November 14, 2007

Hello there!

It has taken us a long time to get back in touch
because we keep parking for the night in places
where there is no internet service! It is very
odd, because we could have service all day long
on the highway, then as soon as we pull off into
a campground....

After we left Skyline Drive and Shenandoah
National Park, we spent the night in Natural
Bridge, Virginia. Over 300 years ago the Monacan
Indians lived in this area. George Washington was
one of the first colonizing Americans to see it,
he was surveying the area for Lord Fairfax and
King George, and he carved his initials in a
nearby tree; well thats the story, I couldnt
actually find said tree....

Thomas Jefferson thought it was one of the most
beautiful places he had ever seen, and he bought
the bridge from King George in England in 1774
(who apparently thought it was his to sell), and
built a 2 room log cabin for his guests to stay
in while they visited. The stone bridge is 215
feet high. The whole town, now, is built up
around this little tourist attraction, a hotel
with restaurant, and conference center, a haunted
mansion, a wax museum, an Indian replica village
etc....there is no shortage of things to do! It
was a very nice campground....

When we drove the next day we were on the Blue
Ridge Parkway, which goes more than 450 miles in
Virginia and North Carolina. It is a narrow and
winding simply gorgeous road, that goes through
the mountains. We stopped again at many
beautiful overlooks, and took many pictures! Of
course, most of mine didnt come out, so we will
all have to wait for some of Ken's! Then we
camped in Elizabethton, Tennessee for the night,
at Stoney Creek Campground. It was a tiny
campground, only 14 sites, and it was on the very
top of a hill with only one way in and one way
out! Do not go the wrong way or you might not
make it! It was owned by a very nice old couple,
Helen and Charles. When we got there they were in
their garden transplanting flowers. Charles was
riding around on a 4 wheeler, Helen told me he
had had an accy-dent, dont you know, and he didnt
walk so good....well when he saw me trying to
back into the site he jumped right off his little
4 wheeler to come supervise, so I had a spell of
wonderin bout his accy-dent. However, they were
really sweet. They had two cute little Jack
Russell terrier dogs. Allie really liked those
dogs.

In fact , she liked them so much that she was a
little naughty for the first time on the trip!
She was outside on her leash, and Ken asked her
if she wanted to come inside. She acted like she
wanted to come in, so Ken unhooked her. He came
inside and shut the door. About 20 minutes later
we heard all this barking and yipping…..and we
looked all over the rv, and Allie was no where to
be found…she snuck off....so we had to get our
flashlights and go outside to look for her. Guess
where she was???? She was up at Helen and Charles
house trying to play with the little dogs!

It was the full moon outside, so Ken took a
picture of what it looked like from our campsite
that night. Quite lovely

Next stop: Spruce Pine, NC. Tammy told me that
she watches a tv show about treasure hunting
people who go to mines or antique stores or metal
detecting (etc) and find stuff that is worth some
cash. I poohed her ( I believed her, just thought
it was too much trouble, smile) til I actually
watched one of the shows...This woman went to
Spruce Pine, NC. There are several old mines
there, where people have found all kinds of
pretty gemstones, such as rubies, emeralds,
topaz, aventurine, amazonite and aquamarine. Well
it was on our route south so, why not? The mine
itself was closed for the season, meaning we
couldn’t go in and dig in the dirt for gems,
but
you could go to their storefront, called Gem
Mountain, and buy a big bucket of dirt and
rocks, and then spend as much time as you wanted
to, using their sluice. Well, we had a lot of fun
doing that! I got soaking wet, because I was so
excited every time I found a rock that I would
forget I had all this water running all around
me! We found enough aventurine and amazonite and
rose quartz to send a piece to all of Suzy
Meehans class. We are also having a 2 carat ruby
and 3 one carat emeralds faceted!! One of the
things I learned there was that every single
computer made recently uses silicon chips made
from quartz that has been mined in Spruce Pine,
NC - go figure. It was also the first place where
we both rode on the scooter....I did not tell Ken
til we were back safe and sound that I had never
had a passenger before (I think he might have
guessed, at one point he was laughing at me so
hard for going so slow that he about fell off the
back!)

After we spent a few days in Spruce Pine, we
continued down the Blue Ridge Parkway to
Ashville, NC. On the way we stopped at the Folk
Art Center, where they had beautiful handmade
baskets and tiny wooden bowls made by Jim
McPhail.( said that cuz he's online) We stopped
to look at them because we saw a show on tv about
him…..he glues several layers of different
kinds of wood together and then uses a lathe to
make bowls that are 1 inch big! I was very
impressed! But could not see spending $150 for a
bowl 1 inch in diameter....

We picked a campground in Ashville to stay at for
several nights. Allie really liked the campground
because they had a dog walk area that was a whole
field, so she didn’t need to be on her leash
and
she ran around like a puppy and rolled in the
grass a lot!

The next day I rode the scooter to the local
Farmers Market. I had lots of fun buying
vegetables for dinner. They had purple heirloom
tomatoes, and cheese, bacon and butter made by
local Amish people. And then these two guys
pulled out their guitars and started singing
hillbilly music! Too bad Ken and Allie decided to
stay at home—they missed the homemade
handcranked
ice cream!! Don’t tell.

Ken and I rode the scooter to the Biltmore Estate
the next day. It is still the biggest house in
America. It has 250 rooms, plus barns , gardens,
a winery and now an inn for guests. George
Vanderbilt designed it and had it built when he
was a young man, between 1889 and 1895. His
family still owns the house, but they have opened
it up for the public to be able to go in and look
at all the beautiful antiques and books that he
collected,etc, for a fee of course....they figure
there are 1 million visitors a year, who probably
average spending $100 per person per day, between
eating, drinking, shopping ( you too could have a
souvenir replica of anything at all you saw in
the house!)In the basement there is one of the
first indoor swimming pools with underwater
lights, and a bowling alley! It actually was kind
of interesting....the restaurants and winery are
all using organic methods to grow on site, even
the beef on the menu was homegrown - and
apparently it has always been a self sufficient
property.

Our last stop in North Carolina was in Cherokee,
at the very end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, as you
are about to enter the Great Smokey Mountains
National Park. We spent many hours in The Museum
of The Cherokee, which had wonderful exhibits
about the Trail of Tears and the relocation of
the Cherokee to the reservation. We also went to
the Qualla Crafts Cooperative, and we saw an
historic Cherokee Village, from the outside,
because they closed for the season the day
before, dang. That is where we spent the night.
It was a giant KOA campground in Cherokee, with
signs and fences everywhere, warning us to stay
off of reservation land.....

Another email is coming soon!!! And some more
pictures! Miss you all!

Love, Mindy (and Allie, and Ken!)