5-24-16 Red Rocks, Canyons, and Buttes (Southern Utah and the “Grand Circle”)

We departed Page AZ after our trips to Tucson and Panama and headed north to Southern Utah and the “Grand Circle” of:  Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, along with a few other interesting state parks, and national monuments.  By the way, no more A-Fib for Bob – he is doing great.  Thank God! We are blessed. Thanks to many of you for your expressed concern and information about similar experiences. 

The Patriarchs, Zion

We first drove further north and west on the uplifted Colorado Plateau through the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument to Zion National Park. In Zion, the cliffs tower above you. The park has become so popular that cars are prohibited on the road into the canyon.  There is a very efficient bus shuttle that works better than driving and parking.  We camped in the national park and the sunsets and sunrises were beautiful on the cliffs. 

 

 

 

Entrance to the Narrows

 

 We hiked a lot (as we did everywhere) but unfortunately, the famous “Narrows” hike was closed.  The Virgin River was running high and strong and the hike through a 20-ft wide canyon in the river water was impassible.  It would have been fun in normal water flows but we did “hike” up the mostly-paved Riverwalk to the Narrows entrance.  Bob hiked the famous Angels Landing trail.  He made it almost to the top beyond where you have to hold onto a chain along the wall, but he needed enough “gas in the tank” and strong legs for the return trip so he stopped;  plus it was very crowded on the ridge chain with other hikers coming down and the faster hikers going up. 

Angels Landing Top in distance
 

 

 

 



Trail Chain on Angel's Landing Hike

 

 

 

Zion Tunnel - Tight Fit

When we drove to Zion NP from Page, we went the long way around to the south entrance at Springdale. We had been told that the tunnel through the mountain at the eastern entrance was limited to motor coaches less than 13’1” in height (we are 13’6” with our antennas).  However, once we were in the park, we saw that coaches our size had successfully traversed the tunnel.  Bob got a pass to use the tunnel and we took our antennas down.  Because of the steep slope up and tight switchbacks, we could not tow the car.  Linda drove the car and Bob the RV.  The Park Service stops the traffic coming from the other direction, and the tunnel becomes one-way for the larger motor coaches.  Bob drove down the middle of the road through the tunnel - no problem, BUT he had to stay in the middle of the road.  It did save us about 140 miles of driving to Bryce NP.  

While at the Zion NP campground we met another couple, Ed and Mary Bowman.  We met because they have nearly the same Tiffin motor home as ours, and get this, they are also from St. Augustine, live in Davis Shores, and also belong to the St Augustine Elks (small world).  We spent time with them at Zion (including the Angel’s Landing hike together), and it turned out that we had reservations next to each other at Bryce – our and their next stop.  We enjoy making new friends and will be seeing them when we return home.   

Sand Dune, Coral Pink Sands State Park

From Zion, we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park, but on the way we stopped at Coral Pink Sands State Park.  The park is located between two large mountain ranges.  The prevailing winds funnel north through the “slot” and collect sand and dust from the red sandstone mountains on either side.  When the valley gets wider, the red dust and sand drop out of the wind and collect in high, pink sand dunes.  The sand is extremely fine and even squeaks when you walk on it.   



Hoodoos, Bryce

 

Bryce is the opposite experience of Zion; you are at the top looking down on the cliffs which have eroded into interesting “hoodoos” or vertical towers of red sandstone.  The hoodoos are everywhere along the cliffs on the eastern side of the plateau/park (Bryce Canyon is actually not a canyon).  Bryce was at the highest part of the Colorado Plateau, where all of these 5 parks are located.  

 

 

 

Snowing at Bryce

 
 
At 9000 feet, it SNOWED two of the days we were there.  The sunsets and sunrises over “The Amphitheatre”, which is a large area of hoodoos seen from multiple overlooks, are spectacular. We had a wonderful dinner with our new St Augustine friends, the Bowmans, at The Lodge at Bryce. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce Amphitheatre with Hoodoos
 

While at Bryce we visited the nearby Kodachrome State Park to see the sedimentary pipes/“sentinels” which are weird shaped columns of “extruded” hard cemented sand formed far below the surface and then exposed by erosion.  The tall white columns are striking among the red cliffs and buttes.

