A Meandering Train of Thought

We are adjusting once again to new surroundings. This time we're parking our home in Indianapolis, well technically at the KOA in Greenfield, which is only about 15 minutes from The Sprawling Metropolis that is the home of the Colts and the Hoosiers, which apparently refers to both IU's mascot and natives of the state. I've tried to discover where the term was derived from, but the details are pretty sketchy.

As seems to be typical with KOAs, we're once again being lulled to sleep by the constant whine of traffic on the interstate. I would much prefer living near a train track!! I can make that statement with a level of confidence, since I grew up with a train track in my back yard. Our house was probably a couple of hundred yards from the train track and I never found the sound annoying. I actually enjoyed the clackety-clack rhythm of the train on the tracks. Sometimes our windows shuddered a bit, but even the whistle blowing had a somewhat romantic, lonely sound to it.

Our dog, Ginger, LOVED to chase the train, and whenever one went by while she was in the back yard she would race back and forth barking at it frantically! Luckily our yard was fenced so she wasn't in any danger.

Living near the train even provided some opportunities for adventure when we were young. I think we talked about putting a penny on the track but we were afraid it might cause the train to derail! We also discovered a "short-cut" for walking to school thanks to some neighbors who lived "on the other side of the tracks" (literally.) At first my mom didn't want us going that way, but she eventually realized it was pretty safe. It's not like you can't hear a train coming and we had to cross the tracks at some point to get to school!

In the early 70s, my neighbor, who was MUCH older, probably in high school or college (and who I might have had a little crush on) decided to experience the hobo lifestyle for a couple days. So he and a buddy hopped a freight train and rode it to some point up north. I don't remember how far, probably only a couple hundred miles. I also don't remember how he got home, possibly another less adventurous buddy picked them up. He must've been in college and maybe home for the summer. I seem to remember that his folks weren't too happy about the situation, but they apparently felt he was old enough that they couldn't stop him. (I can't believe they didn't use that tried and true parental stand-by, "As long as you're under my roof, you'll abide by my rules.") I guess they figured there were worse things he could be doing. I remember my mom talking about it, but nobody seemed extremely upset. He was a good kid and I think his parents viewed it as a sort of "rite of passage" into adulthood or something. Of course, I didn't have all this figured out back then, I was probably only 8 or 9 years old. But looking back on it now from my own parental viewpoint, I think that might have been what was going on.

I remember that the neighbor boy's adventure caused my mom to do a little research about hobos. (I'm sure that I inherited my inquisitive nature from her, she would've LOVED the Internet if only she'd been born a little later.) There's nothing more fun to me than googling some obscure topic, but since that wasn't an option back then, she opened our well-worn set of "World Book Encyclopedias" (which I think had been purchased from a door-to-door salesman. Either that, or she had bought them with S&H Green Stamps. We got a lot of products that way!)

She found it interesting that hobos developed a method of communication between themselves. They would draw symbols on a tree or fence or rock in front of the house or establishment that they had just visited that would let other hobos know whether or not the residents would be sympathetic toward transient types. I think that I even wrote up a paper about it for school at some point.

By that time, the era of hobos had pretty much played itself out, but we would occasionally see people hitching a ride in a boxcar. According to wikepedia, hobos also had a lingo of their own. Here are a few of the more colorful phrases:

• Barnacle - a person who sticks to one job a year or more
• Bone polisher - A mean dog
• California Blankets - Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding
• Catch the Westbound - to die
• Chuck a dummy - Pretend to faint
• Reefer - A compression of "refrigerator car".
• Sky pilot - a preacher or minister
• Stemming - panhandling or mooching along the streets
• Tokay Blanket - drinking alcohol to stay warm
• Yegg - A traveling professional thief

Up until I was probably 8 or 9, there was a passenger train that ran from our town to Wapokenta, OH (if memory serves.) One time my cousin's cub scout troop took a ride on it and my mom made signs for my sister and me to hold so we stood out in the back yard and holding those signs and waving to him when the train went by. I don't remember if he said he saw us. I would doubt it, the train was obviously going pretty fast.

So why did I even start this "train of thought"?? Oh yeah, I was saying that I wouldn't want to buy a house that's close to a busy highway but I wouldn't mind living near a train track. I also wouldn't want to live near an airport. Having jets constantly flying low overhead is pretty annoying. And I always worry that one of them will crash!

I wouldn't mind living next to a cemetery or funeral home though. Again, probably because the house I lived in when I was a child was located near a funeral home and a cemetery. We actually lived "2 doors down" from the funeral home and one of my schoolmates lived in a house behind it because her dad owned the funeral parlor. (She later went to school to be a mortician and took over the family business.)

The funeral home wasn't there when I was first born. Up until the time I was about 3 or 4 years old, there was a field with horses there. That seems so strange to me, because we lived almost downtown!! I have a feeling that having horses next door when I was growing up probably contributed to my love of horses.

But living next to a funeral parlor also provided some benefits for kids. They put in a HUGE paved parking lot, and as long as there wasn't a funeral or visitation going on, we were allowed to ride our bikes and rollerskate all over the place! We spent many, many hours over there taking advantage of that vast amount of blacktop!

