Friday, October 12

Breakfast Stop!  Biscuits and Gravy

Giant Chopper, photos by donation

Happy Birthday Luke!!  It is hard to believe that Luke is 5 years old today!  He was not very happy that I had to come to a wedding when he was having his birthday party. (even though we had a party when I was out a week ago and this party is for his school friends) He did get his package that I sent so he called, said thank you and didn't seem to remember that he had needed me to be at his party.
I slept so good last night and didn't wake until almost 7:30.  I had planned to build a fire and fix breakfast after I took a short walk, but breakfast and the walk went out the window when it looked like rain.  I packed the tent amid a few mountain sprinkles and decided to have breakfast down the road a bit.  Huey, the dog, came to visit while I was picking up camp, we said our good byes and I was on the road again.  I had never been in this part of North Carolina before so it was quite a treat to drive through the Nantahala Gorge this morning.  I knew I was not going to make very good time after my third stop to snap photos of the river rapids and the beautiful autumn leaves.  I stopped for breakfast at the Nantahala Adventure Outfitters where there was a restaurant sitting practically right on the river.  While I ate, I watched as excited people of all ages, waited to be fitted with life vests and loaded on the shuttle buses for their rafting adventure. I had decided that I would take my time today and stop at anything that seemed interesting. That included 3 stops to see the river, one stop to take a picture of a motor cycle, a chopper with a skull on top, for Luke, and a stop at Vogle State Park to take a hike.  The chopper was at a Harley shop and the sign by the bike said "Photos taken must donate to breast cancer awareness".  This was funny only because, when I entered the store and asked about making my donation, he pointed to a manikin and said to put the money in her boobs.  They had made slots in the manikin's breasts to collect the money.  Of course, I didn't have my camera to take a picture of that and would have felt I had to give an extra donation if I did!  My hiking adventure took on a life of it's own as well.  I had to pay a $5 parking fee and instead of the 1 mile hike that I had originally decided on, I opted at the last minute for the green trail, Bear Hair Trail, that was a 3 mile loop.  What I didn't know was that it was 1 mile to the trail head!  So I walked a very strenuous 4.2 miles up and over Blood Mountain.  It was beautiful, each and every of the many times I stopped to catch my breath.  No need for bear bells, as my breathing could be heard for over a mile, I am quite sure!  The hike put me about an hour and a half behind my estimated time of arrival but about 40 minutes after I collapsed into my car, I arrived at the cabin where we are staying during the wedding.  The rehearsal dinner was at the club house at a nearby golf course country club.  The meal was fabulous and it was nice to see all of Amy's new extended family members and their friends.  Back at the cabin and 3 advil later, I fall into bed!

I felt like I had walked 3 miles when I got to this sign!

Putting on a brave face

Our home during the wedding weekend

Bob and Ramona relaxing before the rehearsal dinner

Judy, Amy (the bride to be) and her brother Matt

Judy and her friend, Cindy

Bryan (the groom to be) and his dad, Larry

Amy with her mother in law, Jackie

Thursday, Oct. 11 The Road Less Traveled

My niece is getting married on Saturday in Georgia.  Since I am driving down I decided to make a long weekend and get a little camping done at the same time.  I left around 6:30 a.m. and following my Garmin headed down Rt 38 to I-71 and on into Kentucky.  The venue for the wedding is in northern Georgia at Wolf Mountain Vineyards in the city of Dahlonega.  It is rather in the middle of nowhere so I thought it might be nice to take the back roads to get there and chose a campground just beneath the Smokie Mountains in North Carolina.  My navigation Garmin led me to Knoxville and then onto Rt. 129.  It was not until I was well on my way that it dawned on me that this road, that appeared to be one that would not be taken by many was instead called the Tail of the Dragon and used by every biker as a "right of passage".  Rt. 129 contains 318 switchbacks which makes the mule ride to Kalaupapa look like a piece of cake.  At the top was an overlook that I stopped at and there were at least 40 bikers parked there as well.  I was told that a semi tractor trailer truck had tried to navigate the road and had tipped over and was blocking traffic.  So I spent time just hanging out and enjoying the view for about an hour.  Soon I was on my way and an hour later I found the Turkey Creek Campground.  It was a very nice, quiet campground complete with a campground dog that accompanied me on my hike to the lake.  We saw the Great Smokie Mountain Railway pass by and I think that I would like to ride it someday.  It is a narrow gauge passenger train that passes from Bryson City to Andrews going through the Nantahala Gorge.  I built a campfire, ate and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Bikers at the overlook

My hiking companion, Huey.