 

Pronghorn Sheep than almost ran over Linda

At both Zion and Bryce, we had reservations in the park itself.  It was great.  Lots of wildlife:  deer, elk, pronghorn sheep, antelope, even prairie dogs. Linda was almost run over by two pronghorn sheep that wanted to go where she was standing and taking pictures.   There are lots of small mammals and a plethora of birds – trying to build nests in the early spring.  The night sky is not polluted (no lights) and the quiet is wonderful.  On the whole, we are really enjoying staying in the parks when possible. 

 

Unlike last year’s sojourn with mostly developed campgrounds with facilities, during this year’s trip many of the parks are “primitive” sites – no or limited electric, water or sewer.  Our coach is self-contained and easier to manage than the boat at anchor (parking is easier than anchoring).  We have to watch our power usage, but the solar panels we installed over the winter are doing a great job.  We are using less than half the generator time than we did last year.  With management, we can go a while on a 100-gallon tank of fresh water.  On the whole, so far, it has been easy to “dry camp” as it is called.  We dry camped at Bryce and our next few stops in southern Utah.

 

Capital Reef Western Upthrust

From Bryce, we headed east to Capital Reef NP- not as well-known as the first two parks we visited.  However, in some ways we liked it better.  Unlike Zion and Bryce, we can see the cliffs of Capital Reef from a hundred miles away. (Zion is hidden until you enter the valley, and you cannot appreciate Bryce until you are close enough to look down at the hoodoos).   The Capital Reef National Park encompasses a 100-mile north-south “fold” in the earth, and the upthrust on the eastern side of the monoclinal fold is spectacular.

 

Canyon Gorge Rd (a wash)

 

 

 

 

 

Large, deep canyons traverse the fold from east to west, and we drove and hiked Canyon Gorge Road, a wash (dry river bed) through one particularly spectacular canyon that cuts all the way through to the other side. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owachomo Bridge, Natural Bridges NM

From Capital Reef, we made a quick, two-night stop at Natural Bridges National Monument.  It is a small very remote park with the best “night sky” in the national park system.  There are 3 sandstone bridges in the park.  We drove the loop road to see them all, but hiked early morning to one of the them.  We finally found out the difference between a bridge and an arch.  A bridge is made by running water carving the “hole” in the rock, while an arch is made from the wind and sand eroding a hole in the rock.  The bridges are located below the rim of the plateau and not easily seen in the meandering, deep canyon of a small river.  This canyon is great for seeing the progress of uplift and river erosion.

Bob with Telescope, Natural Bridges

 

 

 

 

The best part of Natural Bridges is that we were there when 2 guest astronomers were doing night sky programs.  We had the opportunity to use very large telescopes to see Jupiter, and 4 of its moons, and our moon.  It was almost a full moon, so the stars were hard to see; the moon “pollutes” the sky even more that city lights.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Window, Arches NP

From Natural Bridges, we drove to Moab, UT, our base for visiting Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.   Arches was visible from a distance, since the area towers over the local landscape.  There are over 2000 arches in the park, which consists of high red sandstone cliffs towering over the plateau.   We hiked to about 10 large arches in various locations.  For the first time we were not cold, and wore shorts and tee shirts.  It was sunny, and dare I say, actually hot on the hikes.  The most famous arch, Delicate Arch, we saw from a distance.  It was a 3-mile hike (after we had already hiked about 7 miles), and was PACKED with people.  Linda thought she would go back for a sunrise picture, but never got up early enough to do that.

Car on White Rim Trail, below the top, above the Colorado R.