On the other side of the funeral home were 2 or 3 houses, then a little church and then a cemetery. We actually never spent any time playing in the cemetery, I admit I was a little weird, but not completely morbid!! I do remember that every 4th of July, the city would shoot fireworks from the stadium which was just around the corner from our house and we would walk down to the cemetery and sit on the rock wall to watch the fireworks. One time piece of firework shrapnel landed on the roof of a house across the street (a huge old mansion where a local rich widow lived, now the Troy Board of Education.) It began to smolder and our neighbor went up and knocked it off and made sure the roof didn't catch fire. 4th of July excitement!!

After Steve and I got married and the kids came along, we would drive into Troy for the fireworks and park in the funeral home lot and put our chairs or a blanket in the grass and watch the fireworks from there. The people who owned the funeral home were very supportive of the community and never seemed to mind ('cos we weren't the only ones who took advantage of it!) I'm sure they never scheduled any funerals that would coincide with the 4th of July! And anyways, the fireworks never started 'til 10 pm.

So, I guess I must be feeling a little nostalgic right now. I'm sure it has a lot to do with this upcoming grand-baby! Yesterday we took Megan out for breakfast at a little cafe near their house. While we were eating, that old Loggins and Messina song, Danny's Song, was playing in the background . That song was one of my favorites when I was pregnant with our son, Danny (and yes, even had some influence on the choice of his name.) I almost got a little teary eyed while we were sitting there (luckily no one noticed!) It just doesn't seem like it could have been all that long ago that Steve and I were in the same situation that Dustin and Megan are in right now, awaiting the birth of our firstborn. I started remembering the feelings of wonder and excitement and even fear, that they're probably experiencing right now!!

And I also started thinking that it's pretty amazing in this day and age that her dad and I are still married and still pretty happy!!

Like the song says:

Even though we ain't got money,
I'm so in love with ya honey,
Everything will bring a chain of luh--uh-uh-uh-uhv....
And in the mornin' when I rise,
Ya bring a tear of joy to my eyes
And tell me everything is gonna be alright.

(sigh....)

Looking for Bears

Yesterday we took the dogs for a short hike in the woods around the KOA. It's a nice little trail, but short. The trails at Campfire Lodgings offered at least a couple miles of hiking (and not as much highway traffic noise!)

Something else I noticed that was missing was a little excitement. The knowledge that we could possibly see a bear on the trails actually brought a sense of adventure to our hikes, even short ones. (Like a night-time doggie potty break!!)

I suppose life's like that. We know we're going to come across the unexpected, but as long as we feel equipped to handle it, it's not as scary or overwhelming. Until we actually experienced a couple of bear sightings, I found the possibility more troubling. But once I realized that the bear was more afraid of us than we were of it......well, it wasn't quite so stressful.

I guess that the things in life that cause the most stress are things we haven't yet experienced, things we don't expect, and things we don't feel equipped to handle. Experiences like a new job, losing a job, a new relationship, moving to a new area, or facing a serious illness can all cause stress. But the more we experience these situations and learn how to live through them, the better equipped we are to deal with new ones.

I dunno, it's just Sunday morning ramblings. I'm also pondering what in the world causes people to claim to have seen Bigfoot or have had an alien encounter. Unfortunately, I'm not having much success articulating my ponderings so I'm giong to end this post for now.

Nashville rhymes with Asheville....

Last fall when we were leaving the Richmond KOA, and heading south, the leaves had just begun to change. It was pretty (of course) but I remember thinking, "Thank goodness we won't be around when those leaves come off, I'd hate to have to rake them all up!!"

So, now we're back, and it's spring and apparently those leaves waited for us!! I spent about 6 hours today raking up old dead leaves from last fall and my arms are killing me!!

But my motto is "work hard, play hard" so I thought a good way to top off such a productive day would be to try the Asian restaurant we keep driving by that claims to serve sushi and and boasts a hibachi grill. Plus I thought my sore elbows might feel better with a little therapy (like repeatedly raising a gin and tonic to my mouth!)

Unfortunately it was a little disappointing. I haven't had sushi very often, but when I have, it's been really good. This, unfortunately wasn't. Kinda rubbery and fishy tasting. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, this restaurant was really more of a Chinese buffet (and we're in Richmond, Indiana fercryinoutloud!!)

I felt kinda sorry for the owner. His english was difficult to understand, but I think his name was Tony. He was really nice and apparently trying to come up with new ways to drum up business. He's doing this "promotion" where nothing is priced, you eat however much you want, and pay whatever you think is fair. For some reason, it was a tough concept to grasp!! I could tell by some of the conversations I overheard that we weren't the only ones having this trouble. I asked him why he was doing it and he said it's tripled the amount of customers they get. I guess the local paper did a write-up. I asked him if he was getting ripped off, and he said that younger people were usually the ones not paying enough, but most customers were being pretty fair.

He was telling me what all they had at the sushi bar and was naming off the rolls, California roll, Pennsylvania roll, and I asked him, "where's the Indiana roll?" He was quite amused by that and said they'll have to start making one!! I don't know what they'll put in it though, corn?? Soybeans??