The train

The caboose

Monday, October 8 Cedar Ridge Lodge

The bison

Jack's sign, what a tribute to a very special man.

An area that leads to the path that will be used for park programs

The side entrance to the building.  Sharon is walking towards the front deck.

Walking down the path towards the Nature Center.

This is the view from the deck of the Nature Center

This is the red fox I saw by our house before we left this morning.  I think it is one of the two kits that were born in our woods over the summer and practically lived in my neighbor's yard.

Today was our Madison County Retired Teachers luncheon and we had it at a new venue.  We were at the Cedar Ridge Lodge in Darby Creek Metro Park.  Lunch was catered by Ann & Toni's from West Jeff and it was very good, beef tips and lemon chicken were the entrees.  Our speaker was one of the naturalists from the park.  After the meeting Sharon and I walked back to see the bison.  They were in one of the fields near the overlook and close enough to the fence to be quite visible from the path.  We walked on a little farther just to see if we could get a picture of the sign for Jack McDowell Way and once we got that far we were curious enough to walk a little farther to get a better look at the nature center.  As we neared the center a Ranger truck pulled up to us and we expected to be told to turn back.  Instead I heard the ranger saying, "and here is Mrs. Bichler trying to get a sneak peek at the new nature center".  It was the former middle school wrestling coach, Tom Cochran, who is a ranger in the park.  He told us we were welcome to walk down to the center but we couldn't go inside since it was a hard hat area.  It was absolutely fabulous and it isn't quite finished yet.  It overlooks a prairie pasture and also has a trail leading to the Big Darby for park programs.  I can hardly wait to see the 53' living stream that will be the center piece of the center.  Opening is set for October 27 & 28 so mark your calendars.  It will certainly be worth the drive out to the park!

Sunday, September 30 Four Seasons Parkway Run/Walk

The Foulk Family getting ready for the walk

Trish and our sweet Lily

As you can see, Lily was dragging her feet just a little!

Our second annual photo at the Rocky statue.  Next year we hope to have Aunt Sara and Uncle Matt along with cousin Evelyn joining us!

Our fighting stance, ready to kick some childhood cancer butt!

This morning we left the house at 6:30 am and headed up to Philadelphia for Lily's walk.  It turned out to be a beautiful day, very autumn-like, and perfect for a walk.  We walked the  course, had our picture taken at the Rocky statue, Luke and I ran up the steps to the Art Museum and we finished the walk 8 minutes faster this year as last.  After the race we spent some time at Franklin Park and Constitution Square just exploring the area.  We had intended to go see the Liberty Bell but the line was pretty long and we were tired so we opted to check out the burial spot of Ben Franklin instead.  We also took a Duck tour.  This was a 70 minute tour of the city and the same vehicle drove right into the Delaware River so we saw a lot of the area.

Jim's Steaks where we had our authentic Philly Cheese Steaks.  Yum!!

Headed to the carousel located in Franklin Park

Saturday, September 29 Luke's Birthday Party

One of 3 caches we found today.  Lots of fun.

Lily's Happy Unbirthday cake, Minnie Mouse

This morning Luke and I worked on a Lego set that he got from Grandma Peg and Pop Pop Ed before we took off to find a few more geo caches.  We found 3 caches in the same area in a housing development about a mile from the house.  The weather has been great with little humidity and cooler temperatures.  This evening we celebrated Luke's birthday.  Luke's birthday isn't until October 12 but since we were all in town for the walk and I will be at a wedding that weekend we had a family party now.  For whatever reason, Lily decided that it was her birthday as well so we had a small cake for her too.  The birthday had a pirate theme and Luke got some pirates, Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard and Captain Barbarossa and the ship Queen Anne's Revenge from The Pirates of the Caribbean. He also got a new bike and helmet from Grandma and Grandpa Foulk.