Florida to Maine

 Hello!  Long time no write.  I have missed you!

I turned 72 this week.  I am fortunate to be one of the active and mobile seniors.  Though my feet snap and crackle when I first get up, and my back demands constant attention to good posture, stretching  and strengthening. I love that I can still walk, get up and down off the floor with ease (most the time), and bike.  I am blessed and grateful for it.

We are traveling again.  This time with Steve's truck and trailer.  And the highlight of our trip just happened two days ago.  So read on, skim, or skip.  There are a lot of pictures.

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We left Florida just a week after our plane landed from Europe.  (To read about our trip to the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic, start here.) 

We packed up the trailer and headed out, taking two short travel days to get to Charlotte, NC where we visited our Florida bike and brewery friends, Ann and Jim.

We parked and slept in Steve's trailer on the street in front of their house in a typical nice suburban neighborhood.  

We had a great time.  They took us on a hike to a  place overlooking the city.

Our next stop was the New River Trail.  We camped at Old Cranks Campground right in Galax, VA.  I had made a reservation, but they didn't accept payment.  We had to put cash or check in an envelope, and write our name and site we chose on it. 

Our biking friend, Bruce, was already in the area with her friend Frank.  She sent us a picture of a flyer about a Fiddlers Convention.  It was happening our first night.  

We met Bruce and Frank at the venue and had a great time watching the cloggers.  

As part of the fundraising they auctioned off home-made cakes that went for over $100 each.  And then they auctioned off a "gigolo".  He got up in front and clogged while bids went up and up.  He must have been over 70... ??  The highest bid was over $400.  Then the winner of the bid got up and danced with him.  

But the auctioneer wasn't done.  He started selling the right to cut in and dance with the gigolo for $20.  Lol.  I got about five seconds of dancing with him before someone cut in.

What a great way to immerse ourselves in the music culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Below is a picture of the gjigolo and the highest bidder.

It was too windy to ride the first full day, so Steve and I went to hike.  But the road to the  place we wanted to go was closed.  We went the other way on the Blueridge Parkway and stopped at the visitors' center.  This map shows you the areas of the parkway that were destroyed with the flooding from Hurricane Helene.  The black marks are parts of the road in NC that are closed.

Jim and Ann came and camped in Galax too.  My friend, Dee, from Sister's on the Fly came just for the evening.  We were sitting outside having great conversations, but it started to rain.  We managed to fit seven of us in Steve's trailer.

Above is Jim, Ann and Dee.  Below is Bruce and Steve, and then below that,  Frank and I.

We all went to the Crooked Creek Brewery for dinner.  It was an interesting place.  There was an evangelical preacher preaching on the TV above the bar.  We got to see a drunk guy take his shirt off and dance on a table.  And there was a band playing that was pretty decent.

We rode the New River Trail from Galax to Fries.  It is a beautiful rail trail.  The trail reminded us of the Great Allegany Passage Trail. Steve and I agreed we could spend more time in this area.

We had one more day of biking after our friends departed.  We drove to a different part of the trail.  This building is about four feet from the edge of the trail.

The foundation was still square and level.  Steve knew all about the type of construction.   Interesting stuff. 

It takes some mighty forces to bend rock. 

My friend, Linda, in Florida sent me a baby announcement.  Lol, the Zebras in Floral City had a surprise (to us) addition.

Oh, and you wanna know how I take care of business when we are traveling so much?  Well, before I left I paid for the registration on my truck and trailer, due in late June.  I had the sticker sent to my postal box/mail service in Green Cove Springs, FL.  Then I had the mail service send it to me at Steve's house in New York.  It was there when we arrived in New York.  I then mailed the trailer sticker back to Florida to Linda and asked her to put it on Lilac for me.  The truck sticker I put in my October folder I have with me.  My truck is in Steve's garage until we get back there in October.

So sometimes taking care of business gets complicated.  I think I made it more complicated than I needed it to be.  Maybe I could have had them send the stickers directly to Linda...

Back to our travel adventures....

After Galax, VA and the New River Trail, we moved camp to Kentucky.  And we rode the Dawkins Rail Trail.

We had heard mixed reports about the trail.  Some raved about it.  Some trikers from Ohio had run right into one of the many gates.  Amy said she would never do the trail again.   The gate opening is too narrow for a trike to easily go through.    

Steve staged this photo to send to our friends.  But we didn't send it to Amy.  She was traumatized by the accident when she was riding along with her friend and he suddenly hit the gate injuring his jaw and neck.   Ouch!!!  I can see why she would never want to ride that trail again!

There were lovely bird sounds on this trail.  The wood thrush is one of my favorite bird songs.

The trail just ended in the woods.  There wasn't any good place to have lunch.  The trail rated a not-bad-but-been-there-done-that.