Even the hibachi part was a self-serve buffet. There's a variety of uncooked meat and vegetables, you take whatever you want and give it to the hibachi chef who cooks it for you and rings a bell when it's ready. It is a rather intriguing concept, and also a pretty gutsy experiment. I have to admire the ingenuity he's using to battle some tough economic times, but the food just wasn't that great and worst of all, they didn't serve alcohol!! Didn't get my therapy after all.

So, yesterday we spent the day in Brown County, Indiana looking at possible properties to buy for our more permanent abode. Last week we looked at a few, all of which were uninhabitable without a lot of work. There was one last week I liked alot with a little house on 20 acres. It had 2 ponds, some woods, a hayfield and a nice sized garage that would make a great studio with a little work. The house was condemned because the septic system wasn't up to code. It was a foreclosure, so we might put a bid on it, but it will be really low and if we can't get it cheap, we won't do it 'cos the house really does need to be gutted and completely remodeled.

Yesterday the properties were a little nicer. Most of them are at least 5 acres. There was one in particular that I liked. Part of it was an old hunting/vacation cabin that was built in 1934. That part would make a great pottery studio and showroom/gallery area. It has an small, old kitchen area, a woodburning stove, and a loft that you get to by climbing a ladder. Wide plank flooring, and that great, musty, old cabin smell!

This is the exterior, the part behind the tree is the older section. The 2 story part on the right is the post and beam section. Don't you love that huge tree??!

This is the old cabin area. You can see the woodstove and part of the loft area and in the back is the old kitchen.

This is the front half of the room. I think some display shelves and track lighting would make it a great gallery area!

The main living area was added in 1999 and is timber frame. It's a great room, a kitchen and bath and a large loft. The things we don't like about it is there aren't any closets or storage areas. I think it was built as a vacation home. It also doesn't have a bathroom upstairs, which is the master bedroom, actually the only bedroom. But it's a very large loft, I think we could build some closet space pretty easily and maybe someday even put a toilet and sink up there. Going to the bathroom at night is something that we need to do more frequently the last few years and I don't like the thought of negotiating the stairs in the middle of the night!!

This is the loft area, I love the window! They have a porch swing hanging up there, you can see part of it in the picture.

After we finished looking at properties, we went into the little village of Nashville to get something to eat. Nashville is the main town in Brown County and pretty touristy. Fudge on every corner!! It was fairly crowded for a weekday, but I think some of the schools are still on spring break and people were there on a little getaway. I picked up some brochures and last night I got online and did some research on some of the local artists, especially potters. They seem to have a fairly well-organized Arts Alliance that promotes the local artisans. I looked at some of the potters' websites and I think I like Greg Schatz work the best. He does gas and woodfiring and it looks like he has a very nice studio and gallery. I think that next time we're down there looking at property, I'll look him up. I want to talk to him and see if the artists (especially the potters) are friendly and welcome new potters to the area, like they seem to in North Carolina. From what I've seen, it looks like they have a close knit art community, but sometimes in that situation, the people can start to get a little exclusive because they're worried about competition. I hope that's not the case. I may have a pretty high standard in my mind from what I've seen among the potters in western North Carolina, but I figure it can't hurt to check it out and hope for the best.

So I guess this is about as close to North Carolina as I'm gonna get for awhile, at least if I wanna be involved with the new grand-baby.....and I definitely do!! I hope we can find a place soon and that it's in Brown County. I really got some good feelings when we were there, the area's beautiful and hilly, there seems to be a lot of art, a few potters, bluegrass music, and restaurants. And Nashville rhymes with Asheville, what more could I want??? Oh yeah, hippies!! Well, I guess that what Nashville lacks in hippie population, it compensates for with hillbilly population!!

I'm looking forward to the next chapter in the little adventure we've been privelaged to enjoy!!

Farewell to North Carolina!

Tomorrow I'm leaving North Carolina. I'm going to leave a piece of my heart down here. I think there was still a piece here from my very first visit, which occured almost 30 years ago! Steve and I weren't even married yet. We came down here with some friends and camped on top of Mount Hibriten in Lenoir, NC, about an hour and a half northeast of here. That's when I think this area took hold of my heart!

When the kids were fairly young, we came down again. We were visiting Gatlinburg, TN with some friends, and they suggested we come to Asheville for a night. They wanted to visit the Biltmore. We couldn't afford for all of us to go so we let Megan go with them, and Steve, Danny, and I did a little site-seeing in Asheville. We remember eating at a really good Mexican restaurant and walking through a quirky toy store. We also visited the Folk Art Center, which I thought was the neatest place I'd ever seen!!

I finally went there again today! It's still a real treat! We were doing some geocaching on our last day and one of the caches required visting the Folk Art Center and decoding information from some of the plaques to help us determine the GPS reading for a couple of caches. It added a new element of fun to the whole treasure-hunting scenario!

So after a day of hiking and caching, we came back to the campgrounds and fixed dinner and sat at the picnic table on one of the premium campsites that wasn't occupied, and enjoyed the sunset. It was a pretty good one for my last night. I took a picture of it......