Canyonlands NP is a huge park; we only visited the “Islands in the Sky” section near Moab.  The “islands” are the top of a large plateau between the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River.  Both rivers were at flood stage, and very brown with mud, due to the heavy, recent spring rains and snow melt.  From the top of the plateau to the riverbed is about 2000 ft of elevation.  The canyons are not vertical like at Bryce, Zion and Capital Reef, but step down in terraces.  One of the middle terraces is composed of a very hard, white limestone, that defies erosion, so the terrace is very wide.  A very difficult 4X4 road goes along the rim called the White Rim Trail.  About 1995, Bob and Linda drove a Surburban and rode mountain bikes around the entire White Rim Trail (we were in better shape then) with a group of friends, camping for 4 nights – it takes that long to traverse the 100 mile trail from start to finish.  In several locations, we had to winch the vehicles over boulders, etc.  A ranger told us the trail is in much better shape now and a lot easier, but not ready for the family car…..   It was interesting seeing the trail from above and fondly remembering that trip with good friends, then and now! 

Canyonlands Sunset from Dead Horse Point SP

 

 

The day we visited Canyonlands was overcast.  But we had a second change to get some great photos.  We went back to Dead Horse Point State Park which is right next to Canyonlands Island in the Sky and got to take some fabulous photos of sunset over the Colorado River and Canyonlands.

 

 

 

 

Morman Homestead, Fruita, Capital Reef NP

 

The entire southern Utah area is very remote and undeveloped.  Even the large towns like Moab, are still very small.  In fact, this area of Utah was one of the last areas to be mapped in the US.   White settlers did not come to these remote locations until the late 1800s, and that was mostly Mormons, escaping religious persecution.  The historic homesteads you can visit along the way, like the one at Capital Reef, show a very rigorous life that many people could not survive. 

 

 

 

Petroglyphs, Capital Reef NP

 It is interesting that the same locations the homesteaders favored, were favored by the American Indians.  There are a lot of petroglyphs found there also.  Generally speaking, the ancestors to today’s native American Tribes, all declined in the 1200 – 1350 timeframe here, as in Arizona.  Apparently, the same mysterious environmental conditions impacted the entire region.

 

All these Utah parks, as does the Grand Canyon, owe their spectacular scenery to the uplift of the Colorado Plateau and subsequent erosion, primarily by entrenched meandering rivers.  It will be interesting to see very different geologic settings in the Tetons, Yellowstone, Idaho and the northwest, which are more related to “hot spots” and plate tectonics.   

Since Texas and our departure from St. Augustine in early April, it has been spring everywhere we have gone.   Almost everywhere we have been (with the exception of Bryce), there have been fabulous wildflowers everywhere. 

 
As we have moved north or to higher elevations, the burst of spring color has moved along with us.  It has been a very pleasant surprise. 




We are now headed north to Idaho and Wyoming….hopefully spring and warm weather will be found in the higher elevations and more northerly latitudes as we continue our journey in late May and June.         

5/13/16 Wildflowers, Deserts and Canyons (Texas and Arizona)







Pool and Beach Coronado Condo

After Christmas in St Augustine we left on December 30 for an anticipated 2.5 month stay in Panama to finalize our resident visa and enjoy the beach in Coronado and the mountains of Boquete. Unfortunately, after only 2.5 weeks in Coronado, Panama, we had to return home to St. Augustine for Bob to have rotator cuff surgery on his right dominate shoulder. We felt that the extensive recovery and Physical Therapy would be better closer to family and friends.  



 

The surgery went well except that Bob unexpectedly went into Arial Fibrillation (A-Fib) in the recovery room; thankfully, he converted to regular heart rhythm overnight in the hospital.  He had never had a heart issue before that.  Bob is still doing PT for his shoulder while we travel; and has good range of motion, although he is careful to not lift much weight with it yet.   

With all going well for Bob’s surgery recovery, and no more A-Fib issues as per the St. Augustine cardiologist, we departed on our 2016 RV Ramblin’ trip in early April.  Unfortunately, instead of a quick 4-day trip across the country to reach Tucson AZ, Bob went into A-Fib again and we ended up spending 4 days in Kerrville TX, 50 miles west of San Antonio. Bob went through a series of specialized heart tests in San Antonio. Fortunately, these tests eliminated all serious coronary heart diseases. The cardiologist there put Bob on cardiac medications to control his A-Fib and reduce the risk of stroke. 