When we were driving to Kentucky we stopped on the side of the road so I could use the trailer toilet to pee.  The sounds of cicadas was loud and waving.  The cicadas sang along the Dawkins Trail too.

The cicadas seemed to sing without the wave in sound until later in the day.  

We went kayaking and I tried to rescue a few from the water.  They were still trying to make noise as they floated.

I was surprised to see cypress in Kentucky.  But then I remembered I have a picture that George took of a cypress swamp in southern Illinois.

We were camped close to Loretta Lynn's childhood home.  We drove narrow roads to get there.  We stopped at Woods Grocery to buy our tour passes.

Our tour guide was the only guy there in that tiny home.  It wasn't as small as I expected.  Though only four rooms they were a generous size.  I told our tour guide I didn't know anything about Loretta so tell me everything.  He told me she was the first woman band leader.  And that is about it.  He didn't tell me about her siblings ( four of the kids were successful in music).  He didn't tell me she got married and left home at 13 years old.

But he took our picture on the front porch.

After Kentucky we had three travel days in a row to get to Steve's NY house.   One stop turned out to be within 20 minutes of the Pine Creek Trail in Pennsylvania!  I had biked that on my own two years ago.  We decided to go for a ride before dinner.  It has a crushed limestone surface.  We enjoyed this rail trail.

A day before we arrived to Steve's NY house, Steve's 91 year old mom was taken to the hospital with stomach pain.  

While we were in NY, Steve (and sometimes I) spent a lot of time visiting her.  At 91 with health complications, she won't be able to have surgery to fix the problem with her stomach.  Unable to find good help for weekends and nights, they had to make the tough decision to move her out of her apartment and into a nursing home under hospice care.  Her attentive full-time daytime aid is still with her five days a week.  Steve's mom's spirits perk up when she is there. 

Steve's mom is a hoot and a delight to chat with. I wish I would have known her when she was stronger.  Steve says she had a great singing voice, like Peggy Lee!  I would have loved to hear that.

One time I was wearing a flowery dress.  She said, "My mother had a dress with flowers like that."

I turned to Steve, "I am dressed like your grandma?"

We all laughed.

In the dining room, one time, she was talking to a new friend and told her, "That's my son Steve and his lady friend, Sue... (That is the polite way of saying it.)" she told her.  I laughed.  She likes me.  Her face lights up when she sees me.  I am grateful for that.  I was scared meeting her for the first time.

His Mom was overjoyed by the pictures sent to her of her new great grandchild.  

We got to visit with Steve's kids, his friend, and his neighbors.  It was good to have three weeks there so he could visit and help out.

On day we drove to Margaret's (his deceased wife's) family cabin.  Erin went with us and we raked and Steve blew off the roof and cleaned it.  It is a sad time for them.  The cabin is full of great memories, but now the elders are wanting to hand the cabin over to their adult children to use and maintain.  And they are dispersed to different areas of the country.  It looks like they will be having to sell it.  It is an end of an era.

There is a brewery they like to stop at on the way back from the cabin.   Isn't Erin lovely?  Everyone who meets her comments on the light and good energy she brings into a room.  She is positive and easy going and friendly.  

It was strawberry-picking season.  We started out with four containers, I went back and got two more.  The berries were huge.

We devoured them all in the three weeks we were at Steve's NY house.

We got to Steve's NY home in time to join in on the No Kings protests in Saratoga where we were part of the flag day parade as 1500 of us marchers celebrated our right to speak our minds, waving flags and chanting "No Kings!" and "This is what democracy looks like!"

Then we went to the small town of Warrensburg where we stood on the sidewalks and sang patriotic songs and waved signs.  That event had 800 protesters!

In NY, Steve had a chance to do some work on the camper.  He used his welding skills to beef up the trailer bumper some more.  And he also did a bit on the parts that hold the sway bars.  You might recall that last year we carried the bikes on a bike rack on the back of the trailer and the bumper began to tear from the stress.  Next year we hope to the our bikes and trikes and will need a stronger bumper.  This year we left the trikes home and are carrying the bikes in the back of the truck.

Steve also fastened little levels to the tongue and the bumper.  After I left levels sitting on the bumper twice, and lost them, it was time for a solution.  I really like them, it is so simple now.  

The cotter pin was too tough for me to pull out or insert bare handed.  So I started searching for rocks to help me pound them in place.  Once I found a good hard flat rock, I kept it.  This summer Steve surprised me by painting it purple.

I was missing my friends.  Then I got a text from Christy.  She and Mark were thinking of coming for a couple days.  They have a camper and could park in Steve's driveway.   Perfect!  I encouraged them to come.  We biked, we kayaked and we went a brewery that was having a Pride Saratoga fundraiser. 

Steve's friend Andre stopped by on our last day and gave me a box that he and Steve had made together years ago.  He said it is to put memories in.  Steve had a couple of buttons from our travels last summer.  I dropped them in there.  The dark wood is rosewood.  Lovely.