I'm going to end today's blog with the lyrics to a song that's become very dear to me. It's written by Steven Curtis Chapman and it's based on the verses in the Bible about Moses and his journeys up and down Mt. Sinai when he was leading the children of Israel to freedom. Exodous 19, I believe.

The Mountain
by Steven Curtis Chapman

I wanna to build a house up on this mountain
Way up high where the peaceful waters flow
To quench my thirsty soul
Up on the mountain

I can see for miles upon this mountain
My troubles seem so small they almost disappear
Lord, I love it here,
Up on the mountain.

My faith is strengthened by all that I see
You make it easy for me to
believe up on the mountain
Oh, up on the mountain

I would love to live up on this mountain
And keep the pain of living life so far away
But I know I can't stay
Up on the mountain

I said I'd go, Lord, wherever You lead
For where You are is where I most want to be
And I can tell we're headed for the valley

My faith is strengthened by all that I've seen
So Lord help me remember what You've shown me
Up on the mountain

You bring me up here on this mountain
For me to rest and learn and grow
I see the truth up on the
mountain And I carry it to the
world far below
So as I go down to the valley
Knowing that You will go with me
This is my prayer, Lord
Help me to remember what You've shown me
Up on the mountain
Up on the mountain

I cherish these times up on the mountain
But I can leave this place because I know
Someday You'll take me home to live forever
Up on the mountain

(You can listen to this song on youtube, click here if you'd like to hear the music.)

Pass the gravy.....

Today we were paid a visit by a small flock of wild turkeys. I always thought wild turkeys were somewhat elusive, but these didn't seem intimidated by people at all. As a matter of fact, Matt thinks they may have been the same turkeys he saw hanging around the campground last spring that were just chicks at the time. I would have to agree with him. He said he had fed them bird seed last spring, and today he went and got some seed and as soon as they saw him throwing it, they came waddling right up and started having their own little feast.

I took some photos and even some crappy video which I will post because things have been boring around here. We were somewhat "snowed in" this morning. I did make it into town this afternoon. The road down the mountain is the biggest problem because parts of it don't get any sun at all.

Hopefully it will be melted enough tomorrow to go to my pottery class. We'll be loading the salt kiln for the last firing.

Thursday we're going to head north to Indianapolis for Megan's baby shower on Saturday. It will be great to see the family. Then in a few short weeks we'll be heading up there for good.

It's hard to believe that our stay here is almost over. We've made some great friends and I'm going to miss them and the mountains.

And the turkeys......

.....these are either turkey tracks, or peace signs made by vandalous hippies!

(Eat your heart out DC!!)

White Stuff

Red-bird guarding the feeder....

Ok, I know that North Carolina isn't the "Deep South," I just didn't expect the weather to be quite so similar to an Ohio winter! Of course, this has been an exceptionally cold and snowy winter for Ohio. I would say the winter down here has been like one of the more recent mild winters we've had up north.

Anyways, the snow is pretty, but it's the first day of March fer-cryin-out-loud!!!! I'm ready for spring. I noticed this morning in the church parking lot that the daffodils were in full bloom!! Unfortunately, I think they'll be killed off in the next couple days.

Our boss, Ande, is originally from Florida and she was completely blown away by the snow, taking lots of pictures to email her friends down south (the true South.) I did take a few pictures, but I don't know too many people who will be impressed or surprised by the amount of snow we've received. I'm sure most of our family could send us more impressive winter photos.

But I do want to record our stay down here so I've posted a couple snow photos. Unfortunately, it's been too "white" to get a picture of the mountains. It cleared for a few minutes this afternoon when we walked down to the bath house, but I didn't have the camera, and by the time we were done, it was white again.

Hopefully we'll get to enjoy a few "spring-like" days before we head north for good.

The view from our window.....

Twiggy's happy she's not out there!!

Foggy Morning and pitty pat of little feet

The other morning there was a blanket of fog over the river valley. It looked as though you could walk across the fog. It was quite beautiful.

We have several campers here for Valentine's week-end and most of the rentals are occupied. We would be full, but we had 2 early check-outs due to a slight rodent infestation in the Cliffhouse and one of the Yurts. Now Steve and I checked the Cliffhouse yesterday because we knew we had arrivals and we found a mouse in one trap which Steve disposed of. We had been noticing evidence of them for awhile now and Ande has had the exterminator in several times to put out traps. Last time we cleaned it we noticed that "something" had unrolled almost the whole roll of toilet paper, and some of it was shredded. I assume it was looking for nesting material. The house is in the woods and unfortunately offers many opportunities for small woodland creatures to come and go as they please. Steve put the trap (it was a sticky pad) up in the laundry room in a spot that he thought was "out of the way." Unfortunately he didn't realize that mice are quite acrobatic, so apparently a mouse got stuck on it right before the family checked in and was there to greet them when they arrived!

We had some concerns about this family when they first called to make reservations. First the husband called looking for a cabin for his family which included a young son and a set of 18 month old twins (who were screaming bloody murder the whole time he was on the phone, I heard them because Ande put them on speakerphone.) She explained to him that we had a small cabin and a large one, but that they were not extremely "toddler-friendly."He said he'd "get back with us." Then his wife called to confirm the reservation (with twins screaming in the background during her call also.) In the course of the conversation, she mentioned that they live in a 10,000 sq. ft. house.