"Memorial" Cowboy Boot and Texas Bluebonnets

While waiting for test results in Kerrville TX, we had the opportunity to spend some time in the  hill country.  We parked our RV along the upper Guadalupe River, a beautiful fast “stream” with banks shaded by “old” cypress trees.  Spring was everywhere, with the beautiful spring green colors in the trees, bushes and grasses.   The wildflowers were blooming everywhere, even along all the roads; the Blue Bonnets were especially beautiful. 

Texas Wildflowers

We spent two days just driving through the beautiful countryside and spending a little time at the cute towns, like Kerrville and Fredericksburg; the childhood home of US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. There is a fabulous World War II Pacific War museum, locally known as the Nimitz Museum, in Fredericksburg.   It is incredible, so plan to spend a full day in this excellent museum if you go; after 4 hours we still had more than half the museum left  to see.  The hill country area has been inundated with retirees who love the area and we can see why.  If it wasn’t so hot in the summer, we might consider living here (yes, we know there is no ocean nearby).  



 

Saguaro Cactus Bloooming

After getting medications in Texas, we left for Tucson and the Saguaro National Park.  Unfortunately, we ended up in an emergency room in Tucson with Bob in A-Fib again, and Bob was admitted.  After 3 days and different medications, Bob was released.  Our cardiologist wanted Bob to come back to Tucson in 2 weeks for a follow-up.   

After Bob’s hospital stay in Tucson; we finally got to spend one day in the Saguaro National Park and at the Desert Museum - an excellent museum that covers all aspects of the desert.  As in TX, the AZ desert was in bloom.  Everything that blooms in the spring was in color – even the Saguaro cactus had flowers on the tops.  The weather was perfect – not too hot or cold and we enjoyed our shortened stay.  We had to leave on time as we had campground reservations at the Grand Canyon NP which were made over 1 year ago.  While driving north, we had the opportunity to have dinner in Phoenix with Linda’s niece, Kristin Puma.  She has two beautiful sons and our visit was much too short.  

Casa Grande 4 Story Pueblo

 

 

 

We stopped at Casa Grande Ruins, between Tucson and Phoenix, which is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America.  Archeologists have discovered evidence that the people who built Casa Grande (Great House) and its surrounding compound also developed wide-scale irrigation farming and extensive trade connections which lasted over a thousand years until about 1450 AD.  It is thought that climate change which caused the area to become drier, and their own success which caused overpopulation, both contributed to the rather rapid demise and dispersing of these people and other similar civilizations in the SW. 



Yearling Elk Grazing by our RV

As everyone knows, the Grand Canyon is awesome, but to a geologist and his interested wife, it is really something special.  It is impossible to see in a picture or a video of the enormous scale of the place….it is 1 mile deep and over 10 miles wide. The “trail of time” walk that runs along the rim helps to put the timeline of the rock layers and geology into perspective.   The sunsets were fabulous, but it got cold quickly at night.  We wore winter clothes at night and Linda had to wear gloves in order to take pictures.  Our campground was full of elk - they lay down beside the RVs and cars, and we saw a California Condor in action!   Even this early in the season, the lodges and campgrounds were full; however, not as busy as during the summer.  We really enjoyed seeing the South Rim from the top this time – the last time we were at the Canyon was in 2000 (or 2001?) when we did a 10-day raft trip down the Colorado River.  Both were marvelous experiences.  The North Rim was still snowed in and closed, so we plan to go there next year, during the summer.

