Nantahala. This is a very popular place to kayak; the junior Olympic team was training here. It was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery. Russell and Rick enjoyed getting to be passengers and really soaked up the views, and the ZZ's! We all took naps on the way back, relaxed by the rocking train and rhythmic music of tracks.

Back in the car, we took a different route back home to escape the freeway. Our attempt to see the back country was highly successful! It started with the town of Waynesville, then meandered through farm land that climbs foothills, picturesque! And then there was the sign: "9% Grades Ahead." Yes, there were! We climbed Cold Mountain, winding, switch-backing, diving, climbing again! It felt that Russell was at Indy, "Going 90" but he was really going a very tame 30mph, at best. We made an unscheduled stop to admire the peaks and calm stomachs before heading down the mountain and a return trip to Brevard. Hawg Wild BBQ gave us the energy to complete the trip home.

I would have to call the trip to Hendersonville a complete success, a place we hope to enjoy again.

Hendersonville, North Carolina

July 2, 2010

More beautiful weather, relatively cool and mostly sunny. We are enjoying just hanging out at the park, for the most part, lazy days when not tending to chores. It's a "front porch" type of community. People sit outside in mornings and evenings just soaking up the atmosphere and scenery.

We did go to Asheville for a tour of Biltmore Estates. Huge sort of describes it, but not enough. I spent 1.5h wandering along the tour route, but could have spent far more time. Russell made it in lass than an hour, I'm sure. The thing is, you only get to see a fraction of the place: 2 bathrooms in a place that has 43, 5 bedrooms out of who-knows-how-many, but there are a total of 250 rooms! And the rooms are all large. The dinning room has a 70-ft. ceiling and of course a pipe organ. But what makes this place really special is touring the gardens and farm. You get the feeling of a "working ranch." This branch of the Vanderbuilt family lived and worked here, gave birth and reared children here. They still work here, running the tourist attraction and employing over 2000 Asheville residents.

We couldn't help drawing comparisons to the Hearst Mansion. One large difference is the atmosphere. At Hearst you stay with the guide and do not touch anything. Every item is priceless and the guides to a wonderful job of pointing out details. Biltmore is more of a free-for-all. There are guides along the way, but you have to pay extra for a guided tour, and they are roaming around with everyone else, trying to hear. There are places to sit along the way, stay behind the ropes, but no one tells you not to touch. For all of its beauty and antiques, Biltmore is not so lush, concrete floors, painted walls. Kids ran through these halls, Hearst had an adult home, I could not see children running the halls. The period of construction was also influential, Biltmore was built in the 1890's, the Castle was built 40 years later.

The big idea that I came away with was that we are among the most fortunate to have been able to see them both and enjoy their magnificence.