Ande suggested they rent the Cliffhouse thinking they would be accustomed to having lots of room. They proceeded to tell Ande they would be arriving late, they weren't sure when and they wanted to pay for with cash, rather than putting it on their credit card. We all had a funny feeling they would be "high maintenance" and they were! The Cliffhouse is unique and it's one of those places people either love or hate. Luckily for Ande, most people love it, but every so often you get some people who just don't quite understand its quirks. (Like rodents, and cobwebs.)

So, they spent one evening and left early this morning. Later in the day, a young couple who were checking into yurt 1 found a dead mouse in one of the sticky traps. Matt had turned the heat on in the yurt but didn't think to check the rodent traps.

Unfortunately, I think we could check on things minutes before people arrive, and still manage to have a rodent running through at some inopportune time. I guess I would be creeped out if I were going to rent a place as a romantic hide away and then have to worry about listening to the pitty pat of mousey feet all night.

And the real bummer s that we will have to clean everything - 3 yurts, 2 cabins and the Cliffhouse! That will keep us busy for the next few days.

Flight of the Honey Bee

I'm going to attempt to upload a video I took of Steve flying his R/C helicoptor. He and Matt ordered a pair of "Ready to Fly Honey Bees" a couple weeks ago and have been diligently doing their "flight school training." They've been practicing in the office and the garage of the cliffhouse because the weather has been too cold and windy for very much outdoor flying. Finally the last couple days have been mild enough, so Friday morning he wanted to show me his skills. He was a bit puffed up from his successful flight the day before. As is often the case with hobbies, he was brought back "down to earth" shall we say, when I was video taping. And of course, the very best flight he had, when I THOUGHT I was videotaping, I actually wasn't. And it also happened to be the flight where he attempted to use the top of my head as a heliport!! I wish I had gotten it on tape but something tells me that there will be more "near-misses" to come!

Instead, I will post this rather uneventful Fight of the Honey Bee......

A Frigid French Broad

When we talked about the possibility of spending the winter in Asheville (in our camper) we assumed that the weather would be a little milder down here than a typical winter in Ohio. Of course we didn't realize that we had picked a somewhat non-typical winter when the jet stream, global warming, El Nina, George Bush, or some combination of the above has caused '08/'09 to be a doggone cold winter all over!

I'm assuming again (even though it gets usually me into trouble) that the winter we've been having is unusual for this area. Yesterday I went into town to work on some pottery and when I got to the bottom of the mountain and onto the road, there were about half a dozen cars "parked" at various angles in the ditch for about half a mile until I got to a state route. It looked like the drivers had gotten fed up with the slick roads, pulled off to the side and apparently taken off on foot for their various destinations! I even saw an abandoned bicycle!! Crazy hippies ride 'em all over the place down here, no matter what the weather is like, but it finally must have gotten too cold for at least one of 'em. Maybe his dreadlocks had become caked with ice and snow!!

Asheville is definitely not equipped for this weather because they never spread salt on any of the side roads, let alone plow! Luckily my Ohio upbringing (and my subaru) have equipped me for navigation in such a climate!!

I certainly am not complaining about what we're experiencing down here when I hear about what's been going on up north in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana! And I guess they've got it good compared to Chicago and Minnesota!

This morning, our co-worker Matt, asked me to take a picture of the French Broad river because he could see that a section of it was frozen. He seemed to think that was a rather unusual phenomenon for this area. So, I took a couple pictures and will post them here. I remember the Miami River freezing over a couple winters up in Ohio. It was always impressive when it thawed and hundreds of huge chunks of ice would get jammed up along the bridges.

So without further adieu, here's a picture of a very frigid French Broad.........................

(if you click on the photo, you'll see a larger image)

- posted by Loretta

Too Many Beautiful Sunsets

I can't keep posting beautiful sunset pictures so I've devoted an album to it on my picassa site. There are lots of pictures of the same sunset 'cos sometimes they start out beautiful and morph to spectacular over the space of a few minutes. Sometimes it's hard to decide which moment is the most beautiful. I guess I can get carried away with sunsets.

When we lived in Laura we hardly ever got to see the sunsets because we had too many trees around. Apparantly I've missed them. When we lived on the farm, you could enjoy them pretty easily. I saw quite a few sunrises when we lived on the farm too.

Last week-end, my boss, Ande, and I visited a local potter who was having an opent studio. Judith Duff's studio is about an hour from here near Brevard, NC. I visited her a couple years ago when I was down here for a woodfiring workshop. She's a fairly well-known potter (among potters, that's about the only place potters are well-known.) I love her style, it's very earthy. She woodfires and also has received grants to research and develop shino type glazes from the local minerals. This type of glaze and firing has been used in Japan for hundreds of years. I admire all the work and research she's put into it. The pots are fired for 100 hours then the kiln is allowed to cool for 7 days to achieve the desired results.

Her work that I admire the most are the pieces that are fired in a huge train kiln that was designed by John Neely. She calls the glaze affect crackle shino (or sometimes American shino) and it has very earthy qualities that compliment her forms quite well. Here's a fine example.....