We went one evening and marched with the US Postal workers.  We were the only ones there without the red union shirts.  The post office workers do a good job, I hate to see it privatized.  Making a profit may be impossible without eliminating rural delivery.

Getting to Steve's house I was reminded again of his amazing carving talent.

And reminded his house is surrounded by pine trees.  The wind blows and yellow clouds of pollen rise up and then land on everything.   This is the back deck where I tried to sweep up the yellow mess.  Steve used a hose after I was done sweeping.

At the grocery store, we saw this creative way of dealing with a car dent.

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Our first stop after leaving Steve's was Quechee Gorge State Park in Vermont.

On the bridge overlooking the gorge there was a sticker on the railing for a bar in Milwaukee.   We may have to go have a beer there now, just because. 

 

The sites are roomy in the state park campground.

We celebrated my birthday with a visit to the glass factory in Quechee.  

It was fascinating watching the efficiency practices of the glass blowers as they produced glass after glass in front of us.

There was an area with pictures from the big flood that flooded the factory.

This is what the river looked like during the flood.

And this is what it looks like normally.

We went to Woodstock and walked around.  It was hot.  We got ice cream.  Hey!  It was my birthday!

That night we went to the restaurant right across the street from the campground.  It was delicious.   And there was live music!  He was good too!  And we topped off our meal with pie and ice cream, it was still my birthday after all.  

We went for a bike ride over in New Hampshire.   We did 26 miles on a trail through a beautiful area.  The surface of the trail is rocky in places and sandy in places. It was hard to enjoy the scenery when you have to keep your eyes on the trail so much. It's another trail we don't have to repeat.

But it had two really nice covered railroad bridges with lattice trusses.  It is called the Sugar River Trail.

Definitely, the highlight of this trip so far was the cog railway ride up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

As we drove there, the clouds descended and it rained.  We thought we would see nothing on the mountain.  Steve had been to the top before and said the view is wonderful.

While we were in the museum waiting for our ride time, the clouds parted and the sun came out!

The workers that built the railway wanted to get home faster after the day was done.  So they built a sled.  They eventually got the sled going down at 60 mph. 

Most of the three miles ride up is at five miles and hour and on a 25% grade.  The Appalachian Trail passes over the summit of the mountain.  We saw some hikers resting.

We got a really nice view from the top.  We are only allowed up there 50 minutes and then you have to go back down.  So I didn't get to see much in the museum at the top.  But we got to the peak for a few pictures as the winds was blowing well over 40 mph ( my guess).  It was hard to climb over rocks and keep your footing in that kind of wind.

I was gripping the sign in the picture below to stay upright.  Standing on uneven rocks and the wind trying to blow me over.

 

I bought some postcards at the top and sent one from the little US Post Office up there to Steve's mom.

Then we looked out the window and saw clouds blowing in.  I took a video.  Ignore the wind sound, turn your volume down!  

What fun to experience the rapid and drastic weather change that is famous on Mt. Washington.

The icing, the topping for the great experience, was that the train that arrived to take us down was purple.  And it didn't start to rain until we were seated inside it.  Though our hair and clothes were damp from being inside the cloud.

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All the while in our travels, I have been thinking about my friend Jean Hawks.  As you recall, she had ALS and dementia.  Before I left Inverness I said goodbye.  I knew I would not see her again and was hoping she and her husband would find peace.

She passed.  Here is a link to her obituary.  They did a great job on it.  She is missed now and will definitely be missed when we ride the Withlacoochee or dance at Sleepy Hollow.

I even have a picture of her with my first book!  Alzheimer's Trippin with George.

In 2016 while I was working at the bike shop in Floral City, she came in to meet me.  She had been told by a mutual friend that we had to meet.  We both rode tikes and were strong positive women.  She loved to dance and lure others into having fun.  During COVID we would meet at the Windermere pool and chat and just sit together.

She was a psychologist, well respected in her specialty of trauma.  Lawyers representing oil-rig employees would hire her to help their clients (does Deep Water Horizon ring a bell?)  She hired me a couple of times to help her with the paperwork related to the legal cases. I was honored and glad for the extra income.  

Thanks Jean, for all the fun and the work and your friendship.  You were one of a kind, unique, and precious to me.   

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We are now in Bangor, ME.  Last night we went downtown for the music and fireworks.  There was a Stones tribute band!  It was good.  And the fireworks went on so long I wanted to get up and leave, which we did, but just as we turned our backs we heard the grand finale.  Good timing.

Did I tell you that before we left I got us a couple of small three drawer storage things to put on top of our plastic dressers.  It has really made storage and access to things much easier.  And they don't bounce off when we are traveling.  I glued a couple sponges feet to the bottom front of each one. 

Feeling proud.  Lol.