 

Grand Canyon near Sunset

 

Lake Powell Early Morning Reflections

From the Grand Canyon, we moved east and north of Flagstaff to Page AZ and Lake Powell.  Lake Powell is a reservoir, formed by flooding Glen Canyon with the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, upstream of the Grand Canyon, and is the second largest man-made reservoir in the US.   In order to build the dam, a bridge had to be first built; the nearest river crossing was over 70 miles upstream, a 200 mile trip to get from one side of the dam to the other.  That bridge is now Rt. 89, just below the dam.  The Lake took 11 years to fill.  When we were there, the lake was about half way between its high water in 1980, and it’s low water in 2005 – about a 400 ft difference.  The high water mark is seen as a “bathtub” ring around the lake; discoloration of the rock due to water incursion.  The lake is beautiful and HUGE; from the dam it extends 186 miles long (when full), has over 1960 miles of shoreline and over 96 major side canyons.  It is a house boaters dream (need at least 2 weeks to really reach some of the more remote areas).   

Rainbow Bridge 1983 (NPS)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of our best days, was the boat ride on Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge National Monument: it can only be reached by boat.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day with no wind when we took our ride to see it.  Rainbow Bridge is one of the world’s largest known natural bridges, and is considered sacred to American Indians.  When Lake Powell is full, the water extends right up to and even under the bridge.  When we visited, we had a 1.5 mile hike uphill to reach the bridge.   

 

Monument Valley

We left our coach in Page and we spent a day visiting Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, and the San Juan River Goosenecks.  Monument Valley is one of the definitive images of the American West.  The isolated red mesas and buttes surrounded by empty, sandy is entirely within the Navajo Reservation.  There is one main road through Monument Valley, US 163.  There are dirt roads that can be taken to see the more remote buttes; but this must be done with a Navajo guide and a permit.  We only traveled along Rt. 163 on our way to see other sights in the area.  In the morning, it was so windy that there was a sandstorm and we couldn’t see anything.  Thankfully, by the time we returned, the wind had died and we got a good look at it. 

Valley of the Gods

We much preferred Valley of the Gods, near Mexican Hat.  It is a hidden gem with scenery similar to that of nearby Monument Valley, but without the tribal restrictions; isolated buttes, towering pinnacles and wide open spaces that seem to go on forever.  A 17-mile drive dirt road winds through the valley; it is bumpy with steep sections.  We loved the fun drive in our Jeep Cherokee and it was mostly deserted.  We started out with an overcast and windy day, which limited visibility, but by the time we had finished, the weather cleared and the views were fabulous. 



Moki Dugway 11% unpaved road with switchbacks



We stumbled onto the Moki Dugway, just past the Valley of the Gods, north on Rt. 261.  It is a staggering, dirt switchback road carved into the face of the cliff edge of Cedar Mesa.  It consists of 3 miles of steep (11% grade), unpaved, switchbacks, which wind 1200 feet down to the valley floor.   We had originally planned on coming south to Monument Valley on Rt 261, but the Moki Dugway would not have been passable with any RV.  It was lucky that we ended up doing it as a day trip from Page in our Jeep rather than later in our RV.

 

San Juan River "Goosenecks"

From the top of Cedar Mesa, we had fantastic views of the Valley of the Gods, and the Goosenecks State Park, where the San Juan River winds and carves it way through the desert 1200 feet below.   Here, you can see a rare geologic formation, known as an entrenched meander; a meandering stream that has cut deeply into the landscape.

 

 

 

Antelope Canyon Ray of Light

Antelope Canyon Sand Fall

One of the most photogenic locations in Page was a trip through Antelope Canyon, a slot canyon.  Except for mid-day, no light enters the canyon, but at that time you can see light shafts shine into the slot.  Linda got some great pictures at noon on a photographic tour.  The photography of the smooth water-worn walls of cross-bedded sandstone is an indication of the danger during a rainstorm, and in fact, during the rainy season, the tours are often cancelled due to flash flood dangers. 