Ande and I had a really nice time seeing her new work. She had a woman from Asheville there who gave a little demo in ikebana arranging using one of Judith's pieces. It was very interesting.

This Sunday I'm supposed to head up to Bakersville with some of the other pottery students from the Odyssey Center to visit Suze Lindsay's studio. She's going to serve us some chili and show us her collection of work (her own work and that of many other potters.) It should be very inspiring! I'm looking forward to it (and will take pictures!)

We loaded the kiln yesterday at the Odyssey Center and it should be firing today. We'll unload it next Monday which is our last class. Here's a link to the pictures I've taken during the class so far with captions explaining the process.

Hopefully one of these days Steve and I will have time to do some more sight-seeing. I want to visit the Biltmore before we leave and now would be a good time because they have the Christmas lights on display. We'll have to go on a week-night though, because they're booked on the week-ends.

And that brings us up to date. Next posting I'll put up a new recipe that Steve and I are experimenting with for Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken.) It's very close to what he likes to order at Amar India. It will take a little more research and development, but that's fun (and unfortunately fattening!!)

The weather today is rainy and nasty, which is why I'm piddling on the computer. But that's enough for now!

Need I Say More?

First Snow......Already??

It looks as if we brought some sort of weather curse from Ohio down with us.....we woke up to snow this morning!! I hope it's not an omen of things to come. We haven't winterized our water hose yet but why do today what you can put off until it's cold and blowing all around you? Hopefully we'll get it done tomorrow or have to unhook the hose again tonight. Not that big of a deal.

You can spot the Florida transplants that are here (and there are LOTS!) They're the ones shivering in their parkas!!

I'm sure it won't last, we have to have Indian Summer yet (I hope!) Anyways, I can tolerate a little snow better than the hot and humid weather. Plus the snow has the added benefit of being pretty!!

We'll just brew up some coffee and turn on the fake fireplace!

Links to share

I came upon a couple of online videos today that I want to share.............

The first is a link to some videos on youtube that show scenes from the campgrounds here if you're interested in seeing what it looks like. There's nobody blabbing and no music, just footage of a guy driving around the campgrounds.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=campfire+lodgings&search_type=&aq=f

The next link will take you to a video that solved a problem that has plagued me for YEARS!!! How the %$@&! do you fold a doggone fitted sheet?! I knew there was some kind of "secret" to it because years ago I remember getting some sheets out of the closet and Steve's grandma's house and they were folde perfectly!!! How did she do it??? Since our job duties include "housekeeping" now, it became even more imperative that I find the answer to this dilemma. So I googled "folding a fitted sheet" and was taken directly to this website. It really works too! (I tried it this afternoon.) Even on fitted sheets that are all elastic! Mine wasn't quite as flat as the guy's in the video, but give me time!!! The internet can be awesome once in awhile! (My life is pretty sad if stumbling upon something like this can make my day!)

One other little "housekeeping" hint I've learned is an easy way to get the pillow in the pillowcase. Turn the pillowcase wrong side out, put your hands inside the case, grab the corners, grab the end of the pillow and it's sorta like the opposite of skinning a banana.

So, my work here is finished.

Pinching Myself

I told Steve that I have to keep pinching myself today to make sure I'm really here! Wow, it's been a great couple days!

Last night we had a very enjoyable bon-fire here on the campgrounds. It was topped off by 2 campers who are also bagpipe players! I LOVE the bagpipes and these 2 were pretty good at it! (There's nothing worse than a lousy bagpipe player!!)

This morning the weather was beautiful! We walked the dogs down to the pond and I remembered to bring my camera along to snap some pictures

The leaves are changing and the mountains are beautiful right now. The dogs really enjoy our hikes, even though it's been cool. We just bundle them up in their little doggie coats!

Today I started my pottery class at the Odyssey Center in Asheville. It's a truly amazing place and I'm so excited to be able to take a class there. My instructor is going to be Suze Lindsay. She wasn't able to attend the first day of class. Normally that might be upsetting, but her husband, Kent McLaughlin, subbed for her. He's a prolific potter also, so I sure wasn't complaining!!! It would be like attending a Paul Simon concert, but he couldn't be there so Art Garfunkle filled in. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea!! (I think this is when I started pinching myself!)

I was so nervous!! I know I didn't have any reason to be, but I was!! My stomach felt all knotted up!! I felt better once I actually got to get on the wheel and most of the class had left for the day. Then I got to talk to a couple of other students and te instructor. It was more laid back then.

The facilities are amazing. I've taken pottery classes before, but never had such wonderful resources available. There are about 15 wheels, a slab roller, an extruder, a gas kiln, a soda kiln and several electric kilns. Not to mention that HIghwater Clay is just up the road and sells hundreds of ceramic tools, plus clay and glaze chemicals!!!!! Too cool!!! (pinching myself again!)

Here's a shot of what I call the "Wall of Fame......" Other potters will recognize work from many well-known potters....................

