Did I say Monticello?

I meant to say Jamestown.  Yeah, that's it.

We got started today with the plan to get to Monticello, but the weather check revealed showers and thunderstorms moving in from the West.  The coast, however, would be sunnier.  So we did a last minute change of plans and turned east.  I think we made the right call.

Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in the United States. We find important and charismatic historical figures there like John Smith and Pocahontas.  There was starvation, cannibalism, tragedy and triumph.  The archaeological history is dense there too, with many artifacts and records from the early 1600's.  We came to Virginia largely for history.  It made sense to start at the beginning.

We passed through the visitor center and gathered the required materials for our junior rangers to complete for their junior ranger badges and found the smashed penny souvenir machine (our collection is the envy of all who see it).  Then we crossed the pedestrian bridge over the swamp and into the park where we were greeted by the Washington Monument.

OK, so it just looks kind of like the Washington Monument.  It was actually set up at the 300 year anniversary of the landing.  We were just in time to catch a ranger program.  The very enthusiastic ranger led us around the New Jamestown part which is owned by the National Park Service and told us about the people that had lived there over the years and how they came to be known.  He detailed archaeological findings and historical record and how those two factors worked together to enrich the history of the area.  It was a neat tour.  While we walked the grounds, a herd of deer fed off in the distance.

After the tour, we walked over to the old Jamestown, on the other end of the island.  That part is owned by the Preserve Virginia organization.  There were tours, but we missed them.  So wandered around and read the signs and eavesdropped the tours in progress.

The Trip East...Let's just finish this thing already.

OK, OK. 

I have been to work two days already and I haven't even finished the trip reports. 

We left Old Fort, where we parked for three days while we went to the Biltmore and drove to a park near Winston-Salem.  We had an unremarkable overnight stay and then drove through Richmond and into Ashland where we settled. 

There, done.  That last bit was just about as exciting as I made it sound. 

No, no, no, I haven't forgot about the mistake post, I will get to it.  First I have to adjust to this new schedule.  Getting up at 0530-0600 is hard after not using an alarm clock for 3 months or so. 

I had to post a finish to the trip though as we are probably going to Monticello tomorrow and I will want to post pictures and what not.  I hate to get to far behind, so this is a shoddy little catch up. 

Soon we will be back to the quality work you have begun to expect from the Adventure Nickel.  :-)

Tomorrow. 

The Trip East South....Uhhh..North Carolina.

Since the government was shut down, we decided to not stop and see the closed sign at the Smokey Mountains National Park.  Seemed like we need not spend two days there, we read fast.  Instead we spent one of the extra days with Dad and one of them extra in South...wait, North Carolina.  For some reason, I couldn't get it into my head that we were in North Carolina and required frequent correction. 

The roads through the Great Smokey Mountains are exactly as twisty and steep as they sound.  We were going to stop just east of Ashville, North Carolina.  Sarah had found a nice little RV park a few miles off the highway.  We crossed over the Eastern Continental Divide, and at the same time I learned there was such a thing as the Eastern Continental Divide.  Then we started the descent.  It wasn't much fun.  The grade is steep and long with three runaway truck ramps.  One of those ramps showed the furrows of recent use.  I was sweating when we got down.  First exit down was ours and it led us on to a winding and narrow country road with lots of trees lining the road.  I found the first opportunity to pull over and we let Sarah scout ahead with the smaller car. 

Good thing she did.  Her first attempt at getting to the park, following the directions of the park owners, led her up the side of a mountain on a dead end dirt road with branches hanging 5 feet over the road.  That would have been stressful.  Then she found the place and had serious enough questions about our ability to get in that she drove back and took me there in the Honda.  No way.

Despite the owner's assurance that "We get 40 footers in here all the time." I declined.  Then we searched for another park.  Turns out there was another one a few miles further down the road that Sarah though we could get into.  We called, they had room, and we went.

We fit.

There was no wifi, no TV and little to no cell service, but we fit.  And it was close enough to what we wanted to do that we liked it.  After all the stresses of travel, we decided to take it easy.  I mean, if you had a nice, quiet scenic area like this all to yourself, wouldn't you try to relax a little?

Maybe you would take the time to play some football with the kids, even if their version of football is a weird and modified tackle the man.

Our purpose here though, was to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville.  Mom had always wanted to go there and it seemed silly not to since we had the time and were going right past it.

So we went.

Whoever thinks there isn't an American aristocracy hasn't seen this place.  It was built by the son of the man who earned the fortune.  I won't let my personal politics get in the way too much though.  There is some interesting architecture here.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the place, only on the grounds.  So we didn't take as many pictures as we might have otherwise.  Take my word for it when I say that opulence doesn't really even begin to describe it, especially when you take into consideration the time in which it was built.

It was a neat place and a nice visit.  It was a little expensive for my taste, but Mom wanted to go and had already bought tickets.  The estate is situated on 8,000 acres of the North Carolina mountains.  The house has over 250 rooms, about a third or so of which are open on the tour.  It features a bowling alley and a 70,000 gallon pool in the basement. 

It is a beautiful place.   We were tired from wandering the grounds all day so we went home to rest before taking off for another leg of our trip.

The Trip East. Tennessee part 2.

I know you are all waiting to hear about my stupidity.  And, in time, you will.  For now though, you will have to settle for a continuing narrative of the trip before I forget it.  You see, I type this from our campground in Ashland, VA.  We have arrived and are going through our process of figuring out where we buy groceries and take the dog potty. 


