April to March 2007, Travelogue and Photo Gallery
The pictures will come later as we have to update this as we get access to the web.

We're still working on this section since we had the catastrophic computer failure, so bear with us, please.

We spent this spring once again volunteering at the Cradle of Forestry in the Pisgah National Forest of North Carolina. We arrived on April 6th - that evening the temperature dropped to 13, and we received a couple inches of snow the next day. This was more snow than they had received at any other time during the winter. Next night was the same temperature - what a welcome! We spent the next week in training. April 14th was opening day, and Randy got to try his hand at plowing with a horse team - it was a pretty straight row if I do say so myself, and not as hard to do as it looked.

The evening of the 14th the wind picked up - in a big way. Winds were clocked at over 65 miles per hour in the area, and the road was closed with downed trees. We were without power for three days. We were fortunate to have a good supply of LP, diesel, and water on board. Those with generators ran extension cords to other rigs so they could keep their batteries charged for furnace use. It took a couple of people with chain saws and a dozen volunteers working most of a day to remove downed trees from the two walking trails at the Discovery Center. Quite an adventure! Everyone chipped in and we were again open for visitors when the power returned.

The rest of the spring went well. We did the usual activities - hiking, photographing wild flowers, fishing, and plenty of activities with the grandkids in Brevard. Randy got busy with guitar picking with jam sessions at Celestial Mountain Music in Brevard and later in the season at Silvermont in Brevard. We made a couple visits to Lake Toxaway Community Center on Fridays for their music evenings.

Skipping ahead a few months....

Leaving North Carolina we traveled northeast - and paid a visit to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. It was very interesting. We then pushed on to Gettysburg where we stayed three nights and spent two full days exploring and learning about the horrific battle that took place there in July of 1863. The Gettysburg National Military Park is run by the National Park Service. It should not be missed if you are in the area. Be sure to check the daily schedule and see what ranger presentations are scheduled. We attended three talks - each lasting about an hour - which talked about each day of the battle. The talks took place at strategic locations Oak Hill for day one, the Peach Orchard for day two, and Cemetary Ridge for day three. Physically standing on the ground where the battle took place really helped with an understanding of the stratedy and the manner in which the battle progressed.

After Gettysburg we headed toward Minnesota - and as of this afternoon, the 26th, we are in Zanesville Ohio.

Friday, July 27th . . . A big "road day" today - 461 miles - way, way more than we like to do. But, we didn't have anything particular we wanted to do in Ohio, Indiana, or Eastern Illinois, so we drove on. We're parked at a Shell station on I39 in Wenona Illinois. This is interesting - a fuel station with 6 full RV hook-ups for $21.50. Includes wi-fi and 50 amp service. We wish there were more places like this!

We arrived in Minnesota and joined our friends Deb and Dan on a campout weekend. We're not really used to campgrounds on weekends and the traffic, noise, smoke, etc. was quite something. It seemed like there were hundreds of kids - maybe I'm just becoming an old fart.