Just like during our sailing and cruising adventure, we have to fix things in “exotic” places.  In Tucson, while Bob was in the hospital, we had a mobile mechanic replace our aging 6-year old house and starting batteries (we should have done it in St Augustine). In Page, Bob replaced the in-dash back up camera monitor that failed in Texas.  We did a few other repairs so our coach, and it should be really ready for the next segment of our trip. We feel sorry for cruisers (sea and land) who do not have some self-maintenance capabilities or easy access to replacement parts.



Panama City

While in Tucson, we finally heard from our Panamanian lawyer that we had been approved for our resident visas in Panama, and that we needed to return to finalize the documents.  We arranged to travel to Panama from Page AZ in conjunction with our return to the Tucson cardiologist for Bob’s follow-up thread mill stress test. Bob’s meds are working great and the Cardiologist gave us a “good to go” report.    

 

Petrified Forest Logs

 

We left our RV in Page to go back to Tucson and Panama.  Along the way, we stopped at the Petrified Forest NP and enjoyed a few good meals along the historic Route 66 (we forgot about Winslow).  Driving through Salt River Canyon on the way to Tucson was impressive. After a 3-day trip to Panama, we returned with our permanent resident visas.  No illegal entry for us!

 

We are now headed to Utah and the “Grand Circle” of:  Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, before we head further north.  We hope that we will not have any additional significant diversions, now that health, coach repair and legal requirements all seem to be in order. 

In spite of the health issues (no A-Fib since Tucson) and travel delays, we are having a grand time seeing this fantastic country.  We are immensely grateful to God and good doctors. We feel truly blessed that Bob’s medical situations are being managed and we are looking forward to less stressful adventures as we move north into Utah and then Wyoming, Montana and Canada.  

Let us know how you are doing and keep in touch.   

Best, 

Linda and Bob

11/8/15 The 4 M’s (Music, Mountains, Museums, and Maritime - Tennessee and North Carolina)

We completed our side car trip to visit our friends and family to continue on our touring adventure. We picked up our motor home from Kentucky and our first stop was “Music City”, Nashville, TN.  Nashville is always a fun place…good food and music in addition to more friends and family.  We boondocked in a beautiful lake-front State Park just outside of Nashville.   

Nashville Honky Tonk

Of course we spent some time at the usual stops in the music city: the County Music Hall of Fame and the historic Ryman Auditorium where Country music got its start (mostly because of the Grand Ole Opry radio and then TV shows). Broadway is full of honky-tonks, where “up and coming” country music wanabees perform 24/7.  It is a great way to have some bar food, while listening to great music.   We spent a wonderful evening at Tootsie’s on Broadway with our good friends Mike and Poly Fitz, a Navy friend from the 70s.   We also got a chance to have dinner with Linda’s niece, Victoria.  She is now in college at Vanderbuilt University, studying neurology (wants to be a doc).  It is so good to see her mature into the fine young woman she has become since she sailed with us on our sailboat 6 years ago.  

We really got a good history lesson from visiting The Hermitage in Nashville, home of President Andrew Jackson.  The historic home, outer buildings and grounds have been restored and are excellent, but the most interesting part was learning more about President Jackson himself.  He was probably one of the most important presidents between Washington and Lincoln.  His legacy:  trying to end corruption in government (amazingly extensive at that time),  passing political power from established elites to ordinary voters,   brought the country back to the founding fathers legacy advocating Republican values held by the Revolutionary War generation, and paid off the national debt (only President to do so).    



Jack Daniels Spring Water

When we left Nashville, we detoured south to visit the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg TN.  Bob has been a Tennessee Squire since the early 80s and as a squire he “owns” one square inch of land in Moore County. The tour was fun and informative. Like many of the distilleries in KY and TN, the site was selected because of a reliable source of excellent water from a mineral spring.   Many of the buildings were very old (founded 1875), but Jack “owns” the town.  They produce over 11 million cases of Jack a year, and have buildings throughout the area.   It was a short visit, and we declined to taste of the very familiar brew since we had a long drive ahead of us. 