Ok, so to top the evening off, (how could it get any better??) Steve picked me up from class and we ate at a BBQ place called the Fiddlin' Pig. Not only was the food DEEEE-LICIOUS, but they have LIVE bluegrass music every night!! Tonight they had a local band called Cane Creek. They had mandoln, fiddle, guitar, bass fiddle and banjo. They were awesome!! What was even more amazing was that the girl on fiddle was 14 years old! She could really play! And the kid on guitar was maybe 15. He played like Doc Watson! (My arms were black and blue by then from pinching myself so much!!)

So, I came home with my head full of pottery, my tummy full of BBQ and my ears full of bluegrass music!! What a full day! I think it's just a taste of things to come!

HAPPY TRAILS!!

housekeeping

Today we got a taste of what our housekeeping duties will probably entail for this month. We had to clean all 3 Yurts and one of the cabins. Plus the daily cleaning of the bathhouse. It was a rather long day. 2 of the yurts absolutely had to be cleaned because they're booked for this evening. The rest could've waited until tomorrow but we decided to get it all done so we won't have much to do tomorrow and if someone calls wanting to rent them they're available.

I thought I would really dislike so much cleaning, since that's kinda what my life was about when the kids were home and I was doing all the housework. But it's no so bad. The worse part about cleaning my own house was dealing with all the clutter. We don't have much of that. And since we keep up with them, they never really get all that dirty. And we can walk outside and take in the view!!!!

So we're caught up with the cleaning for today. Tomorrow all we should have to clean is the bathhouse. That's a building that houses 4 private bathrooms with showers. It takes less than an hour for both of us to do the whole thing. I think we're planning to visit the nearby small town of Black Mountain tomorrow. It has a 5/3 bank and it's supposed to be a quaint little town.

Yesterday we did some geocaching in Weaverville. The caches we've found down here so far haven't taken us to as interesting of places as they did in Richmond, IN. I think we need to do a little more research. (Disclaimer: The aforementioned disappointment in no way reflects our feelings towards Weaverville! It's a great little town and we will probably visit there often. Great restaurants and quaint shops. We just seemed to come across more "off the beaten path" kind of parks and hiking trails while geocaching in Indiana.)

Downtown Asheville is very quirky and quaint. I LOVE the fact that there are coffee shops virtually EVERYWHERE! There's a sweet little coffee shop just at the foot of our mountain where they actually roast the beans on the premises fresh every day. I'm going to become an even worse coffee snob than I already am!! I just bought some beans that are called "Dirty Nekked Guatamalan." It makes a superb cup of coffee!

After a long day of cleaning, I kicked back on the deck and phoned the kids to see how things are going. Megan told me that she and Dustin heard the baby's heartbeat at her doctor's appointment today! I wish we weren't so far away! Danny told me that he has a job interview tomorrow at Southland Church in Lexington. I hope this works out for him! He's supposed to call tomorrow to let us know how the interview went. Life down here would be perfect if we only weren't so far away from friends and family!!

Oh, the other day when we were hiking on some trails here on the campgrounds we came across an extremely LARGE pile of animal poo. It was definitely too big for dog poo. It almost looked to me like that fungal growth you sometimes see in your flower bed. So, being the curious type of person I am, I picked up a stick and poked it to see if it was in fact poo or fungus. It was defintely poo. And it seemed to be full of seeds or pits. We mentioned it to Matt, the maintenance man here. He said that it was probably bear poop and there was at one time a small black bear who was known to hang around the area, but fortunately had not discovered the trash bins or made a nuisance of himself yet. He told us what he had learned about bears in Alaska. He said that up there the tourists wear bells and carry bear mace. Then he asked us if we knew how they identify grizzly bear poop in Alaska..........because its full of bells bear mace. hahaha.....I'm figuring Twiggy will make enough of an hor'devor for me to make a clean getaway!!!! (Just kiddin' Twiggy!)

I'll sign off with a picture of our deck. It's a delightful place to sip our morning coffee or kick back and relax after a long day! It was a pleasant suprise feature of our campsite here. Note happy puppies huddled on their blanket!

Observations and ramblings

Today was one of the best so far! We planned a drive to Spruce Pine, about an hour northeast of here to visit a "Potters Market." We thought we would do some leaf-gawking and hopefully a little geocaching too. The trees north of here are beginning to display their fall foliage.

The Potters' Market was pretty phenomenal. There were about 30 well-known potters exhibiting in a huge warehouse. It reminded me of the Christmas bazaars Meryl & I used to go to, only it was ALL POTTERY!! And these were rock-star potters. We talked to Mark Peters for a few minutes. I think he eventually remembered that I had participated in a woodfiring at his home/shop a couple years ago. Actually 2 years in a row. You can see Steve & I in some of the photos on this page. I hope I can remember some of the forms I saw today so I can use them for inspiration when I start my class in a couple of weeks! We drove past a lot of places we had visited when we were in Bakersville for the workshop.

Our plan was to circle back on the Blue Ridge Parkway and take in the scenery and do a little geocaching. Unfortunately, we discovered that he Parkway was closed near Mount Mitchell and we had to take a detour. Steve was a little miffed because he had checked the website for areas that were closed and couldn't find any. The bad thing about driving through the mountains is that when there are detours, they can add many miles to your planned route. So that's basically what happened. We ended up spending the whole afternoon figuring out the best route back to Asheville. I'm not complaining too much because we were treated to some gorgeous scenery, but we didn't have time to do any geocaching so that was a bit of a bummer.