So, back to Tennessee.  I'll skip the actual driving to Knoxville. 

We arrived and started setting up in time for my dad to show up and give us a hand.  We got settled in at the Soaring Eagle RV park before Dad and I went out for a wine run.  Dad has a tendency, on infrequent occasions, to purchase a touch more wine than is technically required for the number of people present.  This might lead to over-consumption of the part of his guests.  Of course, theoretically speaking, this could lead to long and incoherent philosophical debates for some parties involved while other pass out on the couch.

Hypothetically, of course.

We had originally planned to leave the next day and go to the Great Smokey Mountains national park.  What with the park shut down, we decided instead to stay an extra day at the beautiful Soaring Eagle and recover. 

We needed it.  Lunch the next day was a little later than usual thanks to some uncharacteristically sensitive children who decided to just sit in their room and play instead or rousting their parents first thing in the AM. 

We didn't do much the next day, watched the Sooners play a close game.  Then it was bed time. 


After an alcohol free night (well, except for just a little scotch) we woke the next morning refreshed and ready to hit the road again.  It is always great spending even a little time with my dad.  It was really neat to see his motor home and where he spends so much time.  Pretty place.  It is surrounded by some really pretty places too, as we were to find out the next day on our drive into North Carolina. 

The trip out East. Tennessee, pt 1.

Good grief we do a lot of stuff.


Last we left after our arrival in Little Rock, AR. The RV park there is the North Little Rock RV park which is a city owned and operated park situated on the bank of the Arkansas river. Just above, and I mean almost looming above, the park is an old drawbridge which has been converted to a pedestrian bridge with the transom always raised. The bridge leads over the river to a park near downtown where the William Clinton Presidential library resides. Of course, thanks to the government shutdown, is closed.


Oh well, who needs a stinking presidential library anyway?  It is a pretty bridge though.

And that was about it.  Just a simple overnight visit, nothing fancy.

Our next day took us across the state of Arkansas and stopped just before we left.  We had to stop though, because it was the Tom Sawyer RV park and it was on the banks of the mighty Mississippi river.  I mean literally a stone's throw from the water.

They also had fishing ponds on the property that were occasionally stocked by the flooding river.  That meant that you could catch anything in there.  I caught a small gar and Max caught two turtles.  Mostly it was just relaxing for the kids and changing bait, tying hooks and lures for daddy.

Eventually Nana decided just relaxing and watching the river traffic glide by was good enough for her.

The next day was back on the road with a destination of Lebanon, TN.  We were staying in a state park there, Cedars of Lebanon.  No phone, no wifi, no TV.  It was a pretty park though.  And I am glad Sarah made reservations because the government was shut down.  That meant that all the national parks were closed and the campers who would be staying there flooded into the state parks.  Sarah made reservations a week or so before, so we had a spot.  The initial spot we chose was too tight of a fit, but they were able to shift us before the crowd arrived.

Before long, we had a visitor. Our friend Ken lives in Nashville.  Sarah has known him since high school and I met him when I met Sarah.  He is a great guy we don't get to see often enough and we spent the night laughing.

The next morning presented a challenge or two that we hadn't really expected and I almost made a colossal, unforgivable, idiotic mega mistake.  Luckily and innocent bystander was there to prevent catastrophe. 

That, however, deserves its own blog post.

Till next time. 

A brief pause

Life gets busy.  Too busy these days doing things to spend much time writing about them.  And then, when I do get time, we are out of wifi and I can't get a blog post up. 

Enough excuses. 

When last we left our intrepid adventurers, we were eating fajitas in Texas.  The next day found us in Oklahoma city with my sister and an invitation to run a 5k mud run with her on Sunday.  Being the lunatic fringe sort that we are, this sounded like a wonderful idea. 

So we woke up bright and early and got muddy.

We went home and cleaned up.  The next day we went to Wynnewood, OK to see the GW Exotic animal park.  This is a rescue facility for exotic animals.  I hate zoos.  I wasn't too fond of this place either, but I understand it is difficult to house these animals in the best of circumstances.  The day turned out better when I found a monkey friend to play with.  His name was Ricky.  I was too busy playing to take pictures. 

He was sitting alone in his cage.  He interacted some with Michelle and that gave me to idea to run around his cage like a crazy person. There is video, but I can't upload it right now. Besides, the whole thing was overshadowed by the character who ran the place.  He calls himself Joe Exotic, fancies himself a country star with a video and everything.  Oh yeah, and this...

Yup, that's Joe Exotic.  He also goes by the title, Tiger King.  I do believe his video is titled "I Saw a Tiger." which is much funnier when you have seen the above labeled products. 


We hung out with Miche for a while and then took off the next day for Little Rock Arkansas.  And I will get to that later I hope.  So much to write, too tired to write it. 

Vega Texas.

Back on the road again. 

Santa Fe to Vega Texas.  After talking with Sarah about it and discussing, I decided that Roosters is my favorite restaurant on I-40.  Now, I haven't completely finished driving I-40, but I have done quite a bit.  I'll almost have all of it this trip too. 

So again, if you are driving through the Texas panhandle, stop in Vega and get the fajitas at Roosters.  Worth the wait. 

Another good feature is that they are right across from the RV park. Close enough to walk. 

As we walked home Sarah said this was the first time we had walked to a restaurant since Utah.

???

When were we in Utah? 

Oh yeah.  On the way back to OKC from San Diego.  It took me a minute.  That's what this traveling will do to you.