Fall, Great Smokies National Park
 

We continued to head east to the Great Smoky Mountains.  We first camped on the south side of the National Park near Cherokee and then moved to the north side near Gatlinburg.  We dry camped the entire time, and it was cold at that elevation.  We had to use our generator to heat the coach and charge our batteries except at night. In this National Park, there is quiet time which means no generator use allowed between 8pm and 8am.  That meant only battery powered heat (not a lot to conserve power) and no coffee before 8am. No reason to get up early so we ended up staying in bed 

until 8 for heat and coffee   a difficult task for 2 people who usually get up at dawn.  We will be adding solar panels to the coach in December for an additional non-generator power source.   

 



Great Smokies Fall Hike
 

The fall colors were spectacular; much better than either of us remembered from our trips to the Shenandoah and Smoky mountains years ago.  One couple we met who have been coming to the Great Smoky Mountains for 30 years said it was the best they had ever seen.  You can never plan exactly when the color will peak, but we were fortunate to have the colors at their best right at the mid-elevation of the mountains when we arrived. We had the entire range to see, last color at the top, peak color in the middle, and early color in the lower elevations.  We had 2 fabulous bright, warm sunny days during the week with no traffic to drive throughout the park and even on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

 

Elk Grazing, Great Smokies

 

 The next two days (weekend), the traffic was horrific, so we ended up staying put in the campground and just doing a couple of hikes (still crowded).  We avoided the miles long traffic jams – we heard that the Park Service closed the road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee due to a fatal motorcycle/car accident. The next few days brought winds, rain and cold, and the leaves quickly fell….we just made it in time to see the great fall colors. 

 

 



Brown Bear in Cades Cove, Great Smokies



 

 

We really enjoyed our visit, but we would not recommend Gatlinburg, which is a tacky tourist trap (in our humble opinion).  

 

Linda finally got to see some of the large mammals we had been searching for:  we got to see  about 10 elk grazing in the early morning near our campground and a bear in Cades Cove, in addition to lots of deer.  

 

Biltmore Estate, Ashville

We continued east to camp in Asheville.  We toured the Blue Ridge Parkway north for about 60 miles, but we only saw some late color on the trees.  However, our visit to the Biltmore Estate was fabulous.  Biltmore House, the main house on the 8000 acre estate, is a Châteauesque-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895.  It is the largest privately owned house in the United States; 135,280 square feet of living area. Still owned by Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age. In 2007, it was ranked eighth in America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.  Biltmore has a total of 252 rooms in the house including 33 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens and 19th-century novelties such as electric elevators, forced-air heating, centrally controlled clocks, fire alarms and an intercom system. The principal rooms of the house are located on the ground floor.  Some significant items include lots of magnificent 16th century tapestries, a library with 10,000 volumes, banquet hall with a 70-foot ceiling, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a bowling alley. Almost all of the priceless objects throughout the house are from George and Edith Vanderbilt’s original collection.  We walked to the observatory through acres of formal and informal gardens designed by America’s foremost landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. From the beauty of the Italian Garden to the breathtaking trees in America’s first managed forest, Biltmore’s lush landscape is a living tribute to Olmsted’s genius.   As a century-old model for forest conservation (and, more recently, for sustainability, thanks to six acres of solar panels), Biltmore continues to honor Vanderbilt’s environmental legacy.  This is a must see if you have not yet been there.   

The underlying lesion of the Vanderbilt story is it a classic example of how wealth often generated by the first generation, preserved by the second, is most often squandered by the third generation.  George Vanderbilt was the third generation, and he spent a huge part of his inheritance building the estate.  During the depression it was almost lost to foreclosure; George’s wife was only able to keep the estate by opening the home to public tours.    

After a great evening listening to Mars Hill TN’s finest bluegrass with our cruising friends, Hunter and Devi Sharp, and a second evening sharing a great dinner at their Mars Hill home north of Asheville, we headed east along I-40 and Highway 64 to the coast of North Carolina.   