And we ate lunch pretty late which made us somewhat cranky because we weren't sure where we were going! We ended up eating at a little greasy spoon type diner that offered "all things fried" on its menu. Well, I had a burger, which wasn't deep fried, and was actually pretty tasty. And Steve got a milkshake that taste like homemade ice cream. So, healthy it wasn't, but tasty it was!

As we were driving up highway 80, we saw a rickety little suspension bridge (for pedestrians) that spanned a beautiful rocky creek. I hollered for Steve to stop and we took some pictures. Well, he took the pictures from the middle of the bridge because I couldn't bring myself to walk out on it. My apparent fear of heights just wouldn't let me walk out there. That and the sign warning that the bridge could only hold 4 people. I mean this was AFTER our meal at the
greasy spoon diner. I didn't want to take any chances!

The road names are so interesting down here. Names like "Tater Town" and "Shake Rag" just make me smile! I find myself wondering who came up with them.

When we got back to the campgrounds we just kicked back and relaxed. We did a little laundry and on my walk to and from the laundry room I was treated to a most gorgeous sunset. I snapped a photo of it at one point. The photos just are not doing this place justice, but at least I can look at them and remember what we were treated to. I call this photo "Heaven Came Down."

A little while after I took this photo, the sky turned deep red and Steve and I watched it fade away. It was one of those moments when you don't want to say anything because it feels so holy that talking seems almost disrespectful. We came back to the camper and had a little campfire and ate dinner. Then we folded laundry and we'll probably be heading off to bed soon. The end of an extremely enjoyable and relaxing day!

The Adventure Begins

Really, our adenture began several months ago, but I've decided that I would like to start keeping an account of our travels and adventures. I thought this might be an easy way for friends and family to see what's happening with us, if they're interested. So, I'm going to try to post pictures and happenings on a somewhat regular basis. We know how this usually goes, you start with good intentions and make daily posts for about, mmmm, 2 days, then maybe twice a year. But ya gotta start somewhere.

We arrived in Asheville, NC this past Sunday. We spent the summer at th KOA in Richmond, IN workamping there while in the process of selling our home. Here's a link that tells about workamping if anyone's interested. http://www.workamper.com/ I wish I had kept a journal of what we did there, so better late than never, I guess.

When we were in Richmond, I remembered a show I had seen on RV TV about a beautiful campgrounds in Asheville, NC. We weren't sure where we were going to spend the winter, but we decided to contact this campgrounds to reserve a site for a couple weeks in the fall on our way to wherever we were working for the winter. When the owner heard we were workampers, she offered us a job for the winter at Campfire Lodgings. http://www.campfirelodgings.com/ After talking it over for about 5 minutes, we accepted and here we are.

We both love the mountains, and the view here is simply breathtaking. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures soon. It's also the pottery capital of the WORLD, so I'm planning on taking some classes in Asheville. I just signed up for a class with a rock star among potters, Suze Lindsay. http://www.forkmountainpottery.net/ It starts in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday we started our training for what we'll be doing here at Campfire Lodgings. In addition to RV sites, they rent out 3 vacation cabins and 3 yurts. This page tells what our yurts are like http://www.campfirelodgings.com/yurt.asp

We got a tour of the facilities yesterday and the Yurts are very cool! 2 of them have bathrooms and they all have heat, AC and TV. Plus cable and wi-fi. They're very "zen" if ya know what I mean! The Cliffhouse is very different than what I imagined. It's not your typical cabin rental in the Smokies. What I mean by this is, that most of the cabins we've rented when we came down here are newer and even though they're really nice, they don't have a lot of character. Some of them you could even tell weren't extremely well-built, just thrown together as cheaply and quickly as possible to start renting them out. The Cliffhouse was built in the 80s as a residence. It was built by the father of the current owner of the campgrounds. I believe he was in some area of the concrete busiiness which is evident by all the beautiful rock masonry in the cabin. He also scavenged and imported lots of items he used for decor so the cabin has a funky, eccentric feel to it. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Steve and I thought it was pretty cool!

The other 2 cabins are smaller and were built as rentals. They don't have quite as much character as the Cliffhouse or the Yurts, but they're cozy and feature all the necessary comforts.

We'll be responsibe for the housekeeping of all these buildings, including the laundry. In addition, we'll be responsible for cleaning and maintaining the bath house.

The campgrounds has some nice hiking trails and a secluded little pond. Yesterday we saw a family of wild turkeys while we were taking our tour. We haven't seen any deer or bears, yet!!

The city of Asheville seems like it will offer lots to do. It's a pretty artsy area so it's going to take Steve a little time to get used to all the dreadlocks and various other bohemian fashion statements. But it also means there are coffee shops EVERYWHERE and music and art galleries and studios. Plus, the hiking/outdoor activities are countless!!

I think we're going to enjoy our stay here!

And now I'd better sign off because we need to go help clean the Cliffhouse!