We started at the northern end of the Outer Banks and headed south over the week camping in Kill Devil Hills, Avon and Ocracoke.  Our northernmost stop was in Corolla including seeing the restored Currituck lighthouse. The lighthouse is identical to the lighthouse in St. Augustine…down to the tile on the floors!   Bob once hiked well over a mile thru the woods to camp near the deserted lighthouse in the 70s, long before the wonderful restoration was begun.  The recently built boardwalk in Duck was fun, with a lot of interesting restaurants and shops (mostly closed since the season was finished for the year). We found one restaurant still open with a great Wahoo taco.   

We revisited the Kitty Hawk National Park monument (it was one of our first destinations while we were dating).  The Wright brothers were very entrepreneurial…they were bicycle builders but became self taught engineers in order to learn what they needed to know to develop the first airplane to fly.  They accomplished this in 3 years with $1000 of their own money; The government made several grants of over $50,000 over many years and was not successful.  This is a classic example of private sector success versus government waste.    

Hatteras Seashore is beautiful, but too close to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head to avoid the touristy feeling of the middle island.  We enjoyed taking the ferries to Ocracoke from Hatteras, and then from Ocracoke on to Cedar Island.  We enjoyed visiting Ocracoke the best…a quaint town with cottages along a small section of beach;  most of the island is the National Park.  The Silver Lake Harbor, dredged by the Corps of Engineers for the Navy in WWII, is small, but interesting.    

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, moved inland

We have now visited all the North Carolina lighthouses, mostly different from each other:  Corolla, Currituck, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke (all on the Outer Banks), in addition to Cape Lookout (we have anchored for several days in Lookout Bight), Bald Head Island, and Oak Island.   We had missed the ocean since we left Maine in August;  it was great to smell the sea again.  Bob really enjoyed revisiting the Outer Banks - his old stomping grounds as a Corps of Engineers coastal engineer including seeing the relocated Cape Hatteras lighthouse and now abandoned Coast Guard Station on the south side of Oregon Inlet where he used to stay while studying Oregon Inlet in the 70s.   

This is our last email message/blog for the 2015 land cruising season.  From the Outer Banks we spent some time with Linda’s sister, Lorraine, in Beaufort.  From Beaufort we will camp in the Falls Lake State Park north of Raleigh and visit Rob, Fay, Skylar and Jaxon in Raleigh for Thanksgiving and attend the NC State vs Carolina football game on Saturday. We will head back south to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine for Christmas to enjoy family and friends there (and install solar panels and a ham radio antenna).  Linda is taking her niece, Valerie, and her kids, Katlynn and Breanna, to New York City to enjoy 4 days of Christmas in NYC right before Christmas.  

Our next email blog will be after we return from our 2 ½- month winter stay in Panama.  When we return from Panama we plan to depart St Augustine for Arizona and spring desert flowers in early April and will begin our narratives again then.  

We wish you all a delicious Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, and a healthy, blessed New Year to enjoy with your friends and family.      

Linda and Bob

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

For those who may want to know more about our 2015 RV Rambling, here are some Travel Statistics: 

From our departure from St. Augustine on July 2 to our return on December 1 (the 2015 RV Adventure):

·       Miles driven on our motor home: 9500+

·       Miles driven on our Jeep Cherokee: 9700+ (not including miles towed behind RV)

·       We visited every state east of the Mississippi except:  Delaware, New Hampshire, and Vermont (24 in total)

·       We visited 7 national parks: Acadia, Congaree, Cuyahoga Valley, Great Smoky Mountains, Isle Royale, Shenandoah,  and Voyageurs  

·       We visited 2 National Seashores: Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras

·       We visited all 4 National Lakeshores:  Apostle Islands, Indiana Dunes, Pictured Rocks, and Sleeping Bear Dunes

·       We visited 5 Canadian provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia including Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ontario

·       We visited 5 Canadian National Parks: Cape Breton Island, Bay of Fundy, Kejimkujik, Prince Edward Island, Thousand Islands,  and Niagara Falls

·       And a plethora of national historic monuments, state parks etc, …too many to count. 

 

 

 And loved